by Jenna | Nov 17, 2011 | Writing Articles
A while ago I wrote a post about facing the dark creative void, which was received with slightly mixed reviews.
A few people noted (or responded privately) that for them creativity is about light and love and joyful expansion, not darkness, not ever. Many other people connected with what I was talked about.
I certainly can and do connect with the beauty of creativity at the high points along the creative path.
But there are also days when venturing into creativity feels like a terrifying journey through a dark forest laden with the most horrifying monsters I can image.
It’s no wonder why scrubbing the toilet can suddenly seem alarmingly important.
As I’ve been working on my current script I’ve been aware of a background conversation that runs something like this:
- What if it’s too dark?
- What if no one likes it and it’s too depressing?
- What will people think of me as a mother if I write this? (It’s a sci fi story about a mother.)
- What if they hate it?
- What if the ending is too bleak and horrible?
- What if it is too powerful emotionally and people judge me for it?
And today I noticed that all these questions have to do with my ego.
It’s my ego that cares what other people think.
But my spirit doesn’t.
My spirit says, This is a powerful, painful question you’ve been given to explore and to answer for this character. So don’t shy away from it, don’t hold back. This is a gift you’ve been given and you are giving, the power to explore this darkness. Don’t be afraid.
My ego died a little more today so that my story might live.
by Jenna | Oct 26, 2011 | Writing Articles
When Joss Whedon’s sci-fi western television series, “Firefly,” was cancelled by the Fox network in 2002, the fans of the show were devastated. But Joss told his actors that he wouldn’t give up and that he would find the show a new home.
Eventually, he found that place with Universal Studios in 2005, where they made a feature length movie called Serenity and resurrected the “Firefly“ story.
Joss says about his movie making, “It’s not to make things people like. It’s never to make things people like. It’s only to make things that they love.”
Refusing to Let It Go
What I love about this story (in addition to loving the show, though I’ve lost my affection for Joss Whedon himself as time has gone on), is that he was so committed to vision and believed in it so much, that he refused to give up. And his fans and cast did too. Joss says about the experience, “[People] fell in love with it a little bit too much to let it go, too much to lay down arms when the battle looked pretty much lost. In Hollywood, people like that are called ‘unrealistic’ … ‘quixotic’ … ‘obsessive’.”
He seems to be totally okay with that. :)
When he presented the first footage of the movie at San Diego Comic Con, he said to the assembled masses of fans, “This movie should not exist. Failed TV shows don’t get made into major motion pictures unless the creator, the cast, and the fans believe beyond reason.”
Isn’t that the most beautiful turn of phrase?
What Do You Believe Beyond Reason?
What are you so ridiculously over the moon about that it makes you giddy just to think about?
The word passion has become so overused in our culture today, I’m not even sure we know what it means anymore.
To most of us it apparently means something like, “What do you think is a realistic way to make money that you would enjoy doing?”
And while that is a useful question when one is paying one’s bills, it is NOT really the same question as “What are you passionate about?”
Seems to me it’s time to change the question.
Let’s start asking, “What do you BELIEVE BEYOND REASON?”
“What do you believe in so deeply, so permanently, so passionately that you can hardly keep yourself in your skin because you are exploding with joy when you consider it?”
“What brings tears to your eyes when you allow yourself to even just consider the possibility that you might be lucky enough to do it for a single minute of your life?”
Do that. And do it as quick as you can.
Because really, why would we do anything else?
Time’s a wastin.’
Warmly,
by Jenna | Oct 19, 2011 | Writing Articles
I watched a beautiful yet horrifying video recently about how conventional tomatoes are picked green then forced to ripen in a gas chamber before going to market. Hence their perfectly even red coloration. I know, right?
Following an odd little breadcrumb thought trail, I started thinking about how those of us called to the spotlight are no strangers to the land of the false tomatoes.
A “tomato fear” is used to describe the fear of having rotten tomatoes thrown at you while you are performing your art.
(Your art = that Thing you do, e.g. write, speak, act, dance, sing, paint, etc., for your audience.)
The thing is, your tomato fears don’t fool me.
Are they fooling you?
Here’s what I know.
