Author: Dan Blank

My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary recently. Today, I want to reflect on what lasts… what it means to commit to creating something. And how, in the process, something is gained that can’t be found in any other way. There are no shortcuts, no hacks, no stand-ins for it.

Here are my parents on their wedding day in 1966:

And here they are celebrating with family last weekend:

Working with writers and creative professionals, I am always thinking about what it means to create something that affects others — that brings joy. What it means to share, and develops deeper meaning over time. I can’t help but feel that…

What lasts is what you create,

Not what you react to.

It is the experiences you share,

And what you attend to each day, with the caring of an artisan.

The good stuff is created, slowly, even as you struggle through the boring parts. When you don’t give up even after you have calculated that there is more to gain by doing so.

As I think about my parents, the 50 years they have been married, and what I can learn from them, I think of this: Be someone who creates. Who shares. Who reaches out.

The thing about a golden wedding anniversary is this: it is easy to celebrate, and difficult to attain. I’m sure it wasn’t easy for them. I think about each year they lived through, each high and low they had to weather together. They helped each other. In thinking about what it was that kept them together through it all, for some reason, I’m reminded of this quote from Mister Rogers:

“If you look for the helpers, you will know that there is hope.”

Creating your work — your writing, your art, your craft — and connecting it to the world, is not just about the act of putting a product out there and publicizing it.

It is about providing a gateway for others — to be someone who is there when they need to experience joy, when they need to learn, when they need a helping hand, and when they simply need to know that there is hope.

What lasts is that inclination to be present for others. To open a gateway for them. To help them through. To create an experience they will never forget.

One day. One year. One decade. One half-century at a time.

Who is the helper in your life?

-Dan

Whenever I speak to a writer or creative professional, the one thing I always try to help with is this:

Clarity.

There is so much distraction nowadays. Some is the nature of an increasingly interconnected world. Some is self-inflicted, such as our own desire to check email before bed, or to check Facebook (which can send our minds in a million directions)instead of taking a walk in solitude or spending 10 more minutes honing your craft.

Getting clarity is two-fold:

1. To know what matters to you, and double down on it.
2. To develop a process of “finding out,” by which I mean to identify where you feel blocked, and then doing primary research to find possible paths forward. This often needs to happen when you feel confused, apprehensive, or the narrative in your head screams “not me,” meaning you just feel that whatever it is you want, can’t happen for you.

Whatever your creative dreams, both of these steps are about re-focusing on creating clarity around a solid plan for finding out how to create good work, and meaningful connections to others.

Much of this is about managing “the now” — clear tasks that push you and your work forward — while also planning for the milestones that matter most to you. Maybe that means each day you battle how to write 500 words on your novel, and the milestone you hope to reach is to publish your book within two years.

Let’s face it, it can feel more difficult to do a tiny amount of work each day toward a 2-year milestone, than it can be to check email.

In the dozens of conversations I have each week with creative professionals, I find people struggle with this.

The draw of managing the easy stuff prevents them from feeling clarity about their biggest challenges, of feeling like they have a practical plan, and feeling like it will lead them to a meaningful place of fulfillment.

I want to share a few practical steps for how I tend to work on this with creative professionals:

Cut away what is secondary.
Secondary tasks may as well be last on the list, because what few people tell you is this: to reach your vision will be more difficult than you think. Clarity isn’t about “doing it all,” it is about being rigorous with where you put your time, your energy and your caring. Double down on the things that matter most to you.

Focus on meaningful experiences, not goals.
Too many people think a certain product or achievement will lead them to a life they want. “If I just hit the bestseller list, THEN I can do what I really want to do.” Instead, focus on what creates meaningful work today. What creates conversations you love. What makes someone’s day brighter. Invest in that. Too many “big visions” for creative work die before they see the light of day. Instead, focus on the process — the experience — you create for yourself and others with your work.

Have clear — reasonable — tasks each week.
I am positive that you are swamped each week. Perhaps it is a day job, kids, relationships, health, and so many other important things that eat up every ounce of your being. Identify one thing you can do to improve your craft, to connect with others, and to push the vision for your creative work forward. Not a long to-do list, but one task that you know you can accomplish if you find 10 minutes each day. The habit you are building here is to attend to work that isn’t reacting to others. Over time, you can grow how much of your time and energy is spent here.

Be realistic about what is on fire.
Most “fires” people are so focused on “putting out,” are just distractions. Think I’m kidding? How many people have been laid off from their job, and walking out the door said “This place is going to crumble without me.” And then, it doesn’t. The company keeps on chugging along for years, for decades. That doesn’t mean that this person wasn’t a valuable part of the team, it means there is a distinction between “something important” and something that is “on fire.” Too many people never get their creative work done because they are distracted by “fires” each week, that aren’t. Instead, they are just distractions that keep you from focusing on your creative vision.

