Writerly Play Kit: 010
Level Up Your Creative Process
WP Kit 010
LEVEL UP YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS
How does growth feel to you?
Vibrant? Energetic? Joyful?
Or maybe growth makes you think of growing pains, hard work, or possibly even past disappointments or failures.
I think the way growth feels to me, at any given moment, has to do with the story I’m living. If I feel stuck in Groundhog Day, the idea of growth can be exhausting. But, if I feel like Nancy Drew on the pursuit of a promising clue, each next step–even a daring one–feels meaningful and full of possibility.
What’s interesting is that the exact same circumstance–a growth opportunity–has the potential to be exhausting or exhilarating. It’s all about how the story feels.
When we make notches to mark children’s growth, there’s little doubt that with time, they’ll level up. However, as adults, our growth becomes more nuanced. How do you measure creative growth, for instance, if not in financial return, awards won, or number of fans and followers?
Often, I have conversations with artists who ask some version of, “Is the hard work worth it?” Many times, they have their eyes on an external goal that looks terribly far away, one that depends not only on their own committed work, but on other people’s decisions and actions. Here’s the truth: There will always be another external goal, no matter what heights we achieve. The story starts to feel meaningful because we tap into the internal character arc, when we notice and celebrate the story scene by scene. We don’t have to wait for anyone’s permission to start feeling our own momentum, to feel the excitement that comes when we’re in pursuit of a promising discovery.
Each Writerly Play Kit is designed to fuel creative momentum. In this issue, we’re focused on the story of your creative growth. How might you more clearly see and tell yourself your growth-story so that you feel the rush of creative winds filling your sails?
JOIN ME FOR CREATIVE LIFT!
How can leveling up feel like a story? That’s the experience I’m building with Season One of Creative Lift–a story that features you. It’s your chance to step through a portal into an adventure that is both challenging and also full of the joy of discovery. The podcast will help you see the magical story you’re already living.
One reason that NaNoWriMo, PiBoWriMo, or 30 day Instagram challenges are so successful is that they make internal growth visible. When you take on a challenge to write a novel in a month, for instance, you can track your growth in resilience, problem-solving, and courage to face your fears. You’re measuring words and don’t-break-the-chain days, but even after a day or two of writing it becomes clear that the real goal is overcoming whatever internal challenges were in your way in the first place.
Each day as you show up at the page, you face those same obstacles and you experiment with ways to overcome them. You learn and grow, and you feel that growth happening as your word count rises.
Creative Lift is for writers, but it’s also for any creative thinker who wants to see beyond external goals to the deeper story. How might you tap into play in your life in a way that opens new possibilities for collaboration, innovative problem-solving, and courage?
I’ve been having a blast designing and sharing the podcast, and THANK YOU for sharing your discoveries and successes–such as giving yourselves permission to approach problems using your personal creative style, or finding a way to open a window for breathing room in your creative life. If you haven’t listened in yet, join us! You can find and follow the show at the links below. If you’re enjoying the show, I’d be so grateful if you’d take the time to share with a creative friend or two, and/or leave a review to help other listeners find Creative Lift. Thanks so much in advance!
DON’T MISS OUT!
There’s a special Creative Lift email list that YOU can be on if you’d like access to the episode reflection guides and a weekly reminder when each show arrives.
follow your curiosity
A BOOK FLIGHT
UNCONFUSE YOUR THINKING
In this book flight, savor three titles that together, help you see your thinking from various angles. How might you approach each thinking task with a fine-tuned mindset that will boost your efficiency and flow?
“No one can give you your subject matter, your creative content; if they could, it would be their creation and not yours. But, there’s a process that generates creativity and you can learn it.”
– Twyla Tharp
peek through an alternate lens
VISIT THE ILLUMINARY
Visualize your thinking by walking through the front door of your creative hideout and exploring the various thinking spaces inside.
If you’ve been a long-time Writerly Play reader, you know that at the heart of the Hero’s Journey story we tell around here about your creative growth lies a space that is yours to explore, personalize, and in which you’re invited to play your way to the page. For years, I called this space “your creative hideout.”
While creating the podcast, an idea sparked for me. Shouldn’t this space have a name? And shouldn’t that name highlight the fact that this space exists to shine light on our thinking process? Thus, the Writerly Play “creative hideout” has finally grown into a name of its own: The Illuminary. You can take a walk through its halls with me when you listen in at the link below.
