In Virginia Woolf’s long, 1929 essay “A Room of One’s Own” she writes about the conditions necessary to create works of art. She is specifically concerned with why there have been so few women authors and poets throughout history due to the lack of material resources available to them.
Creation requires a certain amount of leisure time. Those who do not enjoy that leisure time cannot create as easily or as often as those who do. Throughout her essay Woolf stresses that physical needs must be met in order for the mind to find this leisure time. Physical needs, however, represent the ability to preserve and protect the real resource needed to create works of fiction.
Energy.
Mental, emotional, and physical energy can be drained in a variety of ways. While it may seem as if free time alone can give you the pathway to creativity that is not always the case.
Virginia Woolf states in her essay that “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” but the reason for these needs is more important than the specific needs themselves. These needs represent not only the physical necessities of survival but the lack of stress spent worrying about how to obtain them. “Leisure time” is not time by itself. It is time to be at leisure. Time not to worry. Not to stress. Time to allow inspiration to take hold.
The iconic image of a starving artist has long been cemented in our minds. A poet alone with nothing but their pen and parchment, crouched beneath a leaking roof in their one room apartment, using their last candle to create their greatest masterpiece. But does this iconic image hold up to fact? Virgina Woolf says not. The majority of successful writers throughout history, according to Woolf, have been university men. Men who were granted the time and means to study in an era when resources to do so were very rare. These men did not have to cook or clean, or in some cases, even shop for themselves. Some did not even have secondary professions. Their minds were free to explore and wander and weave fascinating stories and brilliant philosophies with paper and ink.
Women, on the other hand, were tasked with the more mundane duties of housekeeping and child rearing. They were not given books to study as girls. They were not allowed to hold most professions and could often not even inherit wealth from their brothers and fathers. For a large portion of our history it was almost impossible for a woman to make a living without a husband or brother or father whom they were then required to care for. They seldom had the time –or energy–to scribble sonnets and craft novels and discover great truths. The women who were able to create works of art in spite of these obstacles were exceptional.
Conditions for women are much better today but there is still, for many families, an unequal amount of responsibility placed upon women in the home just as there is still a large pay gap between what a man is paid for the same work as a woman. Even to this day a woman’s time is not valued as much by most of society as a man’s.
Women, of course, are not the only ones who face such challenges in today’s society. The same obstacles belong to any persons or demographic that struggles to obtain the basic necessities required to survive. This unequal amount of effort required by some to obtain resources is a large part of what we call “privilege” and puts many at an unfair disadvantage. Some people are simply required to expend more energy to produce the same results whether because of gender, race, sexuality, mental health challenges, or economic status.
The drive to create can so easily be thwarted by a lack of resources because resources are what a creative needs to protect their energy. The fact that so many struggle to obtain these resources means that many creative voices are not being heard.
In a very literal sense food and rest sustain energy but worrying about how to fulfill those needs drains energy. According to poet William Wordsworth poetry is “intense emotions recollected in tranquility”. Extreme conditions and traumatic experiences can inspire beautiful works of art but tranquility is also needed in order to do the creation itself. Leisure time is required. Time that is not only free of hard work but also free of worry and distress. Because, no matter how passionate an artist is about their work it is still work. Like any job it requires the use of mental, emotional, and sometimes even physical energy.
Productivity is highly valued in our society. We are addicted to being busy and constantly “producing” results. We have apps to track our “progress” and surveys to compare our results. This constant need to be moving and doing as if one were a machine can be detrimental to anyone’s mental health but it is especially detrimental to creation.
Creativity is not the same thing as productivity. They both require mental, emotional, and physical energy as well as self discipline but while productivity is about what a person does. Creativity is about who a person is.
Creativity cannot be manufactured. It cannot be reduced to a formula or measured on a chart. It cannot be guaranteed. One might be able force oneself to be productive despite poor energy levels but one cannot force oneself to be creative.
Creativity requires the reflection of oneself. It requires giving the mind the freedom to wander aimlessly from thought to thought. It requires letting go of the utilitarian mindset -the desire to “optimize” or “utilize” everything -and embracing the richness of every moment for the sake of the experience. It requires the luxury of being still. A luxury that is almost impossible to obtain without the basic necessities of life.
It is absolutely true that in order to write one needs money and a room of one’s own but that is only the outward part of the requirement. The means to the end. In order to write -or create any work of art -one needs a spirit of one’s own.
Protect your spirit my creative friends. It is the most valuable thing you own. All of our voices deserve to be heard.
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