Valley of the Muse

What is success? How do you measure it? Define it?

Are you satisfied with your efforts?

It’s easy to be encouraging and compassionate to a friend who says: “Here is my art. But it’s not good enough.” Maybe you remind them that they should celebrate the completion of a project. Or that others appreciate their efforts, including past sales or accolades.

Do you do this for yourself? Or are you dissatisfied because you haven’t made your millions yet?

I came across an excellent article on learning to love yourself and was struck by the difference between healthy and unhealthy behaviours towards your goals and accomplishments.

Healthy – You set goals for yourself that encourage you to grow and stretch. You accept and love yourself as you are but know that you can always be better.
Unhealthy – You are constantly beating yourself up because you believe that you need to overwork or punish yourself for not being “good enough”. You believe you have to achieve these unrealistic goals to be “worthy”.

From Learning to Love Yourself Again by Cindy Sense.

Do you acknowledge what you’ve accomplished so far in your life? When do you allow yourself to celebrate? When you’ve had a once in a lifetime experience? Do you ever celebrate the small steps you had to take to get to where you are now?

If you have low self-esteem, the unhealthy behaviours from above can skew your perceptions and make it seem that you’re worthless and haven’t accomplished anything. Here’s an exercise that might help you gain a more balanced view of your daily accomplishments and successes:

Exercise: A “What I Have Accomplished Today” Journal

Years ago, on a now unfortunately defunct organization forum, I came across this deceptively simple exercise. The “What I Have Accomplished Today” journal is exactly what it sounds. All you have to do at the end of each day is record what you’ve done. Use either an electronic format or a paper journal, but make sure it’s something that you can refer to, especially as each day adds up. My preference for this is a paper journal, and each page represents one day of accomplishments, because I find it helps you to really see what you’re doing. You can also decide if it should just include your creative endeavours, or if you’re feeling particularly self-loathing, you may want to include everything from getting out of bed to eating to going to work.

I’ve used one of these journals off and on for years, and pull it out when I’m feeling particularly insecure about my value and self-worth. And while my self-worth shouldn’t be connected to my levels of productivity, the reminder the journal provides assures me that I can’t allow a blanket self-assessment of being a failure guide my thoughts, which unfortunately on really bad days is what sometimes happens. The journal provides evidence of accomplishments and that every 100 words I write for a story or blog post contributes to my goals and is worthy of celebration.

And this is exactly what I tell my friends and clients who are struggling to believe in themselves.

Will you celebrate your achievements with me?

Are you stuck in a pattern where you wake-up and decide that today’s going to be the day that you’re going to paint, but then find yourself getting ready for bed and aren’t sure where the day went? Do you have crafting supplies taking over your living room, but haven’t touched them in months? Do your works-in-progress leave you feeling depressed because they’re languishing and you can’t even remember what the story is about anymore?

Are your creative projects a priority for you?

With work, friends and family demands, it can be difficult to carve out time to make creative projects a priority. But it’s not enough to just say that you want your creativity to be a priority, your day to day life needs to reflect that it’s actually a priority.

Here’s an exercise that I’ve found helpful when I need to tweak my daily activities or if I need to determine what’s eating up my time.

Step 1
Write down what you would like your priorities to be or what you think they are. Include things like your family, pets, household chores, work, volunteering, etc., but don’t forget to include your creative projects.

Step 2
Next to each item from step 1, list 2-4 actions that reinforce these as a priority.
For example, one of the items on my list are my two dogs, Chloe and Basil. Next to them, I list things like feeding them and taking them out for daily walks.

Step 3
Write down your typical daily activities, as they occur. Be honest with yourself, and include things like eating, sleeping, work, tv, video games, reading blogs and newspapers, meeting friends for coffee, going to the bar, etc. This list should reflect not just your best days, but your least productive days as well.

What does this list tell you about what your priorities really are? Are they where you expected them to be? Were you surprised by anything on the lists?

