Matthew Wayne Selznick's Blog, page 2
May 1, 2019
Here I Am
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Published on May 01, 2019
Index under creativity, living poetically, mental health, personal, stress
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Published on May 01, 2019
Index under creativity | living poetically | mental health | personal | stress
Join the conversation! There are 0 comments so far.
Hey, look! I redesigned my website for the I-dunno-how-many-ith time!
And no, that’s not what — or the only thing — I’ve been doing since November of 2018.
But I have been away from this site. From blogging. From podcasting. From creating for myself; for you.
I wasn’t going to make a big deal out of it. My plan was to quietly re-launch my site, not even announce anything, and simply start publishing blog posts and Sonitotum episodes again. Like I’d never not been doing just that. Like I hadn’t gone radio silent for five months.
Then, this morning, I was perusing the “your memories” section of that popular, intrusive, evil social network / virtual city-state (you know the one), and I came across a very kind comment about my writing — specifically my blog / website writing — from a decade ago.
“…your writing is so genuine and crystal clear, I could read for hours. It’s a rare thing, so often I read prose that sounds like it is trying to impress, but yours feels as though it was effortless – and I know it’s not.” ~ Phil Clevenger
Now, look, I know I don’t suck. I’ve got award nominations and lots of pretty stars on Amazon.com.
I’ve had people compliment me on my writing before. I’m grateful for the recognition; usually I acknowledge it, and express my gratitude, and everyone goes on with their day.
But this morning… after being away from every one of my creative outlets for ‘pert near half a year… to see those kind words from ten(!) years ago…
Y’know what happened?
I wept.
I fuckin’ wept.
Why?
I don’t have to go too deep or search myself for all that long to really understand why Phil’s generous compliment cracked me like an egg.
It’s these last six months.
It’s where I’m at in my creative and personal life, right now.
It’s that I’ve been here before.
“No sir,” as Mr. Horse once said, “I don’t like it.”
What happened since November 2018?
Well, friends, that’s personal.
I’m all about transparency, but undiscerning transparency is rarely useful and, at its most reckless, erodes rather than strengthens intimacy.
So you, dear reader, get the broad stokes: there was death, and travel, and death again, and betrayal, and friendships lost, and Life Changes (emphasis caps not optional), and transitions, and lots and lots of drama.
I experienced profoundly jarring disappointment in the David Whyte-ian sense of the word:
Disappointment is just the initial meeting with the frontier of an evolving life, an invitation to reality, which we expected to be one particular way and turns out to be another, often something more difficult, more overwhelming and strangely, in the end, more rewarding. — from Consolations — The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words, which is kind of my I Ching… or… catechism.
I’m still working on accepting that invitation. Literally and figuratively, I have not moved entirely into the new reality.
I’m living in a state of unsettled dissonance.
One undeniable and particularly aggravating result is a complete moratorium of all creative writing, music, podcasting, art… everything.
I could look to the upheaval of the last six months and say, “That’s why I haven’t done anything creative.”
But here’s the plain truth: I have surrendered my agency to the vagaries of the last six months.
I joined the chaos parade instead of stepping back, climbing the bleachers, and watching it splash past.
Shit, I built a fucking float.
Anyway.
Toward the end of last year, I jotted down some objectives for 2019. For some of those objectives, I assigned their completion to specific quarters of this year.
The first quarter of 2019, which was fraught with leftover nonsense from the last quarter of 2018 and brand new nonsense, slipped past with my main creative objective (completion of the first draft of Light of the Outsider) not just undone, but untouched.
Instead, when I did carve out creative time for myself, I worked on the new design of this site. This allowed me to do something creative that didn’t require the mental and emotional commitment writing fiction demands. I could justify it, too, for a new site would be an opportunity to refine my online proxy and reorganize my various creative and professional foci. I’ll write more about that in a future post; probably the next one.
Anyway… the site is launched. But now it’s May.
The second quarter of 2019 is one-third spent, and it’s getting to me.
For at least a couple of months, I’ve noted all my usual signals that burnout and anxiety and depression are beginning to accrete around my emotional and mental health.
I shunted them aside. Shit to do. Obligations and expectations, tangible and assumed, to fulfill.
I guess it took Phil’s ten-year-old kindness to really feel the weight of all that orbiting, coalescing detritus.
Because ten years ago, I was similarly miserable, similarly overwhelmed, similarly wobbling on my axis.
I’ve had a decade to figure that shit out and not let it happen again.
And yet, here we are.
But this time, I’m “of a certain age.” There are different definitions for that phrase, but right now I’m going with “the age when your contemporaries start to die from causes other than accidental.”
