by Jenna | Jul 27, 2011 | Writing Articles
Is it necessary to be “creatively inspired” before pursuing creative projects, or is waiting for creative inspiration a pitfall that trips us up?
Another way of saying this is: Do you have to be in the ‘right mood’ or ‘right energy’ in order to be creative?
Steven Pressfield would call this “resistance,” and say instead that what we need to do is show up and “do the work” no matter what pain, doubt, terror, or mood we might encounter in the process.
My experience is that often when I think I “can’t” create, and I do it anyway, the act of engaging with my art puts me in a whole new energy state, usually one that is more uplifted and inspired.
Other times, when I’m really stuck in my thinking or in a bad mood (yes, me too), I can jolt myself out of it by wondering about creative solutions, which puts me in a more resourceful creative state.
It seems like if I ask the right question, like, “I wonder how I could make my character more convincing as a tough, surly broad?” :) or “I wonder how I could make contact with sci-fi filmmakers?” all kinds of new answers start flowing to me.
by Jenna | Jun 24, 2011 | Writing Articles
Changing the Way You See Yourself
If you’ve had your hands analyzed or done any visioning work with me, you’ll recognize that a big part of making your purpose real is being ready, willing, and able to adjust to and adopt a new, higher level way of seeing yourself.
It can take time to change your view of who you are.
And it isn’t always easy to do.
Impostor Syndrome, Anyone?
You might feel like you’re pretending to be someone you’re not, or like you can almost grab hold of that new identity but then it sort of slips away and you’re left grasping at nothing.
Regular Life Getting in the Way
I’ve seen it happen with my visioning clients — they get clear on their big vision, but then lose focus then when they go back to their “regular lives” or can’t quite remember how or why they decided what they decided — unless they have help to stay in touch with their new way of being in the world.
Un-Squashing Our Creative Selves
I’m also seeing this happen with creative types.
Yes, ideally being creative is easy and just flows naturally from us.
But that’s not what I see on a daily basis.
More often than not I see creative spirits squashed and held back by our own fears and doubts.
And even more fundamentally, by who we see ourselves to be.
How You See Yourself Makes All the Difference
For instance, if you think of yourself as a IT worker who is a writer on the side, it is a whole different ballgame than when you know you are a writer who happens to be doing tech work to pay the bills.
You’ll make different decisions, take different actions, and have different priorities.
And Therein Lies the Rub
And those decisions, actions, and priorities are the make-or-break difference between getting your creative work out there into the world versus walking around with a movie inside your head for the rest of your life, your manuscript gathering dust on your shelf, or your tribe never hearing the message you are hear to share with them.
It’s all about knowing who you are and doing the work to make it happen.
by Jenna | Jun 22, 2011 | Reflections
If you’ve been hanging out with me for a while, you know I’ve been going through a big transition with my work and my life — I’m now focusing as much as possible on my own creative expression; writing a sci-fi screenplay and writing a non-fiction creativity guide.
It has been quite a journey, at times up and down, fraught with confusion, scattered with moments of sparkling clarity.
Massive Creative Breakthroughs
I’ve recently had a huge breakthrough with my own creative work as a result of claiming my creative identity in a much deeper way.
I didn’t quite realize it until Elaine pointed it out to me, but I was “leaving the back doors open” by not fully committing to my creative work coming first. She reminded me that it doesn’t matter so much how I’m earning a living at this point, but that my focus needs to be on my creative work, first, and no wriggling out of it!
After debating with her for a while (both before and after we talked — do you ever have imaginary conversations with your friends?), I realized she was right.
I was trying to straddle the fence, to be both, while really being neither.
No Matter Where You Go, There You Aren’t
A while back I wrote a post called, “No Matter Where You Go, There You Are” about how we simply cannot escape our life purpose and life lesson no matter how we might try.
Tonight it struck me that not having an anchored sense of Who You Are is kind of like Showing Up But Not Really Being There, if you know what I mean.
This Whole Thing About Creative Identity
So now you know why I’ve been yak yak yakking about creative identity — it’s made a huge difference for me.
Ever since I did my pièce de résistance work on this (a combination of NLP work and some shamanic work) things have been moving like gangbusters.
Clear decisions left and right, new ideas, big changes, a sense of EVERYTHING being lined up in one direction, and BEST OF ALL: I wrote 10 pages of my screenplay during my sacred writing time last week.
So yummy.
“I Hope You Don’t Think I’m A Journalist”
As part of all this, Elaine reminded me of a story about Julia Cameron (author of one of my bibles, The Artist’s Way), back from when she had started working at Rolling Stone magazine. Her boss said to her, “I hope you don’t think you’re a writer.”
Her response, “Oh, I am a writer. I hope you don’t think I’m a journalist.”
Pow.
We should all be so clear on who we are!
by Jenna | Jun 1, 2011 | Writing Articles
I had the pleasure of attending Andrea J. Lee's Wealthy Thought Leader event via simulcast over the weekend.
Many of the talks were right up my alley, focusing on creativity, innovation, and getting your message to the world.
Here are a few highlights you'll enjoy. It's a bit jam-packed with power thoughts, but I know you'll find just the right bits that will inspire you.
Nurture Your Creativity
One of the brilliant speakers was Michael Port, author of Book Yourself Solid and three other books. Michael emphasized how important it is for us to nurture our creativity.
He mentioned, "the more creative you perceive yourself to be, the more creative you will be."
Love that.
Some of my other favorite takeaways from his talk:
- "An artist's job is to break the rules, to look at what is and to say, 'What if?'"
- "What's more important to you: Approval? Or results?" Your desire to be liked can kill your creativity.
- Articulate first what it is that you want to do, then recofigure what already exists. That's innovation. (This reminds me of my recent article about pants and trains.)
