We recently connected with Daryl Farmer and have shared our conversation below.
Daryl , thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?
I’ve learned that what is often described as lack of time, is actually a lack of energy and focus. So, taking care of my health is paramount. Bicycling is my main form of exercise, so finding time to bike, even though it takes time out of my day, actually improves my productivity. As does daily meditation and yoga. Sometimes my head gets so filled with work stress that it affects my focus. Fifteen to twenty minutes of meditation helps me clear my head. Like a lot of people, I spend too much time scrolling my phone. Meditation is a good antidote for that, too, as it retrains me to sit with my own thoughts and silence.
I’ve also found practicing art forms outside of writing to be immensely helpful. Several years ago I joined a songwriting group. This is something I do for pure enjoyment. Some people in the group are actual working musicians and recording artists, but that’s not my aspiration with it. This allows me to root for them, and to not feel pressured to compete. It’s good to remind myself that the point of creativity is joy, and I get so much joy out of putting lyrics and music together in a way that leads to some kind of story or meaning. Songwriting is its own art form, different from my other writing. But it does exercise some of the same creative muscles, yet in a fresh way.
The other art I practice is photography. In recent years I’ve been using slow shutter speeds to create abstracts that rely more on color, design and mood than subject. So much good writing relies on descriptive and sensory detail, and on creating some emotional effect. Photography helps develop the skill of attention, of noticing the details that surround us, or of capturing a mood. I find this invaluable for my writing.
All of this keeps me embedded in a state of creativity. Even on days I don’t write, if I pick up the guitar, or go for a walk with my camera in hand, it’s keeping the creative impulse alive.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I’m a writer living in Fairbanks, Alaska where I work as a professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. I teach writing, and literature classes. I’ve written two books, “Bicycling beyond the Divide,” a nonfiction book that chronicles a bicycle ride across the U.S. West, and “Where We Land” a collection of short fictional stories. My work has been published in a number of literary journals including <i>Ploughshares</i>, <i>terrain.org</i>, and <i>Split Rock Review</i>.
My practice is to write daily, even if only 10 minutes. I fluctuate between genres, but lately have been focusing on poetry. I’m also working on a proposal for a new nonfiction book about the West. I run a reading series here in Fairbanks which invites writers to campus to present readings and lectures.
I grew up in Colorado Springs, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains and mountains have always been an important part of my life. Early on I developed a taste for the open road I’ve spent a life roaming the country and writing about its landscapes and people. I’ve lived all over– in New Mexico, Oregon, New Hampshire, Mississippi and Alaska, among other places.
I’m fortunate to live adjacent to a trail where I can walk through the boreal forest daily and note the intricate daily and seasonal shifts. The crisp creak of birch branches in winter, the spring chirps of the chickadees, the featherlike fall of the leaves in autumn. For me, the writing process begins not on the page, but in sensory awareness of place, and the way stories inhabit our day to day lives.
One of the projects I’m most excited about that I’ve done recently is a poetry/percussion/light and shadow collaboration with musician Sean Dowgray and artist Maïté Agopian. We performed at the concert hall at UAF, and also at the fringe festival in Anchorage. I’m basically an introvert, happy to spend hours alone, writing. So performing is something new for me, a new way to explore creativity, and I find it thrilling!
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
1. Willingness to Take Risks – Three choices I made that seemed risky at the time were: taking time away from college to bicycle around the West; leaving a job I loved to pursue a graduate degree in creative writing; leaving another job I loved to move to Alaska. Each of these were difficult decisions, went against the advice of others, and led from safety into the unknown. My advice would be to weigh out the risks, listen to your own instincts, and decide if the potential consequences are worth it to you. For example, I would have been fine staying with my job in Texas, where I liked the people I worked with, and was relatively happy. But I knew that if I turned down the opportunity to move to Alaska, I would always have a voice of regret living inside me.
2. Kindness – I hope this is a quality I have – I try – but I’m thinking more about people I’ve encountered throughout my life. Sometimes the simplest act can make a big difference in someone’s day. Also, kindness practiced can be a spirit that runs through everything we do.
3. Reading Books – This is not so much a skill as an act, but a life spent reading has been a consistent positive thing for me. I know research shows that reading fiction can make us more empathetic. And sustained engagement with a book can be an antidote to the frenzy of scrolling.
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
I don’t know that there was one single thing–I feel very fortunate to have the parents I have–but I’m very grateful for how my parents taught me to be respectful toward others. It wasn’t just something they said, but also something they practiced. This meant common courtesies like saying please and thank you, but also day to day actions: respect for the elderly, for other people’s property. Trying to see things from other people’s point of view. My dad always said that things have a way of working out, and I’ve found that to be true. I wish I had his patience.
Also, I grew up in a house full of music – my mother and sister are both musicians. I’m the youngest of five, and my siblings all had their own tastes. I had the benefit of listening to all of it – rock, pop, jazz, classical, bluegrass, soul. And books! My mother read to us nightly, and we were always encouraged to read. I feel so lucky to have grown up in a house full of music and books.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.darylfarmer.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/big_strong_boy/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/daryl.farmer.35
- Other: https://500px.com/p/DarylFarmer?view=photos#google_vignette
Image Credits
Sherry Simpson
Jeremy Pataky
Joan Esser-Farmer
JR Ancheta
Daryl Farmer