Death is all around. Yeah, sure, it’s always all around. But the bottom of the hourglass is noticeably more crowded than the top. Anyone could be next, and that includes me.
So. It’s time to figure it out. It’s time to build new practices, intuit new rituals, and recognize new metaphors.
It’s time, once again, to show up.
Again.
Break’s over.
What does that mean in the context of this site, Scribtotum, Sonitotum, Hazy Days and Cloudy Nights, Light of the Outsider, and all the rest of my… stuff?
It means I’ll address, and incrementally add to, something creative every day of the week. Not placeholder-creative stuff like developing or eternally tinkering with this website. Shippable stuff.
I’ll talk about it here, and probably in episodes of Sonitotum, especially when talking about it can be done in a way that teaches.
Beyond that, though… one thing I have learned is to not promise specifics. I don’t think most folks are keeping track, anyway, and when I announce a personal creative project and it doesn’t play out the way I expected, I end up demoralized and deflated and much less likely to stay positive and productive.
It’s the best I can do. Which is more than I’ve been doing.
Here I am.
I’m back.
Hi.
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September 8, 2018
Sonitotum with Matthew Wayne Selznick Episode 011: Your Invitation To the Autumn Project (2018)
This episode of Sonitotum is also a Scribtotum article. This is the first time I’m “crossing the streams” between my podcast and my blog… combining the streams, really… but just like those big annual comic book crossovers where Nothing Will Ever Be The Same, This Is Not A Dream. Not An Imaginary Story.
It’s an Event.
Was that all a little overboard with the comic book references?
Did I really need to use emphasis capitalization?
Are ya with me?
I’m trying something out.
I need your help to make it work.
The Autumn Project (2018)
September through December, 2018, I’m going to plan and draft my next novel.
Thing is, on my own, I’m terrible at building and maintaining a consistent writing practice. Just awful.
If you’ve been part of my community for a while, you know the last time I published a novel was over five years ago, and it’s been four years since I released any kind of fiction at all.
I’m the Prince of Procrastination. The Fauntleroy of False Starts. If a creative life was an obstacle course, I’d have mud all over me and be tangled in barbed wire… which is among the reasons I declared a creative reset at the end of April of this year.
Since then, I’ve managed to meet and exceed my goal of putting out (on average) two episodes of Sonitotum per month. And since July, I’ve been writing new installments of Hazy Days and Cloudy Nights: “How It All Got Started” for my Patreon patrons. I’ve composed and recorded some music. And I’ve written over twenty five thousand words of Scribtotum articles and Sonitotum show notes.
I think I’ve warmed up. The training wheels are getting wobbly. I can see farther down the road.
It’s time to tackle another novel.
For all the reasons I wrote above, I don’t think I can do it alone.
I’ll Share Everything. You Keep Me Honest.
I need some accountability.
So I’m opening the doors, pulling up the blinds, and turning on all the lights.
In the interest of transparency and vulnerability, in the spirit of teaching as I learn, and with a beginner’s mind, I’ll share every step of planning and writing this novel with Sonitotum listeners and my Patreon patrons.
Weekly Autumn Project Minisodes of Sonitotum
Every week, beginning the week ending September 15, 2018, I’ll record a brief episode of Sonitotum reviewing my progress across the preceding seven days. My Patreon patrons, as they do with every episode of the podcast, will get the uncut and unexpurgated editions of those shows a few days before an edited version goes out to the general public.
In the show notes, I’ll share resources and tools I’m using, as well as limited work-in-progress screenshots and sneak peeks.
Patrons Get Fly-On-The-Wall Access
For my Patreon patrons pledging $3.00 per month or more, I’ll provide a live stream during each writing session (usually daily).
When I say “fly on the wall,” I mean it.
You will see what I see on my computer screen, and you’ll see me in a smaller picture-in-picture.
To be perfectly clear: you will be able to witness every moment of the actual creation of the novel, from working with software, to outlining and brainstorming, through writing the first draft.
With the added bonus of watching me run the gamut of various versions of my scrunched up and often befuddled Creator FaceTM.
Additionally, you can chat with other viewers during the live stream! I’ll chime in a bit here and there, too, but remember, I’m supposed to be writing!
What If You Miss a Live Stream?
Can’t make it to watch as it happens? My Patreon patrons who pledge $5.00 per month will have access to an archive of the Autumn Project (2018) live video sessions they can watch after the fact!
What’s the Novel About?
The book I’ll be writing is Light of the Outsider. It’s part of my Shaper’s World storyworld, a wholly original fantasy setting where three different hominid species struggle to coexist while arcane powers from Outside threaten everything.
