People hear the word creativity and think it has to mean “official” creative acts like writing, painting, drawing, pottery—creative careers. It doesn’t. As one of my greatest teachers, Louise Hay, always said, you can be creative in the way you make your bed, or cook dinner, or throw a party. You...
Mindset
This is the way out of writer’s block
When I was a kid and an aspiring writer—since the age of about 7, in case you’re curious—my parents told me to have a backup plan to my Plan A of becoming a novelist. And they already had it figured out for me. Since they were both teachers, it made sense to them that I should be a teacher too. I...
Instant Inspiration: Three ways to start your book today
I love starting a new story. Once I start turning a new idea around in my head, the first couple of chapters just flow. I can’t get them down fast enough. It’s the middle I hate. And sometimes the end. So yeah, for me, the beginning of a book is as good as it gets. I know that’s not true for...
How to conquer writer’s block, doodle style
Those of you who follow me on Facebook or Instagram have probably met my rescue pups, Molly and Penny. I post a lot about them there, mostly because they're cute, but also because they are always teaching me something. Specifically Penny, my Australian cattle dog/poodle mix, who literally crashed...
It’s all water under the bridge – uh, no it’s not
I posted something on social media last week about a difficult moment I had with a family member recently, a moment that brought up old fears, stories and patterns that I’d been working on dismantling for so long. The post got responses from people who expressed similar feelings of holding too...
How to turn your annoying day job into a creative jackpot
A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog post about how to make time for your writing even with a day job. And last week I wrote about how you don’t need endless amounts of time to be a professional writer (read: you can totally rock your writing career if the day job is still a thing). Today, I want to...
The simple math that blew my mind
If you’re a writer and you haven’t read Steven Pressfield’s books about writing, stop reading this right now, open a new tab, and order them. I mean it. (But come on back after you do!) All kidding aside, Pressfield is a genius—a prolific fiction and nonfiction writer who has been doing the work...
How to stop letting fear stop you – and the best essential oils to conquer fear
There are so many things we can allow to become barriers to creativity. We’ve talked about a lot of them here: procrastination, lack of confidence, the old false stories we tell ourselves about what we can or can’t do, writer’s block (also known as the muse taking an unplanned vacation). But...