Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Making plans

My creativity coach, Eric Maisel, asked those of us in his current class to come up with a plan for the month that would enable us to create more often and more deeply. As a recoverying overachiever and workaholic, I'm both excited at that prospect and wary as I tend to overcommit and force myself to fulfill on all those commitments.

Here's what my creative life looks like now:

Every day, I write in my journal, write two blogs, and most days I also put some color on paper (collage, watercolor, pastel, pencils, something).

Most weeks, I try to spend a few hours on my second novel or I go to a studio space and do a bigger pastel experience.

Most weeks, I find no time at all for marketing my memoir, or my first novel, which is ready to go, or my pastels. It's hard enough to find the energy to market my editing business.

So can I create more often or more deeply and still live a spacious, restful life and make a living?

I think this is a common question for us creatives. Few of us make a living from our forms of creative self-expression and those that do work it at a lot because they not only create but need to deal with all the business side of the work.

I've decided to try two things for a month. In addition to my daily practices, I am going to see what happens if I spend two hours each weekend (or in an evening) working on marketing my books and do something every day on the novel I'm currently writing. I don't know what that something would be (best case scenario is I spend a little time writing) but I can see what happens.

It's all about balance and doing what I commit to and not committing to do much.

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