In Light of the Outsider, a group of desperate people are thrown together to rescue an infant prince before ethnic, international, and magickal pressures can threaten the stability of the entire continent and millions of lives.
If George R. R. Martin and James Ellroy had a grubby back alley love child and lovingly fed him rusty typewriter keys and candy soot, that stunted sport might write something like Light of the Outsider.
I’m gonna do it instead.
Light of the Outsider is the first of six planned Shaper’s World novels… if this one gets done, and folks want more.
It’s a long time simmering, this book. It’s time to get cooking.
Do You Have To Be A Patron To Support The Autumn Project (2018)?
You don’t have to be a patron to support my efforts in the Autumn Project (2018).
You can subscribe to the podcast and get weekly, albeit edited, reports of my progress, and your comments and feedback will certainly be appreciated.
You can follow my progress in the broadest sense via progress bars on my site.
You can become a patron at the $1.00 per month pledge level and get the unedited episodes of Sonitotum, but you won’t get access to the real-time streaming video writing sessions.
Your $3.00 per month pledge gets you in… your $5.00 per month pledge gets you everything... but I welcome any and all support at any level. The most important thing to me is that you’re there with me, keeping me accountable.
If you want the full experience of total access so you can witness the birth of a novel in real time, you should…
Go All Access!
Help me keep my butt in the chair through the end of 2018.
Help make sure I get writing, and keep writing.
In return, you’ll get to see everything involved in planning, plotting, and writing a novel, from start to finish.
Become my patron for only $3.00 per month and you’ll get
access to the live streaming video writing sessions
uncut, unedited Autumn Project (2018) episodes of Sonitotum — and uncut versions of all other episodes as well!
bonus content like worldbuilding materials, notes, and other material related to creating Light of the Outsider
all the other perks of being a patron, including
installments of my Sovereign Era serial Hazy Days and Cloudy Nights: “How It All Got Started”
uncut past and future episodes of Sonitotum
every digital product I release during your patronage
…and more!!
If you’re already a patron but you’re not pledging at the $3.00 per month level, be sure to upgrade your pledge so you get access to the live streaming video feed!
Want to watch pre-recorded video streams? Upgrade to the $5.00 per month pledge level!
Here Comes a Novel!
I need you. Will you come along with me on the Autumn Project (2018)?
Thanks!

The post Sonitotum with Matthew Wayne Selznick 011: Your Invitation To the Autumn Project (2018) appeared first on the official website of author and creator Matthew Wayne Selznick. Visit his site for more articles, podcasts, and other content to help you stay human as you build a successful and healthy writing life.






July 13, 2018
Neo-Patronage Revisited: Patreon and the Community of Friends and Fans
I first wrote about Patreon in December of 2013, when the neo-patronage site was barely half a year old. I’ve had a Patreon page since that time, but only this year really started considering it as part of my toolkit (as any regular reader or listener has undoubtedly noticed).
In talking with other creative folks, I realize that not everyone understands Patreon, or even what I mean when I refer to “neo-patronage.”
What Is Neo-Patronage?
I pretty thoroughly explain neo-patronage in that first article about Patreon. If you want a capsule definition, this will work:
neo-patronage / neopatronage:
An economic model in which dedicated community members pledge ongoing periodic monetary contributions to support a creator (writer, artist, musician, filmmaker, podcaster, et al). In return, the creator offers benefits (usually content or access) available only to patrons.
What makes neo-patronage different from the good ol’ patronage that’s been around pretty much since some humans first became rich and some other humans first made art?
The “classic” version of patronage involved one wealthy person supporting a creator or creators, often with the expectation that the creator would produce specific works for the patron. The “house artist,” if you will. Michelangelo and da Vinci, for example, both benefited from patronage. This still happens today.
Technology made patronage available to the masses.
Now, through neo-patronage, rather than a single person, family, or foundation providing substantial financial support to an individual creator, many, many people can pledge small amounts of money — pocket change, in many cases — to one or many creators.
What is neo-patronage? An economic model where community members pledge ongoing monetary contributions to support a creator. In return, the creator offers benefits available only to patrons.
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The Benefits of Neo-Patronage for Creators Like You
If you’re reading this and you’re a creator, it’s a safe bet that you have some kind of “real” job in addition to your job of making stuff.
For most, that’s because a quote-unquote real job offers a seemingly consistent and reliable flow of income. At the end of every pay period, you can expect to be paid. You know how long the pay period is, and you can allocate your funds accordingly so that, ideally, you don’t run out of money before the next injection of cash.
