PodTales Interview Collage,Podcast Interview 2: How Do You Prioritize Creative Work During Crisis?

Interview 2: How Do You Prioritize Creative Work During Crisis?

Jeff Van Dreason  

Hi, and welcome back to our second of these PodTales’ interview episodes. We listed some questions and put the call out to indie audio fiction creators to help answer them. And in these episodes, we’ve edited the answer together into what we hope will be a helpful montage. If you’re interested in being in a future episode, feel free to check the link in the show notes and skip questions one and two, because that’s the ones we’ve already used. Before we get to this question meet just a sample the wonderful creators who answered some of our questions. I’ll give you a complete breakdown at the end and include information on them and their shows in the show notes.

Chris Magilton  

My name is Chris Magilton, my pronouns are he/him and I am the creator of Among the Stars and Bones.

Ali Hylton  

My name is Ali Hylton. I am the creator of the audio drama Dining in the Void. 

Tamara Kissane  

My name is Tamara Kissane.

Andrea Klassen  

This is Andrea Klassen. I am the showrunner of Me and AU.

Pippin Eira Major  

Hi PodTales, I’m Pippin Eira Major.

Alex C. Telander  

Alex C Telender of The Ostium Podcast. 

Andrew Wardlaw  

I’m Andrew Wardlaw

Jeffrey Nils Gardener  

This is Jeffrey Nils Gardener.

Amy Frost  

I’m Amy frost. 

Cai Gwilym Pritchard  

My name is Cai Gwilym Pritchard. 

Tal Minear  

My name is Tal Minear. And I use they/them pronouns.

Jordan Stillman  

Hi, my name is Jordan Stillman. I am one of the producers of The Ordinary Epic

Sean Howard  

Sean and Eli of Fable and Folly *makes crowd noise*. Crowd goes wild!

Jeff Van Dreason  

So, here’s our question for this episode: This year has been fraught with challenges to say the least to the point where it can sometimes feel like working on creative endeavors is just frivolous or inconsequential. Of course, the world needs your art more than ever, but what are some strategies you had to prioritize your creative side during times of crisis?

Pippin Eira Major  

I’ve always turned to art in times of crisis and I spent the first few weeks of lockdown listening to podcasts pretty much non-stop. Like I would wake up in the morning and I’d be listening to a podcast that I’d left on the night before. I would listen to them all day whilst working from home, whilst making my dinner, whilst in the shower, and then I would go to bed listening to a podcast only to repeat it again the next day, it was kind of scary. So turning my hand to making a podcast to such a big project as starting Clockwork Bird in a lot of ways it felt like a natural next step.

Amy Frost  

JF and I very much recognize how important creative projects are when it feels like the world is falling apart. To that end, we wound up releasing Season Two of Achewillow a week early so that people would have it to listen to that first week at home with all the uncertainty and fear with what was going on. 

Sean Howard  

We’ve had a lot of really hard conversations lately. You and I, you know? So I’m a workaholic, to the point that I like literally will hurt myself, you know what I mean? I just go too far, I get manic.

Amy Frost  

Season two wound up being extremely emotional, which did wind up making it pretty draining for both of us to work on with everything else in the real world. But it was also an escape, a way to go live in our own little world for a little while and take a break from reality. 

Sean Howard  

And and you struggled with depression, which you talked a little bit about.

Eli McIlveen  

And I tend to to switch on the work but it’s sporadic, it’s not every day. And often it is not the thing that needs doing right now.

Tal Minear  

If I’m not actively working on something, I get really sad and depressed. And in this current time of crisis, I’m sad and depressed a lot. So I try to make sure I have something to work on. To just kind of function as a source of happiness.

Chris Magilton  

Initially, I struggled to find any time to prioritize being creative, the way my work situation changed meant that I was doing actually more hours rather than less and didn’t have a lot of free time. And that meant I was pretty drained when things started to lighten up and get a little better.

David Orión Pena  

On one hand, for some people, it’s a good opportunity to just have a lot of time to be creative, but it’s also really exhausting psychologically, and I know what I’m speaking about. I’m also a psychologist, so I understand.

Jeffrey Nils Gardener  

One of the strange things about being someone whose art is their day job, under COVID, is that I am always home, I am always in front of my DAW. I am always in a situation where I should be reviewing contracts. Or rather, I could be reviewing contracts or I could be editing something, making sure that I give myself some creative space to not do day job work.

Jordan Stillman  

Like at the beginning I felt really motivated, like I don’t know, like back in like March, April, I was like I need to use this time to focus and write and create stuff and work, work work. And then I sort of went into a valley of sadness, and I couldn’t get really anything done. And now it’s sort of gone back and I’m working and you know, things have to move on.