Forgo best practices, especially when it comes to social media.
Too many people are doing too much of the same thing, focusing too much on filling channels with content, and not enough on actually engaging other people in a meaningful way. We live in a world where we can reach almost any other person with ease, and can be helpful and supportive to them in simple ways. Instead of focusing on asking “am I doing what everyone else is?” identify the clearest path between your vision, and bringing someone joy. This applies to whether you are entertaining someone as a novelist, telling a story as a memoir author, helping them with your nonfiction — or your art, your song, your craft — or so many other ways. Maximize for joy.

Find ways to celebrate success.
Small meaningful achievements that are often overlooked in the rush of daily life. Celebrate what you do accomplish each week, instead of bemoaning what you don’t.

Two years ago, I wrote about how clarity is a process. There is so many ways to hone how you create and how you connect it with others, and how each of these things takes time:

Clarity of your own focus.
Clarity of voice.
Clarity of timing.
Clarity of who you want to reach.
Clarity of what resonates with these people.
Clarity of matching their need to the value you offer.
Clarity of what you should focus on, and what you can let go.
Clarity around what matters to you day to day.
Clarity of long-term goals that you reach slowly.

As you consider your creative work and your challenges, please let me know, what question can I answer for you to help you with your work? Email me here: dan@wegrowmedia.com. I will reply to every email with the best advice that I can.

Thank you.
-Dan

This week was the release of the book Author in Progress, for which I contributed an essay.

If you are working on a book or other creative project, today I want to share some observations of what I have learned in the process of releasing this book.

Let’s dig in…

Collaborate

Publishing a book is not a solitary effort. For Author in Progress, there are more than 50 contributors. The book is the work of Therese Walsh, who co-founded WriterUnboxed.com with Kathleen Bolton in 2006.

In that time, she has invited dozens of people to become guest bloggers, and others have helped her manage the website, their social media, conference, and advise on strategic direction.

The book, with 50+ contributors is a reflection of the collaborative nature of Writer Unboxed. It’s funny, I’m so used to the thriving comments in their blog posts, that I miss seeing commenters within the essays of the book!

The book is published by Writer’s Digest Books, and there is an entire team of people who helped make this book a reality who are not listed on the cover. In all, I imagine more than 100 people have had a hand in this book becoming a reality.

Play the Long Game

Every day, new people take a stab at writing a book or some other creative project. They get excited at the possibilities, and they embark on a project. Many lose steam. Perhaps it is for personal reasons, or maybe they thought a hot new trend would propel them to immediate success. When it doesn’t, they move on.

By simply not stopping, you differentiate yourself from most people who pursue your craft.

In the decade that Writer Unboxed has existed, they have published what I estimate to be more than 3,500 posts. I began contributing to the site back in 2012, and have published 50+ pieces since then.

About a year ago, I remember reading a Tweet from someone that said something like, “In the future, everyone will have a podcast for 15 episodes.” What they meant was that the podcast trend was becoming so big, that it seemed everyone was taking a shot at it, with most people stopping after around 15 episodes.

How do you differentiate yourself in that environment? Beyond pure quality; beyond collaboration; it can come down to brute force: publish 3,500 episodes.

That is what Writer Unboxed did. They persisted through the heyday of blogging, the “death” of blogging, the renaissance of blogging, and the “oops, its dead again” period of blogging. They simply never stopped.

Marry your vision with action

Ira Glass has this great quote about what it means to connect your work to your vision of what it can be:

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit.”

When you look at Writer Unboxed, you may think “This is cool, I could totally do this.” What you don’t see is the thousands of decisions that Therese and Kathleen have made over the years. The thousands of negotiations. The thousands of little failures. You don’t see the late night worries. You don’t see how they had to stick to their guns with some difficult decisions and compromise on others.

What you don’t see is the journey to match what Ira calls their “taste” — their standards — to reality.

Every day for a decade, they had a vision. But they also took action.

Thank you Writer Unboxed

I sent Therese the final draft of my essay for Author in Progress on February 8th. Now, eight months later, it is in print.

Here is the first blog post on Writer Unboxed from January 2006.

One blog post — one conversation — at a time, Therese and Kathleen built something. After 10 years, they can hold a token of that in their hand with the book. It was not a zero-to-launch mentality, but rather it is the culmination of having a vision, developing a message, a fan base of die-hard supporters, and a reputation for caring.

Thank you to Therese, Kathleen, and the Writer Unboxed community for allowing me to be a small part of what you have created.

-Dan

When I talk to writers about how to ensure their message is heard, I always start with the same piece of advice: write the best book that you can.

This craft, this art, is core to everything that comes after. The work itself must be of the best quality you can make it.

