Tag — on writing
Overcoming Your Natural Sticking Points
Monday is guest post day at Magpie Girl, when people I adore offer YOU fabulous value-filled things worth reading.
One of today’s posts is by Jennifer McGuiggan of The Word Cellar. Jennifer is a professional freelance writer and editor. As such, she knows a thing or two about creative cycles. She’s talked me out of more than one slump, launching me past my sticking points and on to project completion. Today she shares with Magpie Girl readers “The Wheel of Work” concept. Join Jennifer as she shows us how to propel ourselves past our natural sticking points by playing to our strengths — and enlisting help for the rest.
Overcoming Your Natural Sticking Points (Innovator’s Edition)
By Jennifer McGuiggan
I can’t figure out how to start this blog post, which is absolutely perfect. Perfect because I’m trying to write about overcoming your natural sticking point in a project. And mine just happens to be this exact point: the point between brainstorming/mapping out the idea and refining/finalizing the project. I get stuck at the beginning of production and creation.
I used to wonder why “everyone else” has such great ideas and gets so much done. My husband, ever my cheerleader, pointed out that I do have a lot of potentially great ideas, all floating around in my head or stashed away in notebooks. He regularly reminds me that I do manage to get stuff done, even big things like starting a freelance writing and editing business; researching/applying to/enrolling in graduate school; and navigating the treacherous waters of real estate and mortgages to buy our first house.
So what’s the problem, I wondered. Why do I sometimes get so stuck that I jump ship and leave my ideas to languish on the deck?
Then a friend shared the concept of the Wheel of Work with me and the pieces fell into place. The wheel tracks the eight phases of a project and can help us to see where we thrive and where we need support. (Note: I don’t know the original source of the Wheel of Work. If you do, please tell us in the comments.)
The Wheel of Work
I’m naturally skilled in the conceptual half, particularly Advising, Innovating, and Developing. This means I’m good at brainstorming and connecting ideas, thinking about things in new and unexpected ways, researching, and collecting resources. But when it’s time to Organize and Produce, I seize up. All those possible directions and a desire to “do it right” can stymie my attempts at creating. I dream things up, but then I have trouble Organizing my thoughts and moving into Production.
If you look at the wheel, you’ll see that Organize and Produce are opposite of Advise and Innovate. This is usually the case: The pieces of the wheel furthest away from our natural strengths are the pieces we find to be most difficult.
If you get stuck at the point of creation, here are four tips on getting from idea generation to post-production.
1. Collect your project ideas in one place. I struggle with this and tend to have scraps of paper and journal pages littered with ideas. But I do my best to put them all in one notebook that’s segmented for different idea types, like essay and article ideas, resources to consult, and possible collaborative projects. This way, I know where everything is and can keep track of my brain jumble.
2. Consider the path of least resistance. Natural-born innovators often end up with long lists of potential projects and no sense of direction. When you have too many projects to choose from, or even too many possible directions within a single project idea, you can end up quitting before you start because you feel overwhelmed. If you can’t figure out what project to focus on, prioritize your list of ideas. The criteria you use for prioritizing is up to you. Maybe you want to pick the project that you think has the most money-making potential. Maybe one project seems ripe for the picking because your audience is hungry for it.
When in doubt, I say go for the one that most appeals to you. We tend to think that anything “good” has to be “hard,” but I say do what works and feels good. Don’t think of it as the easy way out. Rather, think of it was the easy way through. The same thing applies to choosing a direction within one particular project. For example, I just kept on writing this post, going in the direction that seemed easiest as I went along. As I got further down the path, I could more clearly see what needed to come next and where I needed to go back and revamp things.
3. Stop assuming and get the facts.One of the ways that we sabotage ourselves is by making assumptions. We assume that we can’t afford a graphic designer, so why bother to start writing that ebook? We assume we won’t find a vacant room at the bed and breakfast we love, so why bother to plan that getaway? We assume we’ll run out of ideas halfway through the article, so why bother to create an outline? Stop it with the what-ifs! Don’t let a lack of information dictate your progress. Worrying about what may-or-may-not-be just keeps you stuck. Get the facts you need to figure out the next steps. And remember that not every step of a project is contingent upon another step. Figure out what you can do concurrently, like writing the ebook content while waiting to hear back from designers. If you stay committed to the project, you’ll find a way to make it work.
