Cynthia Morris's Blog, page 35

A deep way to commit to your writing practice

How to stick with a practice – a writing practice, an art practice, a meditation practice – this is the recurring challenge for all of us, isn’t it.

I got this question the other day and wrote out my answer here. I hope this helps you and would love to hear what this sparks in you. Feel free to leave a comment to share your thoughts.

Q: What is the best way to cultivate a true practice? I really want to do 2 hours a day 5 days a week. I do 15 minutes most days now but sometimes I don’t. I found this very easy in the past when I had so many free days, but now i’m running a business and life gets in the way. How do I build up and make this regular? does it have to do with regularity of time spent or a particular place to write or what?

This is a great question, and one many of us have. With many activities and priorities competing for our time, how do we prioritize our creativity?

Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a silver bullet or simple practice that allowed it to be easier? A set and forget it approach where we simply make a plan and stick to it, like a…robot.

Well, we’re not robots and I’ve learned that our practice must be as fluid as life itself. We crave routine but our lives don’t always bend to the structures we devise. Again and again, we fall short of our plans to commit to something regular.

I’ve finally realized that the real game isn’t about how to set something sticky up; instead, it’s about how to recommit consistently when we do fail to show up regularly.

I started to write a listicle of the ways to make a practice work, including schedule the time, go to another location, reduce the amount of time you think you will spend, etc.

Then I realized that I have written all this before. Many times. It’s all in my book, Create Your Writer’s Life. Sure, you may not have heard it from me, but you know these things. Honestly, the external structures are only part of the equation, a minor part. It’s the internal drive that matters.

How to connect deeply so you show up regularly for your work?

• You prioritize your writing because you have something to say.
• Because you deserve to have this creative time.
• Because it fuels you in ways all the other things in life don’t – your creativity is the source of your vitality, and time spent writing feeds your vitality.
• Because you are so into what you are writing that you can’t wait to get to it, like a new lover you can’t get enough of.
• Because you are a person of integrity and you have committed to yourself to write and honoring that commitment is an expression of your integrity.
• Because you’ve done it before and you know what works for you. Do that again. Do what works for you.

Why do you write? Get really clear about your motivation and keep it front and center. Do a 15-minute free-write (as often as needed) with the prompt:

I write because…

And lastly, if I were to offer a suggestion for the external structure, I would say build your writing time slowly over time. From 15 minutes, go to 30 minutes. Do that for a month. Then add another 15 minutes. And on and on until you do have your chunks of time you crave. And it might be that you have several 15 minute sessions a week and a couple of hours-long sessions.

Be less focused on how much time and where and when and on what. What are you writing that seduces you back to the writing desk again and again despite how busy you are? That is the thing that will help you develop your writing practice.

Join us to write every day in February to build or grow your committed writing practice. The Free-Write Fling starts on the 1st but reserve your seat today!

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Write every day with me!

My online writing class, Free-Write Fling, is back in February! If writing is on your list this year and you haven’t honored it yet, this is a great way to do it. Write every day in February to build momentum and word count.

Reserve your spot.

 

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Three favorite books of 2016

I read many books in 2016 – so many good ones! I narrowed down my favorites and published the list in my annual review.

My top three: Fiction: Circling the Sun by Paula McClain about the pioneer aviatrix Beryl Markham; non-fiction: Zen Seeing, Zen Drawing by Frederick Franck – a re-read to prep for my Drawing as Meditation class and I loved every word, and finally, a memoir – Dear Mr. You by Mary Louise Parker, so clever and smart and funny and wise.

Download my annual report for the full list, including a list of books my friends, clients and colleagues published this year. Enter a contest to win a copy of Jonathan Fields’ How to Live a Good Life – great book! Link in profile.

Lastly, I did something scary in my annual review – published a list of books I want to read in 2017, with a link in case you want to treat me to a book. I have never done that before but it seemed right; perhaps you’d like to contribute to my library? More video book reviews to come!

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Recent and current reading

This year I look forward to reading books that stimulate and expand my thinking and spirit more. What are you reading now?

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Video: Peek into one of my 2016 Sketchbooks

A quick peek into my recently finished Sketchbook. Full video on YouTube.