If you’re an artist asking others to compensate you in exchange for owning or experiencing your art (in other words, you sell books, paintings, tickets to plays or rock shows, and so on), payday for your creative job only comes when the art is completed and offered to the world… if at all!
Until then, for however long it takes you to make the thing, you’re investing time, and energy, and, often, money.
Neo-patronage, especially as facilitated through Patreon, provides a buffer of income that smooths out the often uneven ebb and flow of most creators’ fortune, just like a paycheck from a “real job.” For some creators, the cumulative income from patrons equals and even dwarfs what they might have been paid in a traditional job.
This is very compelling. I dream of reaching a point where I can dedicate all of my time to the mission of helping other creators, and making more of my own creative works. I’ll reach that point when patrons cumulatively pledge between five and ten thousand dollars per month.
What could you do if your patrons eliminated the need for that pesky other job?
The Benefits of Neo-Patronage for Your Community of Friends and Fans
If there’s one thing I’ve learned being an online creator for two decades, it’s that the people who appreciate your work feel connected to it, and to you.
It helps, of course, if you strive to be an accessible and transparent creator, to the extent that you’re comfortable with that. As I’ve written elsewhere, building a community where you (as creator) and your fans (as consumers) are treated as partners and peers is much more effective and authentic than cultivating a disconnected audience.
A connected community is naturally invested, emotionally, in your success. They want you to make more of the stuff they love, and so, they’re often willing to financially invest, too.
In return, it behooves you to give back in a way that matters to them.
What that means is going to depend on what you make, and why your patrons love what you make, and what they value most about you and your work. It might not be what you think… so if you can (perhaps through your mailing list or via social media), ask them!
Above all, provide value.
Right now, I’m offering my patrons uncut, unexpurgated editions of each episode of Sonitotum a few days before the edited / shorter version is released to the public, plus exclusive access to my serial fiction project, and everything I create that I release in electronic format… plus opportunities for group and one-on-one hangouts with me to talk about whatever they want.
I’m always thinking about other perks and rewards I can offer. As my patron community grows, I’ll hear more from them as to what they want, and I’ll do my best to accommodate them.
Why Patreon?
Patreon is, at its core, a payment processing platform with some bells and whistles that make it easy to manage a pledge-and-reward system. Some have described it as a payment processor with a social network attached, and while that’s simplifying things, it’s not incorrect.
Patreon has two models of patronage: pay by the month (a membership approach), and pay per creation. With both options, it handles keeping track of pledges and payments for you, automatically, and delivers the funds to you via direct deposit.
If you want to incorporate some kind of neo-patronage system but don’t want to use Patreon, there are plugins for your self-hosted, WordPress-based site that you can install and set up. These will all cost you money to license and maintain.
Rather not spend money? Patreon earns their keep by taking a percentage of each pledge; you don’t have to pay them anything out of pocket and they handle the infrastructure.
Once upon a time, I might have encouraged DIY, independent creators to do as much themselves as possible. I’m wiser now: whenever possible, use tools that allow you to reserve your time and energy for the most important thing: making more stuff.
So yes, you can roll your own membership site (rolling your own patronage site is more problematic!), but you’re better served — and more importantly, your community of friends and fans is better served — by taking advantage of an established, recognized platform that will do all that heavy lifting for you.
Patreon Patron Access On Your Own Website
If you want the best of both worlds — a Patreon account that handles all the sticky bits involved with getting patron pledges into your deserving bank account and a way for patrons to have exclusive access to content on your own website — there’s an inexpensive WordPress plugin for that. I use it myself to control access to my patron-only serial fiction and other content. Note that you will need to set up your Patreon account first!
How Patreon Helps Build Connection Between You and Your Community
As I mentioned above, your community of friends and fans loves having special access to you and your creative process. Patreon has a few add-on tools that help foster that connection.
Voice and Text Chat. Through an integration with the free Discord chat service, you can have a dedicated chat server for you and your patrons. You can even control access to different channels on the server based on a patron’s pledge level. I just set up a Discord server for my patrons and I’m looking forward to seeing what it does for engagement. Pretty neat!
Lens. If you’ve ever created an Instagram or Facebook Story, you get Lens: very short video clips and / or photographs that exist for twenty four hours before auto-deleting. Lens might be perfect for showing a sneak peak at a work in progress, or delivering very quick status updates to patrons. Creators and patrons make and view Lens clips, respectively, via the Patreon mobile app.
Live Streaming. Patreon encourages creators to use the Crowdcast service to create live streaming video experiences for patrons. The live video integrates with your Patreon page, making a real-time, interactive access experience a fairly straightforward experience. However, Crowdcast is not free. For a free alternative