4. Enlist help. Chances are you have friends and colleagues who are naturally skilled in other parts of the Wheel of Work. When you’re stuck on how to begin or what to do next, ask for input from someone you trust. Even someone with the same sticking points as you may be able to help. For example, although I struggle to see my way forward at the beginning of my projects, I do it with ease and confidence when working with my clients. We tend to create drama and fear around our natural sticking points when it comes to our own projects because we’re emotionally attached to them. An outsider doesn’t have the same baggage and can point the way forward.
This is how I get past my natural sticking points. What are your sticking points along the Wheel of Work and how do you overcome them? Add to the Giant Pool of Wisdom by leaving your suggestions in the comments.
Jennifer McGuiggan is a professional writing, editing, and consulting services to businesses, organizations, and individuals. Read about her services at The Word Cellar and browse through her portfolio to learn more.
Favorite Things: Fortunes by Jen Lee
You write all the way to the fence,
then there’s nothing
left to do but tear it down and
expand the border. To stretch
your life by trading Safe and Secure.
To stare the beast, It’s Not Enough, in the
face and let it off its leash….
-from You Write to the Fence, by Jen Lee
This week’s Magpie Girl favorite is a lovely palm-sized book by Jen Lee, she of the soul-felt stories.
Fortunes is a beautiful collection of etheral toy camera images and prose-like poems chronicling the liminal space that is our 30′s and 40′s. When I cracked it open it was like finding an instant companion for all my issues. Finding your art; dealing with mothers and daughters; tapping into a midlife sexual revolution —- it’s all in here in pitch-perfected prose. It is a rare writer who creates work which is both rich with image and yet spare and accessible. Jen Lee achieves it here with aplomb. There’s not a superfelous word on the plate, and still such a rich meal!
You can purchase Fortunes here, either alone or as a duo (one for you, one for a friend.) If you are making the handmade pledge this season, Fortunes would be a lovely envelope-sized gift to slip in with the holiday card you’re sending to an artful friend. And if you are a writer, or think maybe perhaps you sort-of-want-to-be, then take a look at Jen’s new journal for writers, Take me with You.
May these small treasures bring big joy and beauty to your world today.
Magpie Girl’s Promise: I adore my readers, so I only review productsI truly believe in. I never review a product — even one I’ve received for free — unless I truly love it. My complimentary copy of Fortunes perfectly fits the bill. Click the link to find all my Favorite Things, and maybe one of yours! Thank you for being here.
Honor Your Work with Values-Based Pricing
Meet Lisa Alexander, soulsister and collborative divorce and conflict resolution specialist. Lisa is full of practical, straight-forward advice that is rooted in true soulfulness, which a rock solid combination. At our Soulsisters retreat she set me straight on pricing, and I’ve been carrying her in back pocket for reinforcement ever since. Now you get to tap into her financial smarts in this guest post on honouring your work through values-based pricing.
Value Based Pricing with Lisa Alexander
Being your own boss is one of the best things in the world, in my humble opinion. You’ve got the freedom to choose when you’ll work and what sort of work you’ll do. Yeah, it’s no fun to pilfer from the stationary supply cupboard when you’re the one who has to stock and pay for the supplies, but that’s a small price to pay for the joy that comes with being your own boss.
If you’re selling widgets, it’s relatively easy to figure out what to charge. You look at what other widget sellers are charging, you sharpen your pencil and figure out what the cost of widget production is and you can relatively easily come to a bottom line.
But what do you do when your commodity is your time? Some of us sell the work of our hands — paintings, material crafts, our words — and we carefully note the cost of our materials, but then have to figure out what value we’ve added by transforming those basic materials. Others of us sell our ideas, skills and wisdom. It’s even harder to figure out what to charge when your product is intangible — it’s your words, your way of listening, the specialized knowledge you have carefully learned, your way of leading someone into an encounter with themselves in this new reality you’ve helped them create. How on earth do you put a value on that?