Craft is difficult. This is one of my favorite photos of what craft feels like:

This is what author Miranda Beverly-Whittemore shared on social media while writing her last book, which is taped up on the wall behind her as she makes edits. The caption read:

“Crazy person = writer under deadline = me”

Craft can push you to the edge. Craft can never feel done. Craft pull at every insecurity we have.

What I have found in working with thousands of writers and creative professionals is this: craft doesn’t get easier, but the process that encourages it can.

Over the years, I explored this process. I grew up as an artist, going to private lessons starting around age 5. I spent my teen years learning photography, playing in bands, writing (really bad) poetry, learning paper engineering to make pop-up books, drawing a cartoon for my college newspaper, and learning graphic design skills for some of my first jobs out of college.

This past week, I had a lovely chat with Orna Ross and shared some tips about establishing good creative habits. You can listen to that here.

Investing in craft is not just about the work itself, it is about how you use your time, and use your energy. It is about the journey that creative work takes you on.

If you are a writer hoping to craft the best book that you can, I would encourage you to check out the work of Jennie Nash. She is a friend, but also someone who I pretty much think is a genius when it comes to crafting better writing, better books.

No, I’m not selling anything here, and neither is she. She’s just a friend and someone whose work I deeply respect. She has made me a better writer, and I know dozens and dozens of writers who say the same about her work. She has lots of free advice and a newsletter here.

You can even join us for a call later today where we will have an open Q&A about book writing, book marketing, and connecting with your book readers. Sign up here.

No, this is not some spammy lead in to a product or course. It is just a conversation where Jennie and I answer people’s questions. Period.

I would love to know: what is your biggest challenge in honing your craft?

Thanks.
– Dan

Most of the people I work with — writers and other creative professionals — work from home. They develop their craft amidst other responsibilities, and the worries that come with them: family, finance, health, home, relationships, and so much else.

Very often, I talk about creative habits that help you produce great work, and to connect it with people in a meaningful way. Today I want to talk about the other habits that surround and encourage creative work. Habits of physical health, mental health, family health, financial health, and productivity. The habits that create a support system which protects and encourages your ability to pursue your vision.

Are these “rules”? Nope. Do them or don’t. Tweak them your own way. Add your own. But I would encourage you to consider developing some weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly habits that touch upon some of the themes below.

Why? Because if you are following your creative vision to create meaningful work; if you are fitting this work into the cracks of an otherwise busy life; it is too easy to burn out. To neglect important aspects of daily living. To ignore important relationships.

This is all stuff I do, it’s not just a pie in the sky list. I’ve run my own company for more than six years now, working from home, while raising a family with my wife. Am I missing a lot of items here? Probably. But I find that developing these habits not only help me work better, but also feel more fulfilled.

Let’s dig in…

Back Up Everything. Twice.

What if I told you that tomorrow, your home would burn down. No one would be injured, but all of your stuff would be gone. What would you regret not saving?

Back it up.

Back up everything you care about, including:

• Your writing or other creative work. This can be as simple as a Dropbox backup. If you write longhand, take photos of the pages.
• Your online creative work. If you have a blog, download a plug-in to automatically email you backups once per week.
• Your photos. I could write an entire post just about this. Download the photos from your phone, and back them up. Seriously. Because one day you will lose your phone, and with it, an entire year or two worth of family photos.
• For physical objects in your life that you love, but can’t back up like you can a digital file, take a photo of it. Photos are free. Walk around your house, and take hundreds of photos of things you care about and want to have a record of. If they are important documents, take photos of those too.
• Consider taking photos of your home and property to record the time and place, even if just for insurance reasons. Even the outside of your home, the trees, the property. I have found that it is a nice record of how things were.

Create redundant backups, meaning that if one backup fails, you have another. You can use external hard drives for this, and software like Backblaze or Carbon Copy Cloner.

Keep backups in multiple locations. This can be an online backup or an offsite backup, such as keeping a backup external hard drive at your office.

Have backups for essential equipment, the tools you use. Since I work from home, I have a generator. If the power goes out, my business doesn’t go down.

I work from two computers that are 100% mine, not shared with my wife. One is a laptop, one a desktop. If one is out of commission, the other is fully synced. I replace each of them every 3 years or so.

For you, this could mean having two phones, one for work, and one personal. Or it could mean you pay for a mobile hotspot as a backup internet access.

When you hire a photographer for a wedding, you will notice they come with at least two cameras, if not more. You may not even see the backup gear they have in their bags. They often have an assistant or two. Why? Because when they have one chance to get it right, the cost of justifying a second or third camera is negligible to their business.

If you take your creative work seriously, do the same thing.

This can even extend to communication channels. In the earlier days of YouTube, many super popular YouTubers had a single channel. What I noticed over time is that somethings their channels would be down for some reason, and they lost their entire way to connect with their audience. Now many YouTubers either have a “B” channel where they can share updates, or they strongly encourage their subscribers to also follow them on other channels: Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, newsletter, etc. It is a communication backup plan, and one that is critical to their creative career.

