Fresh from the Lighthouse International Film Festival (at the Jersey beach!!), for the premiere of my short film How to Pack Up Your Life in One Day, and still dizzy from the red carpets, the phenomenal filmmakers, the profound screenings. 

I've been thinking how these moments of celebration - our crew gathering, our friends thrilled, an audience applauding - are such highs in the journey. 

Such an external reminder that the work is good, that it matters, that it belongs.

But what do you know in between?

How do you celebrate all the unseen work - the submissions to festivals, the revising of scripts, the long nights editing, the hours of practice?

I have some ideas. 
And one especially goofy one that I hope delights you, and inspires you.

x

Come check out the Hot Mess series on TikTok, and watch as I lose my mind - and find it again - writing, producing, and acting in a show!

#CreatingIsHealing🦋

It can be as simple as sitting on the floor...

Remember when you used to watch TV and do homework lying on your stomach, propped up on your elbows? Remember how solid the ground felt? How long your body felt? How big the room from that angle?

Did you ever lie on your bed, head pointed toward the foot, legs up against the wall? 

How many different ways did you used to look at the world? 

And when did it become only proper to sit in a chair, and see the whole of you life from one point of view?

Come check out the Hot Mess series on TikTok, and watch as I lose my mind - and find it again - writing, producing, and acting in a show!

#CreatingIsHealing🦋

I've been taking a screenwriting class where the main exercise has been to copy brilliant scripts that have already been made into award-winning films and TV shows.

Page by page, word for word, type the exact dialogue, action lines, character descriptions.

When the teacher mentioned this I immediately thought "ah ha!" Why didn't I think of that? 

I've done it in so many other formats. Studying novels to refine my writing. Learning cover songs to understand melody and harmony and rhythm. Rehearsing salsa shines until the basic patterns are ingrained. 

Artists used to learn through apprenticeship. Taking time to perfect the style of the masters who came before. It's the best way to know how to break those rules. 

You have to know what the structure of your medium is, before you can figure out how your unique voice will shine in it.

Come check out the Hot Mess series on TikTok, and watch as I lose my mind - and find it again - writing, producing, and acting in a show!

#CreatingIsHealing🦋

When we talk about making small changes, one challenge is that it can be hard to see progress. Small wins add up to big wins - but slowly. 

Enter the habit tracker. A way to stay accountable to yourself on the commitments you've made. Writing. Playing music. Painting. Journaling.

It can be as simple as a small calendar, with a box for each day of the month. Check off the days you showed up for your art. Leave the rest blank. (There are lots of beautiful ones you can find on Etsy, that you can color in over the month to create artwork out of your successes.)

Now comes the hard part. Looking at the data. 
And not using it against yourself.

Not beating yourself up for the days missed. But rather celebrating the days achieved. Getting curious about when you fell off. Asking quality questions about what got in the way. Deciding to tweak your systems - a different time, an accountability group, a pomodoro session, sticker rewards - and collect more data. Rinse, repeat. Keep refining the process, keep discovering what makes you tick, what draws the art forth. What makes you joyful in your work. Where you find satisfaction.

Letting failure be your greatest teacher, and not a definition of your character.

Come check out the Hot Mess series on TikTok, and watch as I lose my mind - and find it again - writing, producing, and acting in a show!

#CreatingIsHealing🦋

With all my recent travels, I've gotten to examine my deep anxieties about traveling, my overwhelming desire for it to be over, to have already arrived.

I'm learning that the not knowing what will be, the inability to anticipate and solve problems that have not yet materialized, make it excrutiating to venture forth.

The same applies to creativity.

Not knowing where an opportunity will lead, who will control the final product, what compromises I might need to make... all of these worries keep me from stepping into the unknown.

I recently (attempted) to drive through a snowstorm. (I severely underestimated Canadian winters!) What I learned in watching myself navigate the unknown, in real time, is a lesson I'd like to take into my creative projects.

Learning to trust myself.

Come check out the Hot Mess series on TikTok, and watch as I lose my mind - and find it again - writing, producing, and acting in a show!