I’ve done a lot of thinking about how to charge for my time, as I’ve been a lawyer for ten years now, and self-employed for almost seven of those years. When I started off, the firm I worked with set my hourly rate, so I didn’t have to grapple with setting an initial threshold charge. Thank goodness for that, as up until that time, I’d never earned more than about $15 per hour, and that was for an incredibly fancy dishwashing job at a unionized hospital. The idea of asking someone to pay me in the triple digit numbers was incredibly scary; I figured that if I was going to ask for money, I’d better damn well be able to deliver, plus do cartwheels, wash their car and prove that I could walk on the moon.
It is the rare person amongst us that is confident that she or he is worth every penny of what they are charging. The rest of us usually grapple with impostor syndrome at some point in our money earning lives. Almost every woman I’ve ever talked to has experienced this phenomenon. Impostor syndrome can be paralyzing to those of us charging for an intangible service.
As much as I’d love to wave my magic wand and give clarity to each of you who is struggling to figure out how to charge what you’re worth for the service or goods that you’re providing, that’s not reality. But perhaps you might find some clarity (and a big can of impostor-syndrome-be-gone) in the following hard learned lessons: [Read more →]
Art + Money: Re-visioning Marketing for Creatives
As a writer and soulcare specialist, I struggle with the oft’ soul-less world of marketing. I want to create a system of sacred commerce around my work, in which I have peace around things like pricing, marketing, and promotion.
Thankfully I’ve stumbled upon Art + Money: Thriving as an artist without selling out by Chris Guillebeau and Zoë Westhof. This manual, plus the accompanying artist interviews, gives practical tips and guidelines for getting your work out there, connecting to you audience, and telling your story.
Art + Money is offered at two levels. The $39 Starving Artist version includes the 55 page guide, 3 artists interviews on mp3, and free updates for 6 months. The Picasso version is $58 and includes 3 additional artists interviews. (I’ve not reviewed this part of the product.) Chris is also an incredibly accessible person who actively supports his product and his community.
I know there’s a lot of stuff out there promising to help you sell, sell, sell — and most of it relies on becoming a superstar on Technorati or having the biggest blog readership on the block. Art + Money does not take that approach. Rather it helps you connect your work, your story, and your people into a comprehensive whole that will help you earn either a supplemental income or a living wage — depending on how much time you want to put into it.
While it’s geared primarily for visual artists, it’s also great for writers. Just replace artists/galleries with writers/publishing as you read. And wherever it stays “studio” think “bookstore.” A lot of the links and suggested sites are specifically for selling visual art, but as a writer you’ll still find about 70% of the content applicable.
Art + Money helped me redefining marketing as “sharing your story with your people” – which I already do and love! It’s also confirming my hunch that time on Twitter and Facebook promoting my work—and promoting the work of others in my community—is time well spent. In concrete terms, Art + Money:
- helps me figure out pricing.
- encourages me to keep on with my choice to not pursue traditional publishing.
- shows me how to fine tune my social networking methods.
- teaches me to launch my upcoming products and courses.
I would say the book is especially helpful if you are not yet blogging or using social networking, or if you have not figured out how to focus your blogging and networking in a way that supports your creative work. And if you are they type of person who is inspired by the stories of working artists, the interviews will be a big boon to you as well.
I hope Art + Money scratches where it itches and helps you bring your creative dreams closer to reality.
Magpie Girl’s Promise: I adore my readers, so I only review products I truly believe in. In this case, I purchased the product at full price and decided to become an affiliate ambassador for Art + Money. If you purchase this book through the links on my site you’ll not only get a great product, you’ll also support my work. Thanks for being here!
Fruition
my September dreamboard, made on a page from an illustrated journal i began three years ago, before i learned that I’d laid out 27 pages wrong and the project couldn’t be saved. (now, redeemed.)
This has been a hard week. A hard an horrible week. But today the tides began to their turning. The pained backed down. I could work again, write again. Hope started thinking about coming home to roost.
Often I loose track of where the moon is in her cycle. But this week I’ve been aware of her lurking outside my window, lighting up my insomniatic night, keeping me company on the sidelines. I knew tonight she would be at her roundest, her ripest. And I just could not resist the siren call of her light on my work table. She winked so cunningly through my window, that mistress moon.
One year ago I made my first dreamboard. I dreamt all year of a stage for my stories, health for my body, a community for my heart. I dreamt of books and of strength enough to write them. I dreamt of the loved ones, and tribes. I dreamt of stillness and of floating. Some of those dreams came true. Many, most, did not.
