Constancy vs Consistency

One thing I never really learned how to do, was to be creative consistently.  That might sound surprising given the degree of regularity this blog is updated, but to break the fourth wall for a moment, behind the scenes I write several posts for this blog at once.  Those posts are then saved and scheduled.  If I feel the topics are too similar then I will split those posts up over a period of time to ensure the topics remain reasonably diverse.  This works best for me as my creativity comes in waves or bursts of energy that have their peaks and then fall into quiet contemplation sometimes for extended periods of time. 

Trying to do something constantly, at the same pace, at the same level becomes repetitive and boring to me.  My attention begins to deviate.  Now whilst you can argue that this is a negative trait, I would counter that view.  Despite my tendency to focus on the negatives in life, I can still find positives in most situations - I credit that mentality as part of the reason I've made it this far given the enormity of the negative experiences I have endured in life.  I prefer to look at my deviating attention as something useful, a tool that I can employ when I write.  It is useful for me to have this deviating attention because it allows me to accurately engage how captivating something is, and that can be very insightful. 

I read a tweet someone wrote, on how they often find it difficult to return to their writing after they have left it for some time.  Their point they were making was the difficulty they had in grasping the enormity of their work in a short period of time, catching up with the content, characters, context, and the plot they had devised in their mind as to where the story would go.  While I can relate to this to an extent, I choose to look at this problem from another angle.  I argue that for a writer it can be useful to break from their work for some time and return to it, because in that moment of return as a writer you get to experience your own work as a reader.  If even you the writer struggle to connect with the work and follow the storyline and the characters, then your work needs a lot of revision.  In the same way I view my deviating attention as being of merit when gauging how captivating the work will be, if I can't get so invested in it that I can focus on it and follow through to the end then how can I expect other people to do that either?

Therein lies the realisation of the necessity of "filler" - not just when writing but also in life.  It's necessary to have periods of boredom in life for the simple fact that constant excitement would devalue its merit, and would desensitise our experience of it.  Just as you need to feel cold to appreciate the warmth, or feel sad to appreciate happiness, you need to instil pace in your work, whatever that work may be.  That pace has to match the energy of the moment and recognise that although consistency is important, constancy on the other hand is the worst thing you can achieve.