Managing a large creative project that must be done in stages and with attention to what seems like a million intertwined details is a skill that must be learned through trial and error. Most projects are in the "ugly" stage until they are very near completion, and this can be frustrating and confusing when you have a grand vision of what you are trying to accomplish. In this episode I talk about what writing a novel taught me about how to keep going when you feel overwhelmed by the complexity of the work you are attempting to finish and start to lose hope that you'll finish at all.

Note: my microphone wasn't working properly for the interview portion of this episode; I apologize for the less-than-ideal sound quality of my parts.

At last the long-awaited first installment of my author interview series!  KRISTIN KISSKA used to be a finance geek, complete with her MBA and Wall Street pedigree, but now she is a self-proclaimed #SuspenseGirl. She has contributed over a dozen short suspense stories to crime and mystery anthologies. Her debut novel, The Hint of Light, was an Agatha Award finalist for Best First Mystery Novel. Kristin is a Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, Sisters in Crime, and James River Writers member. Kristin lives in Richmond, Virginia, with her family and their moody tabby cat, Boom. She loves hearing from friends, readers, and book clubs at www.KristinKisska.com. You can also find her on Instagram @kristinkisskaauthor.

Here in Florida our challenging season is summer--it's both broiling hot and rainy. My backyard turns into a literal swamp. It can be hard to maintain motivation for our creative work when the weather and climate are so uncomfortable. Maybe in your area it's winter that's the challenging season. If you struggle to keep up your momentum during these times, I have some suggestions on how to handle your creative work in ways that can create motivation.

Info on Lisa Ross's literary editing services

As I contemplate ways I can resist against the forces of chaos and cruelty holding sway in society, I am sometimes dismayed by my own limits. But I am not utterly powerless. In this episode I discuss the many ways in which doing art can be a form of resistance.

Dina Brodsky's Instagram

Athena Scalzi's blog post

Beyond passion, skill, and commitment, there is another quality that defines what it is to be an artist: the ability to make choices in your art and follow through on them. In this episode I contemplate how being stuck in art (and life) is often more the result of a fear of making wrong choices than a lack of inspiration. It can help to shift our mindset to see artistic choices as neutral, and to understand that we have the power to make a choice a good one by continuing to work with it until it has borne fruit.

I've long thought that talent is the least important ingredient in artistic success (however you define that). The further I get in my writing career, the less it seems to matter whether I have any "natural" talent. What matters is consistent and sustained effort over time. In this episode I contemplate whether talent is what we think it is, and provide an alternative framework for conceptualizing it that can help free us from the pressure of not feeling talented enough.

In which I share my thoughts on how creative practice helps us handle the often difficult conditions of the artist's life: how long and hard we have to work to establish ourselves, the mental health struggles many of us face, and the competition inherent in a glutted market.  

I recently added a second creative practice to my roster of creative activities: watercolor painting. While I definitely felt ready for this big step, it has nonetheless served as a disruption in my life and to my understanding of the role of creativity in my life. In this episode I contemplate the value of disruption and how both planned and unplanned disturbances to our status quo can help us grow creatively and develop a deeper understanding of our work.

Creatives and artists can be roughly divided into two types: intuitive and conceptual. Many do successfully combine both styles, but I have never been able to. I am a strongly intuitive writer and have historically failed at incorporating conceptual tools, like outlining and plotting, into my practice. As part of my journey toward being a published author, though, I've been forced to consider using conceptual tools to streamline my writing process. In this episode I tell you how it's going and what I've learned. What it boils down to is that even us intuitive creatives CAN learn to successfully use conceptual tools...as long as we develop them ourselves in an intuitive way.

As the wheel of history lurches forward I've been thinking about what role I play in society as an artist. What do I contribute? How can I make a positive difference? Typically this kind of discussion focuses on the artist's art, but I've taken a different view. I want to know what role artists themselves play, separate from their art. In this episode I contemplate this question and offer some thoughts.

Hewes House