There is no stage, no book, no local community. My loved ones are far from me (but gratefully, well.) There is no health. Above all there is no health. Still, hope springs eternal I suppose—in that small way that it must, when you children lie safe and asleep under your roof, when the moon waits for you beyond your window.
So, still, I dream. Under the moon I dream. And as I dream I till the soil. I turn the earth. I make ready the ground. Because one day, some day, perhaps the the gods of harvest will smile down upon me, and these dreams will finally get themselves born.
This crop may at long last come to fruition.
Jamie Ridler: On Creativity, Feedback and Our Tender Hearts
Meet Jamie Ridler, life coach to creative souls and friend to this tender, crazy heart. There are dozens of life coaches in my internet world, and many of them are very, very good. But Jamie is among the cream of the crop. Her generosity and playful wisdom has helped me immensely over the past year. I feel deeply grateful to be included in her virtual circle.
Today at Magpie Girl, Jamie speaks with us about the way creative souls recieve feedback, and how to honor our emotions while learning from the curve ball that criticism and critque can sometimes throw at us. Do you have a teen or tween? Pass this on to them as well. It’s a life skill I wish I had acquired at 13 instead of 30! Jamie, take it away….
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Recently I asked people why it’s so important to us that people like our artwork. In my own life, I’m noticing how that’s also true for me about anything that I’ve really put my heart into. When I offer a workshop, I’m hoping with all my heart that people are going to love it, that they’ll feel inspired and hopeful and glad they took part.
There’s something wonderful about this. It inspires me to offer my best work and to learn and grow all the time. It comes from a place of deep commitment to the participants and a sincere desire to make a difference in their lives. It reminds me that creating a workshop or a newsletter or a meal or an event is a creative act, one that you pour your soul into.
And what happens if despite all of that, people don’t like it?
Here’s how I’ve learned to handle negative feedback. I hope it bolsters your tender heart the way it has bolstered mine:
1. Let yourself feel what you feel. If I’m hurt, disappointed, angry, defiant or whatever else, I get to experience that like a storm until it settles. I don’t have to pretend it’s not there, judge it, rise above it. I just get to feel what I feel.
2. Look for learning. Once the storm starts to quiet, I see if there’s anything I’d like to respond to. I’m not adjusting the work for one particular person. If I move away from the core of my vision to accommodate someone else, it starts to feel wobbly and I start to feel insecure. That lets me know that I’m moving in the wrong direction. But if I use the information to see if I can bring my creation closer to what I dream of for it, then I can use it to improve the work. There’s joy and confidence in there. The difference is palpable.
3. Let go of what’s not useful. If someone just didn’t like what I’ve created or offered or shared, but it’s something that I believe in or love or is true to me, I remind myself that not everyone is going to love what I do, and that’s fine. What I’ve learned from the information is that my gift is not for this person. I can let the rest go.
4. Trust. I remind myself that my people are out there, people who will appreciate my unique gifts and offerings. One of the truly important things about blogging is it allows us to extend our reach in finding our people, so that when we share what is uniquely and authentically our gift, we have more of an around-the-world opportunity for someone to read it and get it.
Molly Gordon talks about how in business we have a niche and we have an offer. I think this is true in life generally. Our offer is what we sincerely, authentically bring to this world. It’s who we are and what we share. And our niche is that place, that ecosystem according to Molly, in which that offer is easily and recognizably of value. There’s nothing to be taken personally about being a rainforest plant who doesn’t fit into the desert. Just keep looking for home and reaching out to your people.
Jamie Ridler MA CPCC is a creative self-development coach and director of Jamie Ridler Studios. She helps creative, independent spirits align their lives with their hearts and pursue their dreams with joy, courage and authenticity. She leads Circe’s Circle, a coaching telecircle for Creative Bloggers designed to help you start building your creative dreams. A new session stars September 15th. For updates and inspiration, you’ll find her on Twitter.
Lessons from an Artist: Blogging Without Obligation
Hello Loves,
You are probably wondering where *8Things and The DO LESS Revolution are this week. The answer is “late,” that’s all just late.