Alex C. Telander  

It took me over six weeks to find my creativity after the start of the pandemic and to realize I needed to give myself time and patience. And I continued to do this through 2020. If I’m not feeling creative, I don’t force it. I give myself a break and as much of a break because I need to.

David Orión Pena  

Just take it slow. Just manage and try to organize in small amounts of time.

Sean Howard  

First of all, Everyone’s coping, everyone’s trying to cope. And I think that we have to recognize, and I think it’s good, we talk about it. So we’re all trying to cope. And then there are times when the coping fails.

Eli McIlveen  

Yes it does.

Sean Howard  

Yeah. 

Cai Gwilym Pritchard  

To just, you know, take a break. for like a day or two.

Alex C. Telander  

We’re all going through so much right now, don’t feel bad about not writing or creating, when you don’t feel like it. Give yourself as much of a break as you need.

Cai Gwilym Pritchard  

To prioritize my creative side, I ingest a lot of media: I read a lot, I listen to lots of other podcasts. I don’t know, I just I’m writing a lot, basically, you know, I read comics, I play video games, I’m kind of a bit of a nerd. But I kind of use it to my advantage.

Chris Magilton  

Finding the time to feed the uhh…. the muse a little bit, you know, consuming media and things that I had had to kind of put by the wayside when I was sort of working really long hours during the pandemic.

Sean Howard  

You know, we had conversations about getting outside help, which is sometimes hard to talk about in a –  in a couple in a relationship, right? It can be really hard and scary to have a conversation with someone else around mental health. When I’ll just be honest, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how to help anymore, right? 

Eli McIlveen  

Yeah. 

Sean Howard  

And I was worried. And it was hard to have that conversation. 

Eli McIlveen  

It’s…there have been some awful moments. But I think I’ve made some breakthroughs. I feel like.

Sean Howard  

I think both sides, I guess can be hard. So if you’re in a difficult place, you know, everybody says it. But please don’t be afraid to reach out for help. But also, if you’re in a relationship where someone who looks like they really need help, it is okay to have that conversation. Even if you don’t know the answer. In fact, I recommend not knowing the answer.

Eli McIlveen  

Yeah, yeah, that can help too.

Jeff Van Dreason  

What advice would you have for other audio fiction artists who are struggling to set the world aside enough to focus on their creations right now?

Tamara Kissane  

I don’t really have advice, because I feel like that can be too prescriptive. And it doesn’t work for everybody in the same way. Like, just do this and you’ll be fine. 

Jordan Stillman  

Finding a group of folks to work with is extremely helpful. One thing that’s kept me on track more than anything is writing accountability groups, you know, getting a group of folks together, and just sort of being like, okay, we’re gonna all meet online, whether it’s in zoom or on discord, or whatever. And we are going to sit quietly together and type. And do that for an hour at 10am. Eastern on a Saturday.

Chris Magilton  

One of the things that helped was finding smaller jobs to do that helped kind of grease the wheels and get things moving. 

Ali Hylton  

For me, art has always been my therapy, it’s what’s continued to get me through dark times. If I’m having trouble focusing on podcasting, though, I’ll move to some other like format.

Chris Magilton  

In a couple of cases, it was things like making small things, bonus content, stuff for Patreon, doing smaller tasks, making notes on things and giving ideas time to steep, and sort of brew and develop.

Ali Hylton  

I’ll either go to painting, I can use my tablet and do art on there, I compose music, I’m usually trying to find some way to be creative. It just depends on like, what’s working for me in the moment, you know? 

Jordan Stillman  

You know, I found that having people that I’m working with even if we’re working on different projects, and just doing it together, keeping each other accountable, it makes me able to be so much more productive.

David Orión Pena  

But also if you need time, and you just can’t produce for a while, just say it. Be honest with your audience, because I’m also audience of audio dramas. And I don’t mind when people are just like, we’re having difficulties.

Andrea Klassen  

It’s something I’ve definitely really struggled with. I’m trying to release a show right now. And there are a lot of days where just you know, doing the work of social media promotion, and audio editing and networking, and all the little pieces that go into this stage of the process just feel absolutely insurmountable.

Cai Gwilym Pritchard  

Well, I stopped looking at Twitter, because it’s just it kind of a lot of anxiety around that. And it kind of got a bit much, which I think Twitter was good for a bit of sort of getting, like keeping me aware of the politics, but it’s kind of a bit. It kind of stresses you out, doesn’t it? So I think maybe even just have a detox evening, because I’ve deleted the app I just use on my computer. Now for the podcast, obviously.

