12. Creative Blocks and Unscheduled Breaks

If you're in a creative slump lately, you're not alone. I've spent the last seven months* of the year podcasting at the slowest pace ever. After chatting with some podcast friends, I realized they were also experiencing the same thing. There is so much going on around us that it's hard to feel creative and inspired. 

Thanks to a handful of batched episodes, the frequency of my podcasts haven't been affected too much, but now I'm out of batched episodes and still low on creative energy.

So, how do we handle these moments? 
Every podcaster has a different approach, but what has worked for me is to give myself permission to slow down (or pause) when I need to.

 *In this episode, I say that we are six months into the year. It's seven. Time is a blur. 

music for episode 12+: (1960's 2 house) by mobygratis

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Chapters

• 3:13 Frequency vs. Consistency
• 11:36 The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron

Transcript

Via Descript. Semi-edited.

[00:00:00] angela: you guys, I have not been able to podcast lately. I have basically been going in podcast circles

and I've just been having the hardest time. 'cause I feel like my creativity is just stifled right now. The world feels heavy. , Everything is disrupting my head space and I just can't podcast right now. so I thought why not do a podcast about not being able to podcast because the truth is.

We all go through it every now and again, and I think right now so many of us are feeling the same way. I'll be honest with you, I don't have all the answers. But maybe just talking it through together will help us. 

My name is Angela Briones and I wanna welcome you to the space where we talk about podcasting, sharing our voice and life behind the mic.

[00:00:52] angela: So the ironic thing about doing an episode about not being able to podcast and things getting in the way is that this is probably the fourth time I've sat down to record something. Because every time I sit down to record something interrupts me. Either somebody starts talking to me. Or somebody comes to the door, one of the two.

It's been really funny 'cause I'm like, I'm trying to do a podcast about not podcasting and I can't podcast. what I'm feeling right now, and I know I'm not alone because I've talked to.

Many of my podcast friends and my writer friends and creator friends. Overall, we're all feeling the heaviness of the world right now. We're six months into a year that has been really disruptive, and as much as we.

I have been pushing back with joy, et cetera, and I know I have y'all, I'm going to my Beyonce concerts like crazy because I wanna, I just wanna be in that Beyonce bubble, 

but even so, You know, you still come back to reality, right? And there's just a heaviness in the air and it's really hard to like clear your head space.

 So I wanted to talk about this because this is something that happens to podcasters anyway, right? We have these moments where we have an unscheduled interruption. you know, it's one thing to have scheduled breaks. Whether that's a season or you take a break during the holiday or whatever.

But it's another thing when things are unexpected.

And so many times we try to like project these things and for example, the reason I say that is I tried to do that with this podcast and my other podcast, the gay podcast for everyone Last year I knew that this year was gonna be very wonky, right? I, I was like, oh my gosh, 2025 is gonna be very disruptive because of the election politics, et cetera.

 That being said, I was like, okay. For the other podcast, I'm gonna record two episodes and have January and February like already ready to go. And then for this podcast, I took some time to record some batched episodes. I talked about that in episode eight.

I took some time to record those episodes so that I would have a little bit of a buffer. The only problem with that, looking back, the only problem is I did all of that during the holidays when it's usually my scheduled break.

And maybe if I had taken an actual break, I wouldn't be feeling the way I am right now. But maybe not, because like I said,, I've talked to so many creative friends who are feeling the exact same way. There's just a lot going on right now.

 And the problem is when you're podcasting, there's like this inherent, um, urgency to publish all the time. You know, if you have a weekly podcast, you don't wanna interrupt that frequency.

You have a biweekly podcast, you don't wanna interrupt that. Any frequency, you don't wanna interrupt it. Right. And then you have the consistency of things. And I wanted to kind of talk about that a little bit because I think that's where Headspace gets a little muddled. I think people put frequency and consistency in the same box and.

Even though they're intertwined, there are two very different things because you have the frequency of your podcast, you know, like how often you podcast, weekly, biweekly, monthly, et cetera. And the consistency of it, the message it's sending out, the quality of it, the value of it.

