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What does it take to be creative over the long-term, especially in these challenging times? In today's interview, Austin Kleon gives his thoughts on how to Keep Going.

 

In the introduction, I talk about my thoughts around dealing with coronavirus, plus Sanctuary, Retreat, Belonging: The Importance of Home in Difficult Times, My tips on how to work effectively from home, Kris Rusch's Patreon, my mini-course/lecture on Multiple Streams of Income from your Writing, plus How to Sell Your Books Directly to Readers and Get Paid Immediately, and if you want to get 50% off my ebooks and (some audiobooks), you can buy direct from me: Payhip.com/thecreativepenn and use discount coupon: QUARANTINE until the end of March.

Today's podcast sponsor is Findaway Voices, which gives you access to the world's largest network of audiobook sellers and everything you need to create and sell professional audiobooks. Take back your freedom. Choose your price, choose how you sell, choose how you distribute audio. Check it out at FindawayVoices.com.

Austin Kleon is the New York Times and international best-selling author of four books including Steal Like An Artist and Show Your Work. He's also an artist, professional speaker, and newspaper blackout poet. Today we're talking about Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad.

You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript below.

Show Notes

• Where to go next after being creative for ten years
• Riding the wave of interest to see what’s next creatively
• Granting ourselves permission to follow our interests
• Tapping into our dark side while avoiding fear of judgment
• Where are your creative safe zones?
• What happens when art is the thing that feeds your family?
• The part blogging can play in a writer’s life

You can find Austin Kleon at AustinKleon.com and on Twitter @austinkleon

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Every creative person encounters times where we're not feeling creative at all. In this post, Macy Thornhill shares ways to support yourself to get past the natural blocks and slumps that come with the creative life.

“Being a writer is not just about typing. It’s also about surviving the rollercoaster of the creative journey.” ― Joanna Penn, The Successful Author Mindset

As writers, we’ve all had those times when we’re procrastinating. Whether it’s because you feel like your creative spark is waning, life is getting in the way of your writing goals, or, if we’re honest, because you’re a little afraid to take the plunge into serious writing.

How do you keep yourself productive when you’re in a creative slump? Sometimes, it’s possible to write your way through it. But other times the best you can do is keep yourself productive in other ways. But how do you know when you’re staying busy, versus when you’re doing busywork?

Over the years, I’ve learned a thing or two about writer’s block and creativity. With these tips, you’ll be able to keep yourself motivated and inspired, while waiting for that spark to come back.

1. Take Time To Think About Your Writing Career

“When you feel that creeping self-doubt, acknowledge it. Write down your feelings in your journal in your journal… and then continue with your writing.” ― Joanna Penn,

Sometimes, especially when you’re just starting out, it’s easy to get overwhelmed as a writer. It’s lonely work, and it can take a while to build up a readership or client base before you really get going.

It can be tough to self-motivate sometimes. When you’re finding it difficult to carve out time for writing because life gets in the way, or you’re not sure where to start, take some time to think about your goals.

For me, I have a notebook that I write in daily. It’s one part diary, one part bullet journal. I use it to keep track of what I’m working on, and where I’m hoping to take my writing in the future.

Find a way to keep yourself on task, whether it’s weekly writing goals or a list of places you want to eventually submit to. You’ll find it’s a great way to stay motivated.

2. Connect With Other Writers

Whenever I feel stuck, I find it motivating to spend time with other writers. Not only is it great to talk shop with someone going through things with you, but other writers might also see things you miss.

Procrastination and writer’s block can come from a mistake you don’t know you’re making. Connect with other writers, through writers groups or classes, and let them help you work through the problem.

At the very least, it might be enough to get you excited about writing again. If you don’t have a writing group in your area, try the Twitter hashtag #amwriting to connect with other writers, or find writing communities on Facebook or Instagram.

One caveat: As described in The Successful Author Mindset, writer groups can have an opposite effect on your creative flow. Group members can be critical for the sake of being critical and you can get lost in the avalanche of untargeted feedback. So make sure the group you’re in is one that will help you grow and move forward.

3. Write Something New

Many writing blogs advise against starting a new project when an old one is floundering, but I think the trick is to do something small. If you’re working on a novel, try a short story. If you’re writing fiction, write a non-fiction article.

The shift in your thinking can sometimes be enough to shake something loose creatively. So get out there and try something new in your writing! You could surprise yourself.

4. Work On Your Portfolio

A writer’s portfolio is a calling card for clients, agents, and publishers. If you’re in a serious writing lull, sometimes, going over your best pieces can help you remember your goals. Updating your portfolio can keep you busy, without succumbing to busywork.

What you need in a good portfolio depends on you, but a welcome page, resume, and references are a good start. Update and organize your contact info.

When you’re choosing pieces, make sure to choose not only your best but samples of the kind of work you’re most interested in doing. Try not to mix genres too much here. You want to show flexibility, but with a clear voice, and clear goals. Finally, mention the domain of your portfolio on all your online profiles, so potential clients, publishers, and agents can find you.

5. Resist Temptation to “Research”

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: “Oh, I really can’t write this scene without checking…” and two hours of Google later, you still haven’t written anything, but you now know everything there is to know about 18th-century juggling, how to bury a body, and the correct way to swaddle a baby.