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Artist’s Tarot by Cynthia Morris

At the suggestion of a friend, I made a set of cards for the suit of cups in Tarot. Tarot is a card game that is often used for divination.In the Tarot deck, the suit of cups pertains to the water realm, ruling the emotions. My cups suit depicts the emotional journey of creating. Cards one through ten lead us through the creative process and the Royal cards serve as guides. Making this set of cards was fun and I hope you enjoy.

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Happy New Year!

My prediction: 2017 will bring out more powerful art than ever. At the suggestion of a friend, I made a set of cards for the suit of cups in Tarot.

Tarot is a card game that is often used for divination. The cups suit pertains to the water realm, ruling the emotions. My cups suit depicts the emotional journey of creating. Cards one through ten lead us through the creative process and the Royal cards serve as guides.

I’ve been using tarot for many years to guide me. Making this set of cards was fun and I hope you enjoy.Let’s start with one. One – The singular clarity of a new idea strikes like a bell. This feeling of creative inspiration gives us great joy and exuberance. 2017 is a 1 year, a time to initiate and act.

What will you make this year?

The singular clarity of a new idea strikes like a bell. This feeling of creative inspiration gives us great joy and exuberance.

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2016 Annual Review – Join Me for Life as a Creative Adventure

It’s been a tradition for many years now to publish an annual review. It’s my chance to look over my year – the people I coached, the classes I taught, the art I made, the things I wrote. In a year, I try a lot of things. Some work. Some don’t. The review process allows me to acknowledge the wins and learn from the losses.

This year I went crazy with my creativity. Combining my essays, illustrations and photos, together with my designer Kate Glover, I produced a Life As a Creative Adventure, a magazine-style review. Seventy pages long, it’s packed with stories of my adventures in Paris, Barcelona, the online classroom and my studio in Denver.

This year, I made it fun with contests sponsored by my favorite brands. You’ll have the chance to win goodies from Sketchbook Skool, Rockport shoes, Good Life Project, Two Hands Paperie, Haiku Bags and Copper Cup.

Download your copy here and inspire your own creative adventures.

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Celebrate your creativity this holiday season

Taking a break with notebooks is great self-care

The holidays are often stressful, with too many social obligations, too many presents to buy and too many conflicting things vying for our attention. We often come to the end of the year and feel disappointment for all the things that didn’t happen.

But what if we reframed it? What if this time of year were the chance to get really clear on what’s important to us? That’s the theme of holiday classic movies like It’s A Wonderful Life. What if we didn’t need a crisis or a holiday to live every day as our wonderful life?

For creative people, this can be a great time to assess our creative vitality. What did we put energy into? How did our actions fuel our creative work?

Take a look at your daily activities. Check out:

• what you ate
• what you read
• what you listened to
• who you hung out with
• what activities you did in your town.

Do these things align with what you care about and what you want to create? This isn’t meant to be an opportunity for your inner critic to bring you down; instead, an opportunity to recommit to doing what you can to craft an environment that serves your creative vitality.

When I did this through my annual review process, I saw a lot of things that contributed to my life as a creative adventure. And there were some things that detracted from my satisfaction with my life and work. It’s a chance to commit to new things next year that feed my soul and art.

Do you take good care of your creative self? If so, make this holiday season a chance to honor your creative exuberance. Whatever you did this year to write, make art, and make yourself the best version you can be, celebrate that.

I celebrate you and your creativity wholeheartedly. I’m raising a toast to you from Denver!

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Annual Reviews from Original Impulse Friends

As the year drew to a close, I hosted a webinar about how and why one might do an annual review. For myself, I find that this process gives me more confidence and more insight about what is working and what I want to do the following year. It’s invaluable in a time when decision making seems more and more difficult.

My magazine-style annual review is coming out next week. I invited the webinar participants to share a link to their annual reviews. This is a roundup of those who submitted their links to me. It’s fun to read them; peeking into someone else’s process always provokes insights and ideas for our own work. Enjoy!

Kathleen O’Brien

Tara Leaver

Lee Ann Hilbrich

Debbie Tebovich

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