Creative Lows in Pregnancy?

[Ellen Griswold]

Has anyone else experienced this or know anything about this? I'm a fiction writer (well, trying to be anyway ) and every time I get pregnant (and this is #3) the "voices in my head" seem to go away. A lot of people might think this is a good thing but I need my characters to talk to me, if you know what I mean! A friend in my crit group went of anti-depressants and experienced the same loss. This is really frustrating to me as writing is a major major stress relief to me. It's like the desire is there, but when I pick up my pen, I've got nothin'!

[liz-hippymom]

yes yes and yes!

[chattyprincess]

I love cooking and baking (not that I make a living from it...but ya know its still my hobby) and I am having no aha moments anymore. I don't want to cook or bake and can think of nothing to make for meal times anymore. For the first time in almost 4 years my fridge is empty often....silly to some but its very stressful to me! I am 28 weeks tomorrow and remember with my first really baking alot at the end...so maybe my creativity will spark again soon.

[AliciaP8]

No creativity here in the last 8 months I'm and amateur but fairly busy photographer and I've barely taken a photo since I got pregnant. I have no desire at all.

[dannic]

All our brain cells are focused elsewhere, lol. I don't research, read my heavy books, ect. If I read it's light, fictiony stuff. If I'm online, it's MDC (not that that can't be heavy, but I tend to stay away from those discussions.) Everything has it's season and it's baby season!

[FloridaBorn]

For me, creativity and spirituality are inexorably linked. I was commenting to my husband the other day, "I feel like I haven't been able to pursue the spiritual and emotional development that I know is happening to me through this pregnancy."

I guess I had preconceived notions that I would have some kind of mystical, intuitive experience brought on by pregnancy and that hasn't happened.

It's just been routine, routine, routine... one foot in front of the other, work and stress.

[ciga]

i'm a jewelry designer and it literally took every ounce of will I had to get myself into my studio through my whole pregnancy (my son is week old).
It makes me feel better to hear that other people experienced that.

now that he's born and I'm on "bedrest" healing all i can think about is getting into the studio and I can't!

[readermaid]

Wow. It's comforting to know that I wasn't the only one. My creativity has been slow to come back to me after pregnancy, and it has been very frustrating to me.

[starlein26]

Funny you should start a thread about this. I thought I was the only one. After losing any/all creativity (or was it energy?!? ) during my last dd's pregnancy...I experienced a tremendous surge in creativity after her birth (wow it was awesome)...which of course has halted again (now it's because I'm too busy! )

[RedOakMomma]

I blog and photograph in my spare time, and it's where I get my creative going, if you know what I mean.

I'm trying to keep it up, but I really don't have much interest in it recently. I thought that it would change after the first trimester, and sometimes in this second trimester I can whip up some temporary interest, but it's nowhere near the passion I had for it last fall or the year(s) before.

Yeah...

[claddaghmom]

Originally Posted by Ellen Griswold

Has anyone else experienced this or know anything about this? I'm a fiction writer (well, trying to be anyway ) and every time I get pregnant (and this is #3) the "voices in my head" seem to go away. A lot of people might think this is a good thing but I need my characters to talk to me, if you know what I mean! A friend in my crit group went of anti-depressants and experienced the same loss. This is really frustrating to me as writing is a major major stress relief to me. It's like the desire is there, but when I pick up my pen, I've got nothin'!

Heck bleeping yes. It effects my academics, too. I have deadlines and don't give a poopy about them.

I wonder if it's just the hormones forcing me to focus only on being pregnant. Nothing else matters.

[claddaghmom]

Originally Posted by FloridaBorn

For me, creativity and spirituality are inexorably linked. I was commenting to my husband the other day, "I feel like I haven't been able to pursue the spiritual and emotional development that I know is happening to me through this pregnancy."

I guess I had preconceived notions that I would have some kind of mystical, intuitive experience brought on by pregnancy and that hasn't happened.

It's just been routine, routine, routine... one foot in front of the other, work and stress.

ExACTly this, too. I was commenting to DH about it, too! How funny! I mean, no, it's sad lol. I feel like I skipped Lent, which is actually a period I cherish. It's drudgery.

[aikigypsy]

For me, it's mostly that I don't have much energy and my brain seems to have gone elsewhere a lot of the time. I want to be writing, but can't find the time. I could be writing now -- I've been up for an hour in the middle of the night -- but I can't count on this insomnia and I need to have a regular work time if I'm going to do anything major.

I was also exhausted for most of my DD's first year (and second, for that matter) but there was a time in there when she was napping regularly and I wasn't too exhausted from nursing all the time, that I got some work done.

I also blame a lot of external factors for my recent lack of creative productivity. For one, I just don't have the time for it. Secondly, no one around me in my day-to-day life supports my writing ambitions. My husband says he does, but doesn't see why I would need more than 2-3 hours a week for work! I could write a blog post on that time frame, but not fiction. For that I would need time most days of the week, time I could count on.

So far, I have no problem keeping up with the baking, though!