If you have an email list with 1,000 names on it in Mailchimp that you consider the lifeblood of your business, BACK THAT LIST UP! Plan for Mailchimp to be hacked and lose all of your data.

Don’t Ignore Physical Health

I’ll start simply here: clean your keyboard. It’s disgusting. Just consider all of the things we touch throughout our days, and how it all ends up in the little cracks of our keyboards. Go clean it. Every couple years, replace it.

While your at it, assess the entire area around where you work. Clean your chair and the area beneath it, your mouse, your monitor, your desk.

Do you work in a small space? Check for air circulation. Are your heating vents and AC vents clean? Or are you breathing in 20 year old dust all day?

Do you use a window AC unit? Look in the vents. If you see little black dots everywhere, throw it out. Seriously. It’s mold, and it is bad for you. It’s the kind of thing that creates problems for you 20 years down the road. Trust me, “old you” doesn’t want that problem.

Consider if you need more lighting in your work space. Your eyes will thank you for it.

Consider if your chair is creating horrible habits for your back or wrist. If so, buy a new chair. Or consider getting a standing desk. I recently just added a standing desk to my office (keeping my regular sitting desk too.) I built it from IKEA for less than $20. It have found that it is nice to be able to move around while I work, having some work sessions while I sit at my desktop computer, and some while I stand at my laptop.

I won’t go too much further into physical health because it is such a big topic, but I’ll encourage this:

• If you work at a desk all day, take your lunch break seriously. Get out of the office or work area. I won’t lie: if you work in an office environment, that may create tension with your coworkers or boss. You may get questions like, “Where did you disappear to?” Regardless: take a lunch break. Every day. That’s your time.
• Have some kind of workout routine. ANY KIND. At least once per week. Beyond that, find what works for you. Personally, I have found that having a personal trainer three days per week radically reshaped my health. Do what feels right to you.

Create More White Space

This is about attending to mental health. Which is JUST AS IMPORTANT — IF NOT MORE — than physical health. Are you ignoring mental health in some ploy to “suck it up” and be “strong”. Stop. The world wants you to be fulfilled, not wavering on the edge of sanity because you are so overwhelmed.

I call this creating more “white space” — unstructured time that allows you to feel space between things in the world. Instead of what most of us feel constantly: total overwhelm of dealing with work, family, health, relationships, home, money, and so much else.

This too is a topic I will only touch upon here, but here are some practical actions you can take to create more white space in your life:

Unsubscribe from email lists you no longer care about.

Declutter your office. For all of those piles of stuff that you consider to be critical, throw them in boxes and shove it into the attic. Put a “throw out by X date” on it. When that date arrives, and you still haven’t needed that “critical” stuff, put it in the trash.

Clear out your email inbox. If you have 1,000 unread items, put them into a new folder marked “OLD.” Enjoy that single moment of feeling like you are starting fresh.

Clear off your desk.

Clear your web browser cookies.

Earlier this year, I wrote about the power of saying “no” concluding:

Distraction takes us away from devoting our focus to the things that matter most. The problem is not just that we say yes to too many things, but we don’t identify the few key things that matter most, and commit fully.

In other words: we don’t say YES to what we want with emphasis. We say “yes” meekly. This is a huge problem.

Attend to Relationships

If you are lucky enough to have your mom and dad still with us, call them. Go ahead. If any of your grandparents are still with us, call them too. Tell them you love them.

Just touch base with old friends. A simple update. A simple note that says “I was thinking of you, I hope all is well.”

If you have a significant other, plan a date night.

Take photos of your family. All of you in the shot, use the timer on your camera that you never quite figured out.

I know, you don’t have time for any of this. But 20 years from now, you will be thankful you took each of these actions.

Take Security Seriously

Manage your passwords. Change them with some frequency. Don’t use the same password for everything. Don’t use obvious passwords.

Update your software. If you are clinging to some super old version of your browser, your operating system, or your word processor because it is “familiar,” you are asking for trouble down the road when one program stops playing nice with another. Go through your phone once a month and ensure all of the apps are up to date. With your computer, once a quarter, or once a year.

This applies to things like online software as well. If you use WordPress, go ahead and ensure it is up to date, including all of your plug-ins.

Old software is full of security vulnerabilities. Plug them up now.

I would say that money and finance fits into “security” as well. Huge topic, that I will (again) just briefly touch upon:

• Have an emergency fund.
• Set aside some amount of money each month to it. Even if it is only $10 or $20 per month. Make it a habit. Just like health, even establishing the tiniest habit around finance can lead you to adding other habits.

To me, each of these things helps create a support system around your creative work.

What did I miss? What other stuff could we better manage that encourages us to feel less overwhelmed so that our creative work seems possible?

Thanks.
-Dan