- Michael also talked about failing spectacularly and seeing it not as a failure but rather as evidence of moving closer and closer to his dreams.
Push Your Creative Edge
Another favorite speaker of mine was Michael Bungay Stainer, who seems to fully embody the very essence of creativity. Michael is known on Twitter as Box of Crayons, and is the author of Do More Great Work* and Get Unstuck and Get Going.*
Stainer was full of brilliance in the realm of innovation and pushing your creative edge.
He pointed out:
- The danger of focusing only on the TABO ("True and Bleedingly Obvious") and instead aiming for making it cool, extraordinary, or truly exceptional. We must be willing to be thought leaders and to be different (no matter how scary that is).
- The difference between being scared and scarred, and how our wounds are great sources of strength, wisdom, and stories waiting to be told. (I know you've heard me say, "You teach what you are here to learn.")
- "When all is said and done, there's a lot more said than done." Or as Sonia Choquette would say, "Too much talking!"
- And a long time favorite of mine from Ernest Hemingway, "The first draft of anything is SHIT."
- He gave us a number of tools to play with to push the envelope with our projects, like:
- How can you cut out 90%? (Think audience, content, size, price, packaging, etc.)
- How can increase the impact by 100 times? (Think increasing numbers of products, increasing the audience, increasing the distribution.)
- Break the rules -- list out 7 rules that apply to your idea. Pick one, and think of 5 ways you can break it.
- Using criteria to select which projects to focus on: What's easiest? What's the fun thing to do? Which will have the most impact? What do you want to do?
Failure is Not What It Seems
I also loved hearing from photographer and relationship healer Jesh de Rox talk about art, creativity, innovation, and failing:
- "An artist is someone who doesn't wait for someone else's permission to make decisions that belong to them."
- "An innovator is an artist who embraces business or a business person who embraces art."
- "We are not good at telling whether or not something is a failure." He made a number of powerful points about why and how failure is NOT what it seems and how it can be such an incredible gift, including:
- "Easy wins make crummy stories."
- "Failing gives you an opportunity to find out who loves you."
- "Taking failure personally is crippling."
- "ANYTHING that happens to you can be a reason to stop or a reason to continue." You have a choice. "Our heroes seem to be the ones who consistently choose the latter."
Brilliant.
*affiliate link
by Jenna | May 18, 2011 | Writing Articles
You Think You Have Nothing New to Say?
A big obstacle I hear my clients talk about is fearing that they’ll have nothing new to say on their subject.
“Julia Cameron already wrote The Artist’s Way, what could I possibly have to say about creative recovery that is new or different?” (Except that Steven Pressfield and so many others have too.)
“Anne McCaffrey already wrote the best books about dragons, I can’t possibly approach it from a fresh perspective.” (Except that Patrick Rothfuss, Christopher Paolini, and Naomi Novik have kicked some serious dragon ass lately.)
This is what I say to my clients:
“You have a specific audience that will only hear this message from you. They may have heard it 100 times before, but they will not hear it in exactly this way until YOU are the one that says it to them.
“Plus, you have your own unique perspective and take on what it is that you are sharing. Your work is a magical amalgamation of everything you have learned, with a twist that is just your own, pulled together in a way that only you can do. That makes your voice worth hearing.”
“And besides,” I add, “if you don’t say it (or write it or share it), your audience will never receive it. They are waiting to hear it from you.”
The Missing Piece
Today I found the perfect add-on antidote to this fear from French Romantic artist Eugène Delacroix (noted in the sidebar of the Artist’s Way no less):
“What moves men of genius, or rather what inspires their work, is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough.”
My heart said, “YES! That’s it!”
There IS a missing piece here, and this touches it.
Somehow you know there is more to say on your subject, and that is why you are drawn to it. So rather than doubting that you have important words to add to the conversation, just do it.
Lend your voice to the conversation.
Speak your mind.
Share your thoughts.
Good grief, I’m writing an ebook about creative blocks. Aren’t there enough of those already?
Apparently not, or I would not be drawn to write one.
Choosing A Niche
We know that choosing a specific niche is a more powerful way to position yourself in a market and therefore attract more clients and be more successful.
And yet choosing a niche is often triggers this very obstacle: “So-and-so is already ‘The’ Coach/Consultant/Expert/Writer/? on this topic, how can I possibly add more?” etc. etc.
The solution?
Pants.
And trains.
Read on…
The Wonderful World of Pants
Someone shared a funny perspective on pants with me:
Just because one person once-upon-a-time made pants, that didn’t deter the second person from coming along and having a go at making their own kind of pants. She added, “I’m just the second pants maker.”
There are so many different kinds of pants, why would we ever think we couldn’t make our own contribution to the marketplace? In the case of pants, we could aim to fit other body types, to try another style, to specialize in particular kind of pants (dress, maternity, casual, work, jeans, dress jeans), etc.
Taken a step farther, one could have thought that Levi’s had cornered the market on jeans back-when, and for a while they did. But then pretty soon someone thought they could take another crack at it.
It goes to show you that there is always room to innovate, to do better, and to ‘say’ more.
The Ultra Specific British Train Niche
Similarly, I’ve been recently exposed to a new perspective on niche in the ultra specific case of British train series for kids.
My 3-1/2 year old loves the trains, shows, and characters from Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. Through the course of exploring around, we somehow happened upon another British train series, Chuggington, that is also great fun.
How audacious for someone to take a stab at a new British train franchise with the huge success of Thomas already! Who knew the world would need (or want) two British train series for kids?
So Why Not You, Too?
So when you think about your specific expertise and lending your voice to the topic you’re most passionate about, can you find the courage to be innovative and step out with your fresh perspective and voice, trusting that you’ll have something new to say, no matter who else might “already” be doing it?
