wayfinder

How do you get where you want to go? Creative endeavours spiral through the same stages over and over again. If you’re stuck or if you want to move more easily through the process, it helps to know where you are in the journey.

wander – wonder – ponder – persist

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wander – clarify your quest

You decide to go on a journey, even if you don’t know where you’ll end up. You have a wish about the destination and/or the journey itself.

wander – write better by clarifying your quest – Allow the concept of wandering into your writing goals and gain freedom, peace, and excitement. By turning the goal into a quest you include all the bits of you needed to motivate the journey.

directionless is not pointless – The creative process requires a certain degree of ignorance. A project that wanders isn’t necessarily going nowhere. If you’re excited about it, it’s right on track.

making the most of your writing repertoire – Put yourself in a starring role. By making the most of what you do best as a writer, you can increase your energy and improve your writing.

yearly theme – Choosing a yearly theme is a low-maintentance, high-return way to point your efforts toward your desires.

wonder – explore your fascination

You ask questions. You scan. You gather options and raw material. You dig and collect treasure. You seek meaning. You open.

wonder – write better by exploring your fascination – At the heart of wonder is the desire to know more. When your fascination is given your curious attention and devotion and allowed to thrive, what you write will glow from within.

let’s pretend – Pretending keeps the passageway between conscious and subconscious alive and thrumming, open and more available when you need it.

love your audience – The bond created between writer and reader arises out of love. We can tell when a writer loves us. It makes a difference. It’s THE difference.

the question as catapult – Developing Questioneer skills can add spectacular depth and bring surprising progress to creative endeavours.

notice what you notice – We can’t notice everything. Noticing what we notice gives us unbeatable, richly endless, top-quality material for our creations.

defending stupid – Choosing wonder over logic can make us seem stupid. So what? Ignorance and amazed distraction delivers creativity and new perspectives.

ode to the saint of eyeballs - I’m captivated by St Otillien’s hideout near Freiburg, Germany. (An example of example of how following a fascination can inform and motivate your writing.)

ponder – organize your ideas

You think. You clarify the goal. You decide what to leave out and what to keep in. You seek effective methods for reaching the goal, trying things out to discover what works best. You practice.

ponder – write better by organizing your ideas – The act of writing anything involves distillation, decision-making, and shaping. No matter what your raw material is about, at some point in the process you think about what words to use in what order.

a simple way to write - The process of writing is a tool. Here’s a way to tame the process, by using different skills for different parts of the process.

writing without words – When we can’t find the right words, sometimes it’s best to stop looking for them and focus on the thought instead.

reading to dogs – How can you practice writing and sharing what you write without feeling judged? It helps to read it aloud to a non-judgmental audience.

making peace with revision – Creativity and analysis can coexist in peace. When you trust the revision process, every first draft contains the potential for a full recovery.

mistakes were made – A mistake is an unexpected opening. An accepted mistake is an unplanned chance to bring more creativity into the writing process.

eleven words – An Elfchen is a short poem of eleven words in a specific format. Playing with the Elfchen format is a simple, unusual way to write a poem.

persist – maintain your focus

You keep going, seeking and finding support and encouragement, lining up enticements, refreshments, and rewards all along the way. You conserve and honour your stamina.

persist – write better by maintaining your focus – Persistence isn’t about maintaining a steady pace. It’s about knowing when to lie down and when to get back up again. It’s a paradox that sustained focus requires looking away occasionally.

how to fall in love with yourself – If, for whatever reason, you struggle with feeling like you don’t have what it takes to become a better writer, instigating a love affair with yourself can help. Start with these specific assignments.

how to reinvent yourself – Big changes involve reinvention at a deep level. In such times, you enter a world of unfamiliarity and shifting sands, where the map is missing the “You Are Here” dot. What can make the process of reinvention easier?

time out - If you’re going to be a zombie, be a zombie in the service of your art. Be a zombie in recovery from practicing its craft, versus a zombie avoiding practicing its craft. You know the difference.

chin up – Sometimes, what’s needed is a pep talk, to remind you that you can’t fly without sticking your neck out.

separation anxiety – What you’ve created is separate from you. It wants to have a life of its own. But it can’t fulfill its potential unless you allow it to be finished and let it go.