Over the next few weeks I’ll explore different options for aligning your life with your goals, including techniques for carving out more time for your creative projects and looking at procrastination.

From John Scalzi: Rationilizations Run Thick
Comment on rationalizing why you shouldn’t even try being a writer

From Writer Beware Blog: Writers’ Myth: “You Have To Know Someone”
Dispels myth of needing connections in order to be published.

From Pub Rants: Glazed Like Donuts
Quick tips on successfully pitching at a writing conference.

From My Bad Habits: How to Capitalize on Your Breakthroughs: Elation, Reflection, Intention
Great reminder with practical tips on celebrating your accomplishments and milestones.

From Freelance Folder: Top 10 Biggest Website Redesigns of all Time
List of 10 famous online companies that includes before and after shots of their sites.

You’ve finally decided that you’re going to take your creativity seriously. You set up a new blog, dusted off your watercolours, or maybe you joined a writing community. You’re going to stop playing endless rounds of Slingo Supreme or WOW and instead you’re going to be productive.

Then the next day, you’re just not sure you’re up to it. You stare at the blank screen and nothing happens. Or when you start drawing, none of it looks right. Maybe you have a headache or feel the start of a cold, or a chronic illness has picked today to smack you back down.

There will never be a perfect day to start on a new creative project, but on some days, it can seem more difficult than on others. Creativity won’t always follow the schedule you’ve outlined for yourself, but there are a few more things you can try before giving up.

Keep at it
Do you have trouble sitting still for any length of time? If you’ve been staring at a blank canvas, a few more minutes won’t hurt. Set a timer for 5 minutes and keep at it. If after the timer goes off you still don’t have anything, then pack it in for the day without feeling guilty. Some days really aren’t meant for creativity. Don’t give up though. Tomorrow you can try again. But if you’ve started before the 5 minutes are up, then ignore the clock and keep going! Sometimes all you need to do is to take the pressure off. By saying to yourself that you’ll only try for another 5 minutes and that’s it, you might find that instead of worrying about producing something, you’ll allow yourself to just be. A minor variation on this is to keep setting it for another 15 minutes (or whatever length of time works best for you) as a way to keep the pressure off. Over time, you might find that you’re able to work for longer periods of time.

And if today didn’t work, don’t be discouraged. Set the timer the next day for at least 5 minutes and try again.

Try something different
I find that this method works best for me. Sometimes the right words just aren’t coming to me on a given story or with particular characters, and switching to a different story can help. Other times, switching to a different activity works much better, such as modifying my website, researching future posts, organizing my crafting supplies, etc. After I’ve worked on these activities, I go back to the post or story and most of the time I find I’m able to get into it. Even if it doesn’t work and today didn’t work out exactly how I planned, I know that I can go back to it tomorrow.

Give yourself permission to goof off for a bit
This method definitely isn’t for everyone, but sometimes you just need to blow off some steam, especially if you have numerous commitments. It may seem counter-intuitive, but if you’re working a full-time job, have a family member you’re caring for or small children, and generally have a lot of things on the go, you may be too demanding on yourself. If you’d planned on working on your art for 2 hours each night, spend half of your time doing something that is easy and relaxing, even if it’s reading about drawing, and then spend the other half on your project. A timer can help here too, so that you don’t end up spending more than you intended. This one can be a bit risky though if you have a tendency to lose yourself and don’t have great follow through. Just like with any technique, pay attention to what works best for you, and don’t be afraid to try things if you’re not sure. If it doesn’t help, you can always try again the next day.

Get physical
There are some days where I’m incredibly wired, and my thoughts and plans and outlines are just spinning around in my head, but none of it is making it down on paper. At this point, I’ll pull out Dance Dance Revolution Universe 3 and workout for an hour. Or, depending on the weather I’ll take my dogs out for a long walk. I know others who go to the gym, go running, meditate, or hit a yoga class to clear their head. After physical activity, I feel much more grounded, the spinning has stopped, and I can focus on what I want to do instead.

