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The Hero is You

The Hero is You

by | Jan 3, 2019

Recommended Book: The Hero is You

By: Kendra Levin

 

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 THE HERO IS YOU

By: KENDRA LEVIN

ISBN: 978-1573246880

QUESTIONS EXPLORED:

  • What are your biggest challenges as a writer?
  • How might you overcome those challenges?
  • Where might you find a sense of play and possibility in your creative process?

 

WHAT I LOVE:

It won’t surprise anyone that I love The Hero is You. This book invites you think about your writerly development within the context of the Hero’s Journey as defined by Joseph Campbell. What’s more, the ideas and concepts included are highly compatible with Writerly Play.

The Hero is You is subtitled: Sharpen Your Focus, Conquer Your Demons, and Become the Writer You Were Born to Be. While ambitious, this promise is realized in the book. Levin examines eight archetypes that Campbell identified as common to tales around the world for thousands of years. With each archetype, she illuminates one aspect of the writing process and life. Through the lens of these archetypes, we see aspects of our creative selves. Once seen, we can play to their strengths.

Take for instance the Herald, about whom Levin writes, “Wherever you go, the Herald in you is seeking the narrative, the juice, the inspiration in the everyday. It’s the part of you that’s always looking for a story.” She also discusses the inner mentor. “Each of us is guided by a source of inner wisdom, a deeper part of ourselves that knows things our rational mind takes longer to process.”

The book is filled with pearls of wisdom such as these, as well as playful activities to engage your imagination in the thinking process of exploring your artist’s heart. As Levin writes, “Ultimately, what we are up to here is bigger than a single piece of writing. It’s about translating our writing to ourselves, using writing as a way to better understand ourselves and our world.”

PUBLISHER DESCRIPTION:

Imagine having your own personal mentor―someone encouraging yet honest, supportive yet empowering, who could help you set and achieve your goals, turn your moments of doubt and fear into sources of strength, and discover what you’re truly capable of when you’re at your best.

Kendra Levin is that mentor. And with this book, she’s here to help you do the best writing of your life―and live your best life while doing it.

Using a fresh new approach to Joseph Campbell’s archetypal Hero’s Journey, Levin reveals how to be a hero in the narrative of your own process. She weaves together wisdom drawn from her years as a life coach for writers and an editor at the world’s biggest publishing house with behind-the-scenes stories from a panoply of best-selling authors and career entertainers. With over thirty exercises designed to help you reinvent your creative process from the inside out, this book will show you how to:

  • Identify your biggest challenges and render them powerless
  • Start a project that you love―and stick with it
  • Design a structure for writing regularly

 

Whether you’re a first-time writer with a brand-new project or a seasoned pro, you’ll reach the end of this book feeling fulfilled, inspired, and ready to mentor the next writer on their creative journey.

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Create a Learner’s Book Club

Create a Learner’s Book Club

by | Jan 3, 2019

Create a Learner’s Book Club

Collaborate with a few friends to gain the most out of your next mentorship experience.

Style

Collaborator

Skill

Choosing a Mentor

Commitment

Ongoing

THE LIBRARY:

Create a Learner’s Book Club

 

While you certainly can set out on learning journey on your own, sometimes the added perspective and camaraderie of a group of friends makes all the difference. In a Learner’s Book Club, you can compare notes, share insights, and hold one another accountable. Even if you’re not a Collaborator all the time, this is one situation in which you may be well-served by trying on the Collaborator hat.

A Learner’s Book Club can help you:

  • Explore questions more fully from various vantage points
  • Discover new experts you don’t know about yet
  • Share the responsibility of forming questions and seeking answers

Materials

Structuring a Learner’s Book Club

  • Book

  • Discussion Questions

  • Snacks!

1. Reach out to small group to test the waters. Who else is interested in learning about the topic you want to explore?

2. Choose a book on the topic and invite your list of interested friends to a meet-up. Everyone should read the book ahead of time.

3. Prepare a set of simple questions. Here are some to spark your creativity:

What questions came up as you read this book?

What strategies stood out?

Did you try any? If so, how did they work? What might you try next?

What are you still wondering? (This last question is a great one when thinking about a best next book.)

4. Once you’ve had one meeting, follow up with friends who could make a strong ongoing group. Now that you’ve met, you’ll know more about group dynamics and the best size for your Learner’s Book Club.

5. If possible, rotate leaders. Each time a group member is the leader, they should pick the book, bring the list of questions, and generally facilitate the discussion.

P.S. Don’t forget the snacks!

Try On Other Creative Styles

Profile Three Experts

FOR ARCHITECTS

Use insight from three experts to lead you to the perfect-fit mentor.

Try This

Assemble a Think Tank of Mentors

FOR INVENTORS

Identify one-of-a-kind insights by connecting wisdom from an eclectic group of experts.

Try This

Choose One Expert

FOR SPECIAL AGENTS

Focus on one expert in this strategic learning exercise.

Try This

Choose One Expert

Choose One Expert

by | Jan 3, 2019

Choose One Expert

Focus on one expert in this strategic learning exercise.

