Creative people start each project hoping to do excellent work. That makes perfect sense; and yet, side by side with that hope and wish, needs to be the deep and real understanding that only a percentage of their output (maybe a large percentage, maybe a modest percentage) will actually turn out to be excellent. This means that they will need to take "the bad with the good" in their creative life.

In the first episode of the "creative obstacles" series, we learn what happens when you don't allow yourself to take the bad with the good. I hope that you enjoy the show! Do leave I comment—I look forward to hearing from you.

In today's episode on the Joy of Living Creatively, the second in a nine-part series on "creative obstacles," I chat about how writers who take my nonfiction book proposal writing workshops start with such enthusiasm and quickly lose that enthusiasm as the largeness of the task in front of them becomes all too abundantly clear.

The episode, called "Fearing Difficulty," focuses on our natural desire that the creative work in front of us might be just a little bit easier to accomplish than it is--and the courage we have to muster in the face of the ordinary difficulties that come with creative effort. I hope you enjoy this week's episode!

Today's episode is the third in our series about overcoming obstacles to creativity. In today's show I focus on the problem of self-censorship and how too many people, wanting to be "nice," fail to find the internal permission to say, in their life or in their art, what's really on their mind.

This lack of internal permission is a great blocker and a great silencer--which is why we need to take a careful look at the problem. I hope you enjoy today's show! Good listening.

This week's show is the fourth in a series called "Overcoming Obstacles to Creating," a series about how our personality can get in the way of our creating. Today, in a show adapted from an essay in my book A Writer's Paris, we look at the negative effects of looking too ardently to the past for models. The show is called "Chasing Ghosts." Good listening!

In the fifth episode of the "creative obstacles" series, we look at how our psychological defenses can get in the way of authentic creating. Why do we deny--to ourselves and to others--that we are having difficulties with our current painting or our current novel, when if we admitted that truth we might open up to our good solutions? Listen and find out.

Good listening!

In the sixth episode of the "creative obstacles" series, we examine the idea that there is a difference between having emotions and being a slave to your emotions. It is necessary that a creative person have and express her emotions, but that is a very different thing from being led around by the nose by her fear, anger, envy, or sadness. What can we do to break free of the grip of our emotions? Tune in and listen.

Good listening!

In the seventh episode of the "creative obstacles" series, we look at the idea that a creative person's sense of individuality is a special sort of challenge. Born individual into a conventional world, a creative person begins to grow oppositional as he fights to retain his individuality. What can he do to retain his individuality and modulate his growing oppositional nature? Tune in and find out.

Good listening!

In the eighth episode of the "creative obstacles" series, we examine the idea that the anxiety produced in us when our creative projects shift and change can cause us to flee the encounter. It is in the nature of creating that the project in front of may change countless times as we continue thinking about it, as we chnage our mind about its direction, and as it takes on a life of its own. What can we do to survive all of this morphing? Tune in and find out.

Good listening!

In the ninth episode of the “creative obstacles” series, we look at the idea of how easy it is to blame others for our lack of creative output—and why we don’t want to do that. One of the ways that we avoid getting our creative work done is to involve ourselves in the affairs of others, enter into dramatic and difficult relationships, and distract ourselves with people–and then blame them for our meager output. What can we do to change this dynamic? Tune in and find out.

Good listening!

In the first episode of the "honoring your creative space" series, we learn why you have to rebuild your personality in order to make space for creating. It doesn't matter how fine a studio you outfit or how fast your computer can compute if your personality doesn't match your tools. What can you do to strengthen your personality so that you stand ready to create? Tune in and find out.

Good listening!