In the end, it’s one day. Don’t beat yourself up over it. Don’t listen to the voices that tell you you’ll never amount to anything. I guarantee that you’ve accomplished plenty of things in your life, and with practice, your creative projects will be completed too.

*Post title is from “Mama Said” by the Shirelles (link goes to youtube).

Read Building a Creative Platform – Part 1 and Part 2

Building an online presence

This past weekend I went to Fan Expo. My favourite part of this con is walking through Artists’ Alley and being surrounded by creativity and talent.

I’m in the process of creating a “geeky and creative” post, profiling the different people I met, but as I’ve been visiting everyone’s websites and etsy stores, I was struck by how different everyone’s online presence is, ranging from nonexistent to professional.

If you’re just starting out, it isn’t necessary to have a flash website that is professionally made, but there are a few things you can easily do.

1. Build a web presence

Others have written about this before, but it’s really easy to create a free blog on any number of journaling sites (wordpress, blogger, livejournal, dreamwidth), even if you’re not very tech savvy. Get in the habit of posting your work on a regular basis (even if it’s just monthly to start), and slowly increase the frequency to at least weekly.

If you’re handing out business cards of your work at a con, you need a website. I saw so many different artists and artisans, and I honestly can’t remember who is who. I need a visual reminder of your work, otherwise I won’t know why I took your card at the time and why I would want to follow up. If all you’ve provided is an email address, I’m going to recycle your card. This may seem unduly harsh, but I’m not likely to email you just to ask “what was it you were doing again?”.

2. Mention the con you just attended.

You don’t need to do a fancy write-up. All you need to do is mention somewhere on your site or etsy store that you’re in Toronto for Fan Expo for the weekend. I’ve noticed that the artists who took the time to update their readers, are the ones that generally have more content up on their sites. Even if you’re just starting out, it’s nice to give people context for what you’re doing. Artists were running out of business cards on the first day of a two-day con, which means that at least some of the people attending will visit your website. Tell us what you’re up to or that you’ll have new merchandise up after premiering it at the con. I’m pretty sure at least one person had a lot more items at their booth than show up at their etsy store, and I wasn’t that impressed with their current online selection. By giving an update (even just one line) you’ve given me a reason to check back.

I can already hear the protests of “but the product itself should be enough of a reason to go back”. Well, yes and no.
If you’ve spent any time on free online fiction websites, you’ll find that most of the writers who post stories will have a multi-chaptered work in progress. 80-90% of those never get finished, so I’ve become wary of those who don’t give me a reason to check back. Every artist has good intentions, but not everyone can follow-through with what they’ve started. If your website doesn’t seem like it’s updated frequently, then I’m going to assume that it isn’t. I’d rather spend my time on someone who provides steady content than on someone who has great ideas but they never make down on paper or online.

I actually find it a bit heartbreaking when I’m working with a client who has so many fantastic ideas, but there’s never any evidence of it, other than the conversation we’re having. I feel privileged that I can listen to a story unfold, but it’s a shame that others can’t share in this experience as well. At Fan Expo, there was so much talent, and with Valley of the Muse I’d love to showcase everyone that I talked to and give examples of how awesome they are. But if they don’t have an online presence, then I can’t do that, because I have nothing to link to, and I doubt anyone would listen to me if I said “trust me they’re fantastic!” without saying why.

If you’re starting out, you need to take that first step before you and your work can be discovered and that means don’t just work on your portfolio in the dark corners of your room until you’re ready to unveil your epic. Build relationships with people who are going to be excited for you and supportive of all your endeavors, even the earliest ones.

When I first started reading about increasing writing productivity, I remember seeing a suggestion about creating a bit of a ritual to get into a writing frame of mind. The author shared theirs – making a cup of tea. It seemed like a very simple thing to do, but I’ve never been good at sticking to a routine.