They go together, but they're not quite the same thing.

and what I think happens in these moments, you know, especially if you have a, a weekly podcast, you start to feel like you just have to push out episodes,

And then you start scrambling and you start, you know, thinking of creative ways you can fill in the space and maintain the frequency. You're like, I have to do this, but do you really? That's my question because sometimes it works out and sometimes I don't know if it does,

You're like, well, I have to get a podcast out, right? It's the first of the month or it's the first, you know, it's the first Sunday of the week or whatever it is. 

But do you though, do you really, in an ideal world, yes. You know, yes, you should. You should maintain the frequency of your podcast, and that's why we batch episodes or we plan out seasons or holiday breaks or whatever. but I'm gonna be really. Honest with you guys. Really real, I've seen podcasters feel like they had to publish a podcast, so they arrange a friend to host, or they swap episodes or whatever. But it's not in a creative way.

It is more in a way that they're just trying to fill the gap, because they were tired and they wanted to make sure an episode still goes out. But in the end, they still feel tired and disenchanted because what they needed was rest and what they did was work anyway. 

And if consistency is the goal of podcasting, as they say, are we being consistent in those moments by giving our listeners something different than what they've come to expect?

 I kind of questioned that to be honest

because in that inherent pressure for podcasting to be consistent, things get muddled. Because if you don't have episodes that are batched to fall back on, then you're suddenly scrambling to put something together because you want to “be consistent”

[00:06:09] angela: So if you feature other voices on your podcast rather than just replaying an old episode, for example, does it disrupt the consistency?

 I think that these moments in podcasting are really difficult because we have to ask ourself what our why is, like why are we podcasting? Most of us are not professional podcasters in the sense that we don't get paid for what we do.

Right. We're independent podcasters and we wear all the hats, and because we wear all the hats, it's easier to burn out. The ROI isn't the same as somebody who, you know, has a team of people helping them on social media or helping them market blog posts or whatever it is.

You know, you're doing all the things and it gets really, really. Yeah, exhausting. And that's a normal burnout moment, right? But right now what I'm talking about, what I'm feeling and what I think so many of us are feeling is just the heaviness of everything.

 And so the question becomes like, what do we do?

 like I said in the beginning, I don't have the answer. I just kind of wanted to talk this through for anybody who was kind of feeling the same way,

 I think the beauty of independent podcasting. When there's no monetary value tied to the other end. We're doing it because we love it. You know, we're doing it because we wanna connect with people. We're doing it 'cause we wanna share stories.

 The beauty of that is that when we need to take a break, I think we should. And I think our listeners or our readers, if it's a blog or what have you, if they've been with you long enough, I think they get it. 

And the thing is, I think we get panicked because we're like, oh my gosh, if an episode doesn't drop, you know. People are gonna notice. I mean, maybe so, maybe not. To be honest with you, and I say this with love, I tru, I truly do. 'cause I say this to myself I think people are subscribed to so many podcasts that they just look to see what pops up as new on their feed.

I mean, just kind of think about how you look at podcasts when they pop up on your feed, you know the people who have teams behind them, the people who you know are the celebrities in podcasting. Of course, they've got a new episode out every week because it's easy.

you know?

And then, yeah, if I'm listening to this podcast from this podcaster who I haven't seen an episode in a while, I'll go through and I'll look. And honestly, I don't know if this is the podcaster in me or just as a person, you know? But I think it's more the podcaster in me.

I kind of look and I'm like, oh, so and so hasn't done an episode in like three months. Hmm. You know, and I just kind of like, okay, if I haven't heard that they're on a break or anything, I just kinda leave it. I don't know, I just kind of like log it as like, oh, okay.

No big deal. I,

and I'll give you an example. I have a really good friend who was a writer friend from back in the day, and then we started podcasting it exactly the same time and she used to have a really consistent podcast schedule.

But I noticed in the last couple of years that her podcast schedule has been off a little bit. You know, from its norm, I guess. And I've just kind of taken it as like that's how it is when a new episode pops up. Great. And if a new episode doesn't pop up, that's okay. Like, you know, I'll notice it when it pops up to the top of my feed.

