Your Creative Economy, Pt. 2

I'm revising an older blog post on the Creative Economy. After Susan's very thoughtful post on the economy, I thought it was time to have a chat about how the recession is affecting you personally and creatively.

Here are the questions I previously asked, with a few revisions now that we have a new president in office. But think of this as a jumping off point. The goal is to start a dialogue. Feel free to address one or all of these questions at any time, or add your own to the mix.

  1. As a creative entity, how is the recession affecting you?
  2. Has the downturn affected how you write and what you write about?
  3. Are you making choices on how you spend your money (new poetry books vs. paying bills)?
  4. Has the downturn changed how you enter contests, or look for grants and sources of funding?
  5. Has the downturn changed how you submit poems/manuscripts for publication, given the cost of postage and reading fees?
  6. Has the current state of your state led to opportunities? Have you found a silver lining?
  7. How are you doing in general? Are you OK?

In about an hour, I'm flying to Virginia with the kids to see my parents for Mothers' Day. So I don't have time to give a truly thoughtful answer. But I will. I always do.

Comments

susan said…
Have a safe trip and enjoy your visit.

I'll give this some thought and reply later.
Catherine said…
The thing about the recession is that while the economy may be down say 10%, most individuals will either still have their jobs or not - so any one person is affected 100% or not at all (allthough some might be working reduced hours). So these questions don't really produce informative answers unless we collate a few thousand responses at least.
My own experience is that my husband was made redundant about a year before the official "recession", and I went back to fulltime work (not nearly as well paid as his job), while he became established as a freelancer. So yes, for a time I stopped buying poetry books and relied on the library. But I have always made choices about how to spend money, recession or not, as probably anyone with an income less than that of Bill Gates must do all the time.
I have more money for book buying now, but less time for writing due to the full time work.

(By the way I gather Bill Gates's income is about as much as the entire economy of New Zealand. Recession or not.)
Odessa said…
have a lovely time with your mom! i will think about your questions and return with my answers later.

and oh, happy mother's day in advance! :)
January said…
Thanks Odessa!
January said…
Fortunately, the recession has not affected my family like it has others. It's forced us to make smarter choices about what we spend money on, which we never really did on a daily basis.

I still buy poetry books, still donate to poetry organizations and local charities, and I spend my money locally to do my part for our local economy.

Everything seems to be going up due to inflation. I had to pay for seat assignments on our flight to Virginia, and paid for one checked bag. It's the little things that make up feel nickeled and dimed at every turn.

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