I felt I was destined to be an uneven writer, at least in terms of output. If you remember the bucket principle from a few days ago, I tend to either drip away or on rare occasions have unrestrained inspiration but whenever that happens I get overwhelmed and stop writing for a period of time. My goal has always been to turn up the tap, so to speak, and maintain a steady daily wordcount, but my schedule varies so that creating a writing routine isn’t feasible and I’ve felt discouraged.

The thing is, I’ve been wrong this whole time. The point of the writing ritual isn’t to create a routine; it’s to bring you into the present so that you can focus on writing. It’s possible that I’ve spent my whole life misunderstanding what a routine is, but I’ve always pictured calendars and time sheets that illustrate a particular path of your day that looks the same as the next. It meant that if I was in the mood for chocolate tea, well, too bad, because the routine clearly states peppermint.

I’m the kind of person that lives in my dreams and in my mind, and I’m not naturally a grounded person, but I started to notice that when I introduced a certain kind activity during my week it’s become easier to sit down and get things done. I’ve struggled with procrastination and with getting distracted my whole life, but over the past few months, I’ve suddenly been able to focus enough to accomplish the things I’ve only ever dreamt about.

For me, it’s come down to activities that help me maintain a level of presence, of mindfulness, and it helps remind me and my brain that I’m capable of being in the moment. It’s not so much about sticking to a schedule or waiting for something in my head to click and make it ok to begin, but about simply being able to sit down and write.

In Part 1, I introduced the benefits of building a creative platform for new and emerging artists*.

One common attitude from new artists who are struggling with productivity is the belief that they need to produce an epic piece. They have a ton of ideas and dreams of one day leaving their day job to make money off of their creations. Sometimes, this belief can arise because of job loss, staycations, nanowrimo, etc., where there is an urgent pressure to create something right now.

Not surprisingly, this doesn’t really work, and the emerging artist feels discouraged. The reality of how much can be accomplished in a day can make it seem like their dreams will never come true, and they go back to longing for a creative outlet without ever doing much more. I think this is a shame, because there is so much creativity that could be shared with the world but isn’t, all because of a mistaken impression of creative output.

Whenever I’m tempted to think like this, I always remind myself of a visualization exercise I discovered on a financial blog. The exercise is meant to encourage people to save money, but I think can be applied to any activity.

Picture a leaking tap. If you place a bucket underneath it, eventually the bucket will fill up with water. It might be faster to fill up the bucket with a tap that’s spraying water everywhere, but being covered with water while trying to mop up the floor and counters is an unpleasant experience most of us don’t want to repeat. This analogy can be applied to creative projects, where the spraying water is your attempt to cram a novel into a week’s vacation (or a weekend) by staying up late and pushing yourself until you’re done. Even if you end up with a decent product, you’re unlikely to try it again, because of how difficult it was and how miserable you were after you were finished. If you’re going from zero output but are now serious about bringing your art to a more professional level, then you’re much better off using the first method. Maybe that means writing flashfiction every week or month, or taking the time to go for a walk every Sunday and taking photos of the things you come across. If you’re knitting, limit yourself to one or two rows a day, or if you’re a bassist and want to start performing again, schedule 30 minutes every few  days to play along with your favourite songs.

Once you get into the habit of creating, you’ll find that you’ll build up a portfolio without even noticing. And when you have an opportunity to talk to others about your projects, you’ll have concrete examples of your work, rather than just saying “well, I have this idea for a story that I’ve been thinking about for years.” You’ll be taken more seriously, and the more you create, the more opportunities you will have for paid work.

Even more importantly, on days when you’re second-guessing your own talent, you’ll be able to prove to yourself that you’re capable, because you’ll have a body of work to rest on.

—
*I’m going to use the term artist to refer to anyone creative, including (but not limited to) writers, photographers, crafters, painters, actors, musicians, etc.