Fear is fear, nothing else.
Our silly and oh-so-sweet-and-well-meaning, reptilian-brain-driven inner critic voices would like us to believe, “No, really, I’m serious this time, you could really die from this, you better pay attention,” but we know better.
Fear is just that thing that stands in the way of our big dreams.
But we — and yes, I do mean we — simply cannot allow ourselves to be swayed by that voice of fear.
Steven Pressfield said, “Figure out what scares you the most and do that first.”
See, I know you are terrified to pursue your dream.
I know you think you are just bored and haven’t found what you are passionate about yet.
But I also I know you picture yourself being laughed off the stage or out of the audition.
Or that people will secretly say behind your back about your writing, “She’s not really that good.”
I know this, because your tomato fears don’t fool me.
I know you are petrified.
I am too.
Let’s do it anyway.
by Jenna | Oct 12, 2011 | Writing Articles
I've heard from many creatives that it takes too long to get in and out of the "creative zone" so they can't find the time to do their creative work, because they have to have big long chunks of time to get into the groove, actually do the work, and get back out of it.
I used to believe this too.
When I first set up my Sacred Writing Time on Fridays, I was trying to do some work on my coaching business and then do some writing, but I found it extremely difficult to do.
I figured it was because it was "too hard to shift gears" from one type of work to another.
What's true about this is that they ARE different kinds of work.
So I decided that Fridays would be ONLY for writing. And that helped for a while.
Creating Everyday Turns It Around
But then I started my writing community, and I made a commitment to writing every weekday.
I reorganized my schedule to include writing time at the beginning of each day, and while I've sometimes struggled to do it first, I've pretty much managed to write every single day I intended to.
I've also found that jumping right back into my writing is nowhere near as hard as it used to be.
Turns out that creating more frequently, even for lesser amounts of time, makes it easier to keep your work fresh in your mind (something I've talked about in my free tips series for writers), and therefore easier to dive back into.
Resistance Is Oh-So-Obvious
Plus I'm finding that when I really do put my writing first, my resistance is much more obvious.
And therefore much easier to bust.
Case in point: Yesterday morning when I came home to write after dropping off my son at school, I found my fear coming up big time.
See, I'm at a key transition point in my writing where I'm moving into new territory, and my fearful self thinks I won't be able to come up with anything new.
Luckily, due to the daily writing community question I answer, "What negative self-statements did you notice?" I'm more clear about what I'm telling myself than I used to be.
So I was able to say to myself, "Okay, this is fear coming up. I'm going to do the best I can to face it and do this anyway. What will help me?"
And I had the insight almost instantaneously to use mind-mapping to help me get unstuck.
So I did.
And it did! I came up with a great new spin on one of my concepts that I'm very happy with.
To Sum Up
- We have lots of excuses for not doing our creative work.
- Resistance is more obvious and solvable when you face it every day.
- Writing (or creating, depending on your "thing") daily helps keep your work fresh in your mind.
- Time to get out of "all or nothing" thinking.
- Fear is only fear. Nothing more, nothing less. It takes courage to face it, but it's worth it.
by Jenna | Sep 29, 2011 | Writing Articles
One of the things that can stop us from moving ahead with our creative work is our creative wounds.
These are the painful experiences we've been through associated with our creative work that lead us to make decisions that it's not safe to be creative or take creative risks, and that ultimately we'll be hurt if we express ourselves creatively.
These wounds show up in our lives looking like creative blocks, and we can even forget about them until we do a little deeper digging.
So How Does One Heal a Creative Wound?
Here's a simplified version of the process I'm using with my clients, which is based on Isabel Parlett's powerful business transformation work.
- First, identify the story of the creative wound. What happened, factually? What happened, emotionally?
- Then identify the conclusion that you've drawn as a result of that experience. What have you decided to believe about being creative as a result of the experience?
- How can you reframe that limiting belief into a new way of looking your creativity that is both believable and supportive?
- Now do some release work on the story -- write a forgiveness letter and shred or flush it, do a shamanic fire ritual (a "green fire"), use ho'oponopono, or create another ritual to let go of the old story.
Simple as this work may sound, it can have quite an impact.