Do you know what I mean? But here's the thing, even though her frequency is not the same as it used to be, I know that the consistency is always there. So, if a new episode pops up and it's been like two or three months, I play it without hesitation number one. 'cause I'm excited to hear her again.

Right? I haven't seen anything or I haven't heard anything from her in a while. But also I know what I'm in for. Like, I know that she's not gonna throw me a curve ball. Do you know what I mean? Like I know that the content is gonna be great. I know that her voice is gonna sound the same.

I know that the vibe is gonna be there. And so I say that because, I think if we have to slow down or if we need a break or if we go need to go on a hiatus those are okay to do and I think we just need to give ourselves some grace.

This is a really heavy time.

 this is what I'm going through right now. This is what I'm juggling. This is what I'm struggling with right now. So I wanna share it because maybe it'll give you an idea too. Number one, I'm gonna allow myself to simply go at a slower pace, to be honest.

Or if I decide that I wanna do an episode, I'm gonna just do a shorter episode. It's what it can do. Do you know what I mean? I'm also gonna pivot a little bit. This episode is an example of that. I never set out to do an episode about.

Not being able to podcast. This is a podcast about podcasting and I never thought about, this part of the podcasting. I mean, I did think about, about scheduled breaks, but I never thought about the unplanned breaks.

 So I'm gonna give myself a little room just to. Do things in a different way and I'm also thinking when I have conversations with guests. kind of want that to change a little bit too. You know, nothing too outside the box. You know, you wanna keep that consistency of the tone of your podcast.

Of course. But I think I wanna have like this, deep connectedness vibe, because that's what I need right now. And hopefully it's what the listener needs too. So if you're feeling any of this as well, I hope that just listening to this has helped a little bit.

And if your podcast has been interrupted, if your creative flow has been interrupted, you're not alone. i'm going through it. I know so many other people who are going through it, and it's important that we keep creating. It really is. But we also have to acknowledge that it's a little more difficult to tap into that creativity, and that's okay.

[00:11:42] angela: And because of that, I think it's really an important time to kind of acknowledge the book, the Artist's Way. I talked about that in the last episode with my friend Julio. I. There is a book called The Artist Way by Julia Cameron, it really focuses on journaling, which I think is really important right now.

You know, showing up to the page, creating a habit of, doing little things every day that make a big impact over time. And also just getting the stuff outta your head so that you can create So maybe picking up that book might be a good thing right now. If you've never, done the artist's way, it's kind of a workbook each chapter is a week, and I think it's 11 or 12 weeks if I remember correctly.

 And you kind of go through these questions and this like self-reflection type thing and a part of the artist's way that I think is really important. Oh my gosh. So important. Something that I probably have to do again, actually as I talk about it, it's the artist's date, and the artist's date is where you purposely go do something so different.

like roller skating, let's say something you don't do all the time. You know, if you don't go to the movies all the time, go to the movies, something you can do by yourself. it's a way of like exploring the artists within you. So maybe you go to a museum, maybe you go for a walk somewhere that you haven't been before, and it's just a way of like getting outta your head space, and doing something different. Because in those moments, that's when you have the aha moments. You know, like for me and I know so many other people, like you have your best ideas in the shower, right? It's kind of like that, that artist date is an intentional, time that you go and do something preferably by yourself

so that you can tap into that creativity again. And I think that's really important right now. So I, I honestly haven't done an artist date in a very long time. So I think I'm gonna start doing that and maybe I'll share it with you in the next episode. What I did on my artist dates, and, um,

Before I jump off here. I wanna share a quote that I saw online recently on Instagram. ' cause it just resonated so much. It was, not every season is one for achieving. Allow yourself seasons that are simply for breathing.

 I think it's so important right now. I think we just need to acknowledge that it's a difficult time. And figure out how we can use that to connect to other people.

Allow yourself the time to pause or pivot. Or whatever it is you need. You guys, I'm rooting for you. I'm rooting for myself honestly, too. I need it. So if you wanna send me, um, cheer me on, I would love that too. There's a text link in the show notes and I would love to hear from you, especially if this episode resonated with you. I would love to hear about it. And I would love for you to share this episode with a podcast friend who might need a little grace in their podcast world too.

 All right, podcast friends. Hang in there. We got this.