You see my dear hubby is in the States which means I am single parenting, with migraines, in what can only be described as B.Y.O.A. rainfall (Bring Your Own Ark)—which of course, I must navigate on foot-or-bike because somewhere along the line somebody got the bright idea to move to Europe and live car-free. (Oh yeah that somebody would be me. Well, at least I have very VERY cute rainboots.)
So taking a page from my own DO LESS advice book, I’m narrowing my tasks for the week down to basic survival skills which include: feeding the children, clothing the children, and trying to keep myself from being bludgeoned to death by the children’s all-drama-all-the-time emotional states. (I wanted girls, right?) So *8Things and DO LESS are coming, just not until the weekend. And when they do could y’all please leave me lots of comments because I’m kinda in THAT kind of headspace right now—oh yeah, the needies.
Before I go, I would like to introduce you to Tiffani Electra X, owner of the charming TartX and maker of art. I want to give Tiffani big props for introducing me to the concept of BWO, Blogging Without Obligation, in which we people who work-for-free cease to beat ourselves up when we don’t show up to the virtual page for a day or two. Tiffani’s theory is that if you don’t beat yourself up about when you blog (or don’t, as the case may be) you’ll blog longer, write better, and give the world more love.
Amen, sisterfriend.
Tiffani’s art at Tartx is fantastically off the beaten path and a good fit for anyone who regularly flings themselves down the rabbit hole. It’s romantic and goth at the same time—a little bit like an Alice in Wonderland tea party, if maybe you like your tea with the tiniest smidge of arsenic. I highly recommend you take a little foray over to her place while you wait around for me to come back from the Mad Hatters. (Do you think I could woo her over here? That would be lovely! I DO so love a good crush!)
Much love to you all.
Magpie Girl
I don’t read blogs — but I will read yours.
Hello All. I’m icing my head and listening to John Mayer’s Gravity, which is always a sign that I’m holding on to hope with both hands. It’s a real wrestling-the-angel moment over here folks, with no apparent end in sight. Why? Ten days of migraine, that’s why. Ten days of canceled dates, and parenting through pain, and (uh-hem) not a lot of shugar, if you know what I mean. (Just telling it like it is folks. Chronic pain SUCKS!)
Thankfully I get these little moments of relief where I can dash off a microblog or make notes for a longer piece or writing, or you know, take a shower or something dumb like that.
This is making me nuts because my deamon is downloading writing ideas to me on an every-five-minute basis. I am holding him by the tail and fretting a little. Leonie says, “Don’t worry Possum, they will be there when you need them. And I’m trying Leonie, I really am, just to trust in abundance and to not worry about lack.
In the meantime let me make a confession. I don’t really read blogs. Shocking, I know, and tragically unfair. I don’t really read much at all anymore because of my head, and the eye strain, and the ache. Which is completely awful because words are my absolutely favorite thing. I’m totally dependent on audible.com, which makes me worry that my intellect is slipping because it’s a bit of a dust-up trying to find audio books of quality. So far I’ve dredged up a few good ones and my brain feels pretty well fed. (Phew!) And thankfully some of you podcast and some of you vlog, and there’s always dear old TED and TAL to keep my brain engaged.
But my point is, if you blog, and you know I’ll love you (or that I already do) you really must Twitter or Facebook for me. If you tweet your new posts, or get them up on FB, I will read you. I have the most organized TweetDeck and FB lists in the world, and I follow my readers, soulsisters, and family(ish) folks faithfully. Your’s will be the blogs I manage to gaze at, and retweet, and love-link to. And that’s good for the giant pool of wisdom, right? So good for us all.
So please follow me, and I’ll follow you and together we’ll make it thru this crazy little journey called life.
All my Magpie love,
Rachelle
Now in love with these new-to-me writers thanks to Twitter!
Pen at The Penny Has Dropped (so pretty, so wise)
Emma Bradshaw (because i do love the eccentric britts)
Susannah at Ink on My Fingers (for bravery and beauty)
Megg at More to Me (we live in the same time zone, woot!)
Lessons from an Artist: On speaking with authority about what you do.
