Stepping Off Now: Lessons in the Art and Craft of Creativity

When you are a highly sensitive gentle soul, the chaos and cruelty of the world can feel unbearable at times. How are we to protect ourselves while still engaging? In this episode I discuss this in light of my own thoughts on the recent US election results.

My sister's Instagram account (jillpattersoncycling)

The poem Desiderata

Have you ever been told you take yourself too seriously? I heard this all the time growing up. And it was both right...and wrong. In this episode I discuss how I held myself back from reaching for my creative dreams both by taking myself too seriously and not seriously enough. Sound confusing? Well, give it a listen!

Here is the Instagram reel that sparked this episode.

I wasted years of my life following other people's advice about how I should be writing novels and developing my creative practice, and it mostly failed me. So finally I decided to chuck it all out the window, go against the grain, and listen to myself. In this episode I discuss why we mostly shouldn't listen to anyone else and instead expend time and energy figuring out what works for US individually. But we also shouldn't dismiss advice and expertise wholesale! So I balance my rebellious FU side here with a discussion of when and how we can benefit from advice.

I am using my current project, novel #2, to master plot, my weakest area as a writer. In the past, I've been ambivalent and even felt antipathy toward applying commercial and Western-style plot structures to my novels, because I felt they constrained my art. So what's changed? In this episode I discuss my evolving views on structure in life and art, and why I'm now leaning into the concept that structure can free us...if we do it right.

For some background on my thoughts on plot, and particularly on Western vs. Eastern styles, see this episode on the Kishotenketsu narrative structure. 

In this episode I discuss my recent diagnosis of being neurodivergent, including why I pursued a formal diagnosis, what it entails, and its relationship to creativity and my art.

With novel #1 winding its way toward publication (hopefully), I have officially begun work on novel #2...and I've realized I will have to approach writing it in an entirely different way. Not only that, I'm going to have to use a technique I have utterly failed at in the past: preplanning the plot. Simply put, I suck at plot. It was the last thing to fall into place in novel #1. In this episode I contemplate why the things we suck at could actually be special talents in disguise, and how we can shift our mindset around our perceived deficits in order to better face the challenges of our artistic journeys.

Link from this episode: 

The Binary Code Shop

I'm not really sure how to summarize this episode, y'all...but you'll want to listen!

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Sometimes it can be difficult to see how our own societies and cultures influence us. I have this trick I use to help reveal some of those hidden influences that I call the OG Society Thought Experiment. I imagine how a small pre-capitalist "original society" would have functioned and compare that to my modern capitalist society. Today I use this thought experiment to explore different ways to frame how and why we share our art with the world.

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In this episode I take stock of where I am in my creative journey as I contemplate what lies beyond the dreams we hold for ourselves. Are dreams holding us back? Do they ultimately make our lives less happy and satisfying?

W.H. Auden's poem, The More Loving One

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Notice: The Kishōtenketsu Workshop I am doing with Andy Mort is coming up next week! You can find more info and sign up a this link. 

In this episode I discuss two women I've learned about recently who are lights in the dark for me. They inspire me to keep going through tough times, and to not lose hope. Table tennis phenom Zhiying Zeng, who is making her Olympic debut in Paris this summer at the age of 58, reminds me that it's worth it to try for a dream a second time around. And singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles, whose wonderful song "Brave" is worthy of the number one spot on the charts even if it didn't make it that far, reminds me that if we let go of our attachment to specific outcomes, we allow for even better things to happen.