Style

Special Agent

Skill

Choosing a Mentor

Commitment

Ongoing

THE LIBRARY:

Choose One Expert

 

Expert mentors are a particularly strategic shortcut, which makes them an excellent fit for Special Agents. You can stand on the shoulders of experts, past or present, and leap forward. When you’re considering a mentor, think expansively. Sometimes an author, podcaster, or other thought leader is the perfect person to guide you forward, even if you can’t meet with them and speak face-to-face.

An expert mentor can help you:

  • Gain new perspective
  • Better understand the landscape of your field
  • Discover resources or tools to help you bypass trial and error

Materials

How to Choose

  • Timer

  • Paper

  • Pencil
  • Computer (optional)

1. Set a timer for five minutes.

2. Make a list of questions related to your current creative project.

3. Once the time is up, review your list. Do you see any patterns?

4. Create a focusing question to guide your next learning and growth step. Start with “How might I … ?”

4. List any experts that come to mind who might shed light on your question. Think widely: visual artists, musicians, writers, entrepreneurs, researchers, etc.

5. Spend a few minutes on Google, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, Amazon, Pinterest, or iTunes. Notice which experts top the lists when you search for articles, books, podcasts, and videos related to your question.

6. Using the information you’ve gathered, choose one mentor for the week. Soak in material by or about them. Listen to a podcast by or about them, read a book by them (or listen to a Blinkist summary about their book), or watch a video by or about them.

7. At the end of the week, review what you’ve learned. Can you transform any of your learning into a practical strategy to try? Would you like to continue learning from this mentor, or choose a new one?

Try On Other Creative Styles

Profile Three Experts

FOR ARCHITECTS

Use insight from three experts to lead you to the perfect-fit mentor.

Try This

Assemble a Think Tank of Mentors

FOR INVENTORS

Identify one-of-a-kind insights by connecting wisdom from an eclectic group of experts.

Try This

Create a Learner's Book Club

FOR COLLABORATORS

Collaborate with a few friends to gain the most out of your next mentorship experience.

Try This

How To Draw a Clam

How To Draw a Clam

by | Oct 1, 2018

Recommended Book: Herself: How To Draw a Clam

By: Joy Sikorski

 

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HOW TO DRAW A CLAM

By: JOY SIKORSKI

ISBN: 978-0609605592

QUESTIONS EXPLORED:

  • What vacations can you take right now, without leaving your home?
  • What kinds of memories and ideas might you keep in a travel notebook?
  • How do you draw a puffin, anyway?
  • And many more …

 

WHAT I LOVE:

I found How to Draw a Clam on the shelves of our local used bookstore, and the minute I opened it,  I HAD to bring it home. Filled with drawing prompts, adventure prompts, and games, this book is entirely unlike any book you’ve seen before. What struck me is how Joy Sikorski teaches the reader, without ever explicitly saying so, how to improvise your way through life. Flipping through this small book infuses my day with spontaneity and joy.

PUBLISHER DESCRIPTION:

A delightfully engaging cornucopia of things to do when on vacation–or when dreaming of being on vacation–for children of all ages, including adults. 

How to Draw a Clam takes you anywhere you want to go with creativity imagination and a terrific sense of fun. It offers short escapes (open a suitcase filled with sand, remove shoes and socks, wiggle toes in sand) and longer trips (take a nice walk). A whimsical survey examines the various types of vacations, from the adventurous to the vegetative. Possible accommodations are also considered: hotel, friend’s couch, under a boat on a moonlit beach.

How to Draw a Clam presents short tutorials on drawing deserts, cowfish, flip-flops, and more, and discusses exotic destinations, including beach resorts, ski resorts, and Ohio.

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Two-Part Invention

Two-Part Invention

by | Oct 1, 2018

Recommended Book: Two-Part Invention

By: Madeleine L’Engle

 

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 two-part invention

By: madeleine l’engle

ISBN: 978-0062505019

QUESTIONS EXPLORED:

  • What does love look like in the everyday give and take of life?
  • How can we navigate life with resilience and courage?
  • What might balancing life and work look like for an artist?

 

WHAT I LOVE:

As an artist, I can become overly focused on my projects. When this happens, I forget the most beautiful creation I’m making … my creative life. Two-Part Invention reminds me that our responsibility and privilege as artists is to live life meaningfully and with intention. While this book always makes me cry, it also brings me great joy. I read it regularly. Each time, it helps me become a better wife, friend, mentor, and writer. 

PUBLISHER DESCRIPTION:

A long-term marriage has to move beyond chemistry to compatibility, to friendship, to companionship.
 
As Newbery Medal winner Madeleine L’Engle describes a relationship characterized by compassion, respect, and growth, as well as challenge and conflict, she beautifully evokes the life she and her husband, actor Hugh Franklin, built and the family they cherished.
 
Beginning with their very different childhoods, L’Engle chronicles the twists and turns that led two young artists to New York City in the 1940s, where they were both pursuing careers in theater. While working on a production of Anton Chekov’s The Cherry Orchard, they sparked a connection that would endure until Franklin’s death in 1986. L’Engle recalls years spent raising their children at Crosswicks, the Connecticut farmhouse that became an icon of family, and the support she and her husband drew from each other as artists struggling—separately and together—to find both professional and personal fulfillment.
 
At once heartfelt and heartbreaking, Two-Part Invention is L’Engle’s most personal work—the revelation of a marriage and the exploration of intertwined lives inevitably marked by love and loss.

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