I may not be a rock star, but Eden recently took my portrait…
So I went to a photography exhibit yesterday, with my dear friend Michelle, who is always willing to go on artist dates with me in all corners of Copenhagen or in the any-where-remotely-near vicinity. It was an exhibit of rock-star portraits by Danish photographer Søren Solkær Starbridge, and while I am neither an afficianado of rock stars or photography, I enjoyed it very much. (Mabel, Michelle’s 15 year old daughter will attest to just how low I have of a rock star IQ. This is how it went with her: “What?! You don’t know Arctic Monkeys? Come, on? Arctic. Monkeys. No? How about that guy, you know that guy right? The lead singer of Dirty Pretty Things…? Geez!)
While we were at the exhibit we watched an interview with the artist for few minutes (it was in Danish and I quickly got lost), and we bumped into him while he wandered the joint telling the curator which signage needed to be fixed before the closing reception this weekend. Watching him move, and breathe and have his being caused me to think of something I’ve observed of late amongst my arty world.
In the blogosphere there are a lot of women artists and writers my age. These are people who have turned-or re-turned-to the world of art they had previously set aside. This return is often out of a desire to keep their sanity in-tact through the infancy and preschool eras; or because they have finally gotten old enough to ignore their parents advice to “do something with your (practical) degree”; or because they have found their footing in their third or fourth decade and are ready to start following their Muse before their souls atrophy into nothingness. These women-myself included-tend to have a way of speaking about their work in very apologetic terms. We say thing like: “I’m dabbling in photography,” or “I’m not really a writer, I just blog,” or “I’ve started painting, but I’m not that good.”
I hear this kind of thing over and over again, and then… sometimes… I see it change. Sometimes, one of these arty women friends will cross over some invisible boundary and step into their power. They start acknowledging their title and say things like: “I am a photographer,” or when someone asks them what they ‘do’, the say “I am a writer” with less hesitation – or maybe with none at all. And then eventually, they start speaking like a professional – the way Søren Solkær Starbridge talks, or Kara Walker, or Robert Wilson. They speak authoritatively about their art, their intent, and their methodologies. They explain how their work developed and where they think it will progress to next. They accept compliments graciously without downplaying their skill. And they receive critique with gratitude and detachment – because they’ve learned it’s not about their personhood but rather about their work, and it will make their work better.
I’m not sure where this boundary is located, or how one steps over it. I think that for me as a writer and as a minister, I drift back and forth across that border line in an sort of developmental dance. Still, I find more and more that I live on the confident side of that line. I think it’s important – very important-to learn how to get into that unapologetic place. It is a place where you do not hem and haw about what you are doing; where you do not downplay your skill or your talent; where you are both passionate and matter-of-fact; where you can say with authority “I am a writer. I specialize in creative spirituality. I work on line.” And I don’t think you can get there until you realize that the authority to name yourself lies within yourself. Sure, professional recognition is nice. It’s lovely to have the affirmation of colleagues, to have an official job title, to receive an appropriate wage, to win an award. But you know what? A lot of us are never going to see that in a cut-and-dried way. We live in a world on the fringe – a world of art and passion and verve. That world doesn’t have a lot of professional clubs. It doesn’t often offer a steady paycheck with the taxes taken out in neat little columns and vacation accruing on the sidebar. And even where it does, we’ll, we aren’t any of us going to get there by being apologetic about who we are compelled to be.
So let’s stop. Let’s stop hemming and hawing. Let’s stop doing a soft shoe around who we are and what we call ourselves. Let’s learn to take both critiques and compliments. Let’s put our name on the door. Be who you are becoming. Start now.
What one sentence describes with authority what it is that you do? It’s okay, you can change it later as you change. But write one down now and try it on for size. We can’t wait to see what it is!
*8Things Waiting to be Written
*8 Things Waiting to be Written.
- Teaching teens to stand in their own power (without being an ass.)
- Why I’m embracing my shadow self in my second adolescence (ie. 40).
- Why Jesus did not die for you sins, but for his politics…and..why violence is never atoning.
- How our doll house saved my sanity when my children were infants.
- “Everything You Can Think of Is True”: how Robert Wilson’s rabbit hole rescued me from winter.
- Turning to face loneliness and the power it holds.
- Why I unabashedly love crime dramas and what they are speaking about American culture.
- Feminism is dead, Long live Feminism. What we still need to teach our kids.
What things are waiting in your heart to be born?