Pippin Eira Major  

My biggest tip in that regard would be to have at least two projects on the go, which you can switch between. They don’t both have to be serious or intended for others. And, in fact, a lot of times it can be really good to have a project that’s just for you. 

Jeffrey Nils Gardener  

The thing I’ve been challenging myself to do is to find time, every day, if possible, to sit down and make a piece of art that’s just for me.

Andrea Klassen  

So I’m going to tell you what I have been doing, which is I have been writing a lot of fanfic. I realized that doesn’t seem like it has anything to do with making a podcast and you would technically be right that my evil wizards DND road trip has not very much in common with Me and AU.

Jeffrey Nils Gardener  

So, you know, I’ve gotten really into synthesizers over this COVID period.

Pippin Eira Major  

If you’re not feeling one of them, you can switch to the other one, and you can give yourself space. But without sacrificing time that you could be spending, practicing and honing your craft. And without giving yourself the opportunity to beat yourself up for not getting things done, which is something that I’m extremely guilty of. 

Andrea Klassen  

I can get really in my head about being creative, I can put way, way too much pressure on the art that I make, to be important and good and successful in those sort of ways that we as a culture measure, those things.

Ali Hylton  

Sometimes doing art, like just for yourself gets you to that place. So you can continue to make art for others. 

Andrea Klassen  

Sometimes it’s very good to just pull the release valve up, this is trash, it doesn’t matter. I don’t care, it makes me happy. Especially when everything is more difficult than it would usually be. 

Ali Hylton  

Some advice I would have, it’s just give yourself some grace. And make sure you take care of yourself. Self Care is really important. Because if we don’t, then the things we love, start to feel like burdens. And no one really wants that. 

Pippin Eira Major  

If you’re experiencing a lot of stress and anxiety, for me anyway, creating can be a really good way to center yourself. But you can’t expect yourself to function at full capacity at a time like this.

Amy Frost  

I think the biggest piece of advice I can give is to be patient with yourself. It’s hard to put so much of you into your creative work when the rest of life is already trying to take everything you’ve got. So do the work that brings you joy. But don’t put an unreasonable expectation of productivity on yourself.

Andrew Wardlaw  

Pick a time to work on stuff. But also don’t burn out. If you go too hard. It’s just not sustainable.

Tamara Kissane  

I am the parent of two young kids, and my creative work has taken a huge hit. Since we’ve essentially been on lockdown for the past six months, when I can steal moments to work on my creative endeavors and move them along. It feels restorative, like a reminder of who I am.

Andrew Wardlaw  

Like your days are full, right? You spend all day doing something. So if you’re going to start working on a project, it means you’re not doing something else. Don’t sacrifice sleep to get it done. I mean, I guess if you’re sleeping nine hours a night, you can bump it down to eight without too much of an issue.

Pippin Eira Major  

The last thing that you want is for the art that you’re making to start feeling more like a burden than an outlet. So if you’re forcing yourself to work, and it starts to feel like a slog, I firmly believe that it starts to bleed into my work and the listeners or the readers, they’re going to be able to tell that you’re not enjoying it whilst you’re creating it. 

Tamara Kissane  

My creative work my creative time nourishes my soul. And I’m an easier more patient parent, a more easygoing spouse. I’m more available to laughter as a result of the time that I spend on my creative work even if it’s just a little bit of time. So I can’t say for sure. I don’t know if the world needs my art more than ever. But I do know that I need it. And my family needs me to devote some small amount of time to it as well.

Jeff Van Dreason  

A gigantic thank you to the creators who participate in this episode, including Chris Middleton of Among the Stars and Bones Sean Howard and Eli McIlveen of Alba Salix and the Fable and Folly network, Cai Gwilym Pritchard of Chain of Being, Tal Minear of Sidequesting, What Will Be Here, Light Hearts, and Someone Dies in This Elevator, Andrea Klassen of Me and AU and Station to Station, Jeffrey Nils Gardener of Unwell and Hartlife NFP, Pippin Eira Major of Clockwork Bird, Jordan Stillman of The Ordinary Epic, Alex C. Telander of The Ostium Podcast, the Circie Podcast, and Writing Walks, David Orion Pena of Dos: After You, Tamara Kissane of Artist Soapbox, Masterbuilder, and The New Colossus, Amy Frost of Achewillow, Ali Hylton of Dining in the Void, and Andrew Wardlaw of Lamplight Radio Play. That’s all for now and be on the lookout for another interview from PodTales 2019 coming to the feed next week.

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