#CreatingIsHealing🦋

Did you know that January 19 is known as Quit Day for New Year's Resolutions?

Why do we do this to ourselves?

Why do we continue to believe that we can make grand declarations one day that will magically transform who we are and how we live our lives starting the next?

This week I'm talking about the power of small changes and tiny wins. How change truly works, and what it takes to make it happen.



Pssst.... now you can also watch the episode on YouTube !

Come check out the Hot Mess series on TikTok, and watch as I lose my mind - and find it again - writing, producing, and acting in a show!

#CreatingIsHealing🦋

Hello my friends!!

Been diving back into my TV pilot script, and took some advice from writers and filmmakers I admire that I heard a while ago - that most of the "writing" isn't actually writing, and most certainly doesn't happen at a desk.

Creativity needs movement, and problem solving is best done on your feet. Which is how I found myself this week, walking home with groceries in hand (I forgot to bring my reusable bag), my fingers freezing from the cold (it's winter in Quebec City!), talking to myself out loud about the 7 point story structure of my script, and which points I could strengthen.

Now ~ as in all things I do, this was an extreme version. But I did find it so freeing to walk and talk to myself (you could do it in your head) about the script. I've always been a problem solver, and I think best on my feet.

In fact, at my office job, back when we had offices ~ I never kept a garbage can at my desk, because every time I had to get up to throw something out in the break room, my mind got to mull over a problem I was struggling with. And usually by the time I sat down again, the pieces had reorganized in my brain and I was seeing them in a new light.

So my invitation this week is to take your creativity on a walk with you. And if you're scrambling with a long holiday to do list, then grab the 5 minutes walking home with groceries, or wrapping gifts, or doing dishes. There are so many places where we can return our minds to the stories we're trying to tell, and tease out the next missing link.

Pssst.... now you can also watch the episode on YouTube !

Come check out the Hot Mess series on TikTok, and watch as I lose my mind - and find it again - writing, producing, and acting in a show!

#CreatingIsHealing🦋

Your feelings are chemical sensations rushing through your body. We often get locked in trying to analyze and argue with our thoughts, but there is another process that be incredibly healing - feeling your feelings.

In this episode, I practice tuning into my body and describing the sensations of my feelings - and in so doing, allow them to process and settle within my system.

As someone used to resisting all her emotions, and always turning to her brain to fix her feelings, this is new territory for me.

I offer it here as an added skill for your toolbox.

The more you can feel your feelings as physical sensations, the more you can drop into your body's incredible, innate creativity. This is the place from which so many of our stories can - and need - to be told.

Pssst.... now you can also watch the episode on YouTube !

Come check out the Hot Mess series on TikTok, and watch as I lose my mind - and find it again - writing, producing, and acting in a show!

#CreatingIsHealing🦋

The allure of travel has always been that over there, things will be better. We will have more fun; be more fun. We get to drop the burdens we carry when we travel, enamored with new places, shedding our old stories and trying on new versions of ourselves.

This works in large part for vacations - those one or two week sprints where you take off from your 'real' life to explore somewhere new. It's like the first flush of new love, where everything is golden and you are the best version of yourself.

But when you have made traveling your 'real' life, then the 'real' you eventually catches up with you.

And you get to see - so clearly - all the stories you carry about who you are, the identities you take on, the hurts you still hold, the self doubts that get in your way.

It's the same with success. We think - if I get that book published, that film made, that music released - I will be happy. A bright shiny new version of myself. But wherever you go, there you are. Even in travel, even in success. 



Pssst.... now you can also watch the episode on YouTube !

Come check out the Hot Mess series on TikTok, and watch as I lose my mind - and find it again - writing, producing, and acting in a show!

#CreatingIsHealing🦋

Sometimes the only thing to do in worst of times, is to share it, in hopes it helps someone, sometime, somewhere.

So sharing this before I lose my nerve...



Pssst.... now you can also watch the episode on YouTube !

Come check out the Hot Mess series on TikTok, and watch as I lose my mind - and find it again - writing, producing, and acting in a show!

#CreatingIsHealing🦋