Continue to Part 3

Most people who achieve a modicum of creative success have spent time and effort on a foundation of work. Once they reach star status, it can easily appear to the average consumer of books and movies that the person came out of nowhere. I have coaching clients and friends who dream about that one moment where someone will uncover their brilliance and the whole world will bestow upon them riches and fame. We’ve all read stories of someone down on their luck who was discovered while walking down the street and now they’re a Hollywood star. If you want to rely on this method of success, then you’d better make sure you look perfect every moment of your life, buy lottery tickets each week, and settle in for a long life of dreaming. But if instead you feel a burning desire to create something, stop rewriting your Oscar acceptance speech and start building your creative platform.

Shortly after discovering online fiction archives, I posted my very first short story. I received some lovely comments, but it wasn’t the smash hit I had hoped it would be. Nobody knew who I was, and although the story was decent, it wasn’t blow-you-out-of-the-water-fantastic. This kind of experience is shared by many new authors, and I began to notice the people who had the most success had worked on building up a creative platform. What this means is that the more creative work you produce, the more people are going to have access to your work and are going to be supportive of future projects. It also means that you’re going to have more practise and experience, and ultimately, will have a more professional end result.

Building a platform is going to take time, but unlike dreaming about the day your career will take off, it will have a direct impact on your life and will help you achieve your dreams.

In part 2, I’ll post some concrete techniques for internalizing this concept and give you the push you need to stop dreaming and start creating.

Continue to Part 2

The equipment you use can have a huge impact on your creativity.

That isn’t to say that you should go out and buy the most expensive gadget or art supplies. Or that you need to own every single tool before you can get creative. But the tools that you use greatly impact creativity and can even impede it.

A few months ago, my husband bought a new camera – the Canon T1i. Our old camera was fine – it was considered pretty high end for a non-pro camera, but I was never happy with the pictures that I took with it, so I rarely used it except on vacation. I would see something that I wanted to capture, but then when I would try to take a picture of it, it would look nothing like how I’d want it to. I remember when I received my very first camera when I was about 10 years old, and how extremely disappointed I was when the film was developed. To this day I’m sad about the quality of those photos and how they made my vacation look so dull and lacklustre.

I always thought that the crappy photos was because I had no photographic talent. Then I played around a bit with our new camera. My husband Jeff and I were at a national park with our two dogs, and we were just sitting around after a full day of hiking and a late lunch, enjoying the view of the lake. I picked up the camera sitting next to me and I took a picture where the dog closest to me was in focus, and the dog next her (further away from me) was blurred as part of the background. Then I reversed the focal points so that dog #2 was in focus and dog #1 (closest to me) was blurred.

Both pictures looked great, and I was amazed.

The new camera didn’t suddenly turn me into a pro, but for the first time in my life, I had a camera that did what I wanted it to do. Ever since then, I’ve been taking random pictures, including the ones posted here. Having the right tool for taking images I’m not embarrassed by is one of the main reasons I finally started a blog for creativity and personal development. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for years, but I always held back, and was never quite sure why it never seemed to come together until recently.

I’ve had similar experiences in other areas, ranging from cake decorating, making jewellery, and even make-up application! I remember in high school saving up money for what looked like a vibrant eyeshadow, only to find that when applied, it looked washed out and barely there. Since then, I’ve invested in good quality brushes and I stick to brands that have strong pigmentation. They’re a bit pricier, but I personally find it worthwhile (although I’ve also found no-name brands over the years that are just as fantastic).

Personal Development Tip

Is there a project that you’ve always wanted to embark on but never really got going? If you’re not sure why you just can’t seem to get it off the ground, it’s worth considering you’re being obstructed by the tools you’re using. One way to test out the idea is to embark on a test run. Go through the steps, create a prototype, and then assess the final product. If the result falls short of your expectations and hopes, it’s very likely that the tools you’re using just aren’t giving you what you need.

If on the other hand you can’t complete or start even the rough version, then all the tools in the world won’t be able to change the situation, and you’re going to have to resolve other issues such as creative block, procrastination, etc., which I’ll be addressing in future blog posts.

But, just think about it – if it really is about the tools you’re using, then that’s fantastic, because it can be such an easy thing to resolve!

What have been your experiences with tools? I’d love to hear your experiences with this!