When we’re procrastinating, research can be a very tempting distraction, especially now that you have an endless universe of data at your disposal. But resist the temptation. Without a clear idea of what you need to find, you’re not going to be effective as a researcher. Use your research only when you have a specific goal, and don’t use it to avoid producing work.

6. Take a Writer’s Walk

Sometimes, we can get so busy with writing we forget other things. If you’ve been pushing for a deadline, working on a big project, or looking for clients, it’s tough to make time to stop and smell the roses. Literally. Sometimes a change of scenery is exactly what you need to get your creative juices flowing.

Spending time in nature also boosts your memory, improves your mental health, and even increases brain activity! If spending too much time in your home office is sapping you creatively, get some fresh air, and replenish your creative energy. It’s better than sitting at home, staring at a blank page!

Takeaway

The best way to build a successful writing career is to make writing a habit, and show up for yourself. But we’ve all had times when it feels like the creative spark has left us. Sometimes it’s a day or two, sometimes a couple of weeks at a time.

When you’re in a slump, it feels easier to fill your life with pointless online meandering or lose yourself in irrelevant statistics.

It’s fine to take breaks, but spend that time to move closer to your goals. If you use this inspiration gap to work on other aspects of your business, you’ll stay motivated, and will return to your writing in no time.

What do you do to motivate yourself when you hit a writing slump? Please leave your thoughts below and join the conversation.

Macy Thornhill is the frantic scribbling squirrel over at Clippings.me. She loves writing herself out of sticky situations and helping fellow scribblers grow their freelance writing business.

If you haven’t heard of a muse board, don’t worry, you are not alone. Today’s guest blogger, Jill Hedgecock, developed the time-saving tool and her older daughter named it.

At some point, every writer has probably paused and wondered what the hair color of their antagonist is or perhaps the shape of the nose of an ancillary character.

What if instead of searching through files looking for a character profile or rifling back through chapters, all you had to do was look up? That is the just one example of the brilliance of creating a muse board.

So what exactly is this marvelous time-saving tool?

A muse board is a visual aid designed to create mood, inform plot, assist in character development, and inspire descriptive prose.

Assemble Materials

A standard 36- by 48-inch tri-fold presentation display board is the format that I use because it mimics the proper text proportions of story structure: a beginning (25%), middle (50%), and end (25%). The size makes it transportable, yet large enough to give you a snapshot of the essential elements of an entire plot. You will also need:

• photos and/or images of characters and setting (make sure they are not copyright protected)
• colored cardstock

Colored-backgrounds for the images can help a writer find the proper plot pacing: (e.g., red for intense scenes, orange for tension-building moments and yellow to let your readers breathe). The thicker paper allows for the images to be easily moved around if you decide to restructure your scenes.

Other possible elements:

• scented paper
• reminder post-its
• family genealogy
• geographic maps
• timelines
• back cover text or taglines

Organize the Images

Whether you are a “pantser” (those who let the story unfold organically) or a “plotter” (those who prepare a detailed book outline), you can still benefit from the tool.

For the pantser, as your character or setting starts to develop, take a break from the keyboard and find images after the initial descriptions are established. Your board may very well be developed at the end of each writing day or even at the completion of a chapter.

For the plotter, go ahead and dive in and complete the whole muse board or maybe prepare it in stages for each panel.

Remember: The board can be changed at any time during book development. Peel off the image of a character that got axed in draft two or plaster a new image on top of it. Better yet, keep it on there and use it as a conversation starter at a book event.

Reap the Benefits

A muse board can make you a better writer. That’s a bold statement, so let me explain.

Besides avoiding the time-suck of making sure descriptive details are consistent throughout the book and fixing pacing (described above). Here are a few more advantages:

• Got writer’s block? Study an image on your board write a paragraph on why you included it. Or write backstory around the picture. It doesn’t even need to be part of the book, but this short exercise may jump-start your work-in-process or possibly take your characters on a new and exciting plot twist.
• Can’t find the right ending? Move images around. Chances are the answer is on the board, but maybe in the wrong spot.
• Fix a one-dimensional character. With a muse board, you can treat them like paper dolls. Dress them in different clothes. Put their image on a horse? Are they afraid? Thrilled?
• Do you stumble when it comes to conveying emotion? Images can provide visual descriptors. Where are the tears welling up in a photo of a young girl? What is she doing with her hand? (For example, I have a picture of an angry teen to remind me about how she feels about her father after she discovers his extra-marital affair.)
• Does your plot occur in one place? Grab images of a park or a greyhound race track or a kid playing in a fountain. Can folding these settings into your story add depth?
• Study your second and third muse board panels. You might find opportunities to foreshadow early in the book.
• Do you see repetition in the photos? This may help you identify a key theme that hadn’t occurred to you.

A muse board is both a great attention grabber and a conversation starter. A muse board is a 4-foot visual feast that can be seen across a room. It can pique curiosity. In a few short moments, the visuals can tell your storyline more effectively than your elevator pitch.

[Images provided by Jill Hedgecock.]

Jill Hedgecock’s debut coming-of-age suspense novel, Rhino in the Room, was largely written with the aid of a muse board during the month of November as part of the National Novel Writing Month program.

She found new ways to improve her writing when using the muse board tool for latest novel due out in 2019, Between Shadow’s Eyes. To learn more, visit www.jillhedgecock.com. Connect with her on Twitter @JillHedgecock.