Spark and fuel

For me, the trick is finding the right balance between new (energizing!) and steady (fruitful but sometimes dull)

Do you ever post something as a Substack note and realize it should have been a post? Yeah. This is one of those times. Here’s a note I wrote last week, expanded into a post.

katebingburt

A post shared by @katebingburt

Like Austin Kleon, I too was arrested by King Bingaman-Burt’s image created by layering 18 years of daily drawings on top of one another. And this quote from Austin’s post—

“Looking at a blank page of paper is pretty scary,” I remember Kate saying years and years ago on an episode of Design Matters. “If you’ve got this repeatable project set out, you know what you’re supposed to do.”

—is spot on. A steady daily creative practice can yield magnificent rewards.

The trouble is that steady can easily become stale. For me, at least. I’m forever grappling with the tension between my love of change, of new (so energizing!) and the quiet magic of consistency. If I write daily, I write more and better. If I read daily, I read ravenously—and write more and better. If I make stitching or gardening part of my daily routine, I daydream more and…write more and better.

One of my perpetual challenges is finding ways to create space for both experiences: the galvanizing charge of shiny new activity and the reliable nourishment of consistent practice. Spark and fuel.

My easiest hack for this is to chase the high of novelty via tools (a new notebook, new pen, new writing app, a bundle of floss or fabric, even a new kind of snack) and thus resist the temptation to overhaul practices and systems.