Becoming a Student of Your Own Creative Process

In this guest post for Writer Unboxed, I explore the value of how we develop the skills to master our own unique creative processes.

“How do you best create? How do you best write, collaborate, increase the quality of your work, improve your ability to focus, or increase the quantity of output?”

“What actions are you taking to build a body of work that is both meaningful, and powered by a sense of momentum?”

“I bring this topic up because I find that many people have blind spots as to why they make the decisions they do. Their creative process becomes mired in bad habits rooted in deep emotions that they are barely aware of. Hours, days, and even years are spent in a state of confusion or frustration regarding how to write better, how to best publish, how to best develop a readership and encourage sales. Each of these, in its own way, is a creative process. Each filled with its own emotional complexity.”

“In working with hundreds of writers and creative professionals, I have seen this play out in countless ways. Often a blockage is only identified as a symptom: “I’m overwhelmed,” or “I’m having writer’s block,” or “I’m just frustrated with all that is asked of me.” While I 100% empathize with these very important emotions, I always want to break them down to understand the root cause. In doing so, we identify assumptions being made, and challenge them in order to find a path forward.”

Read the full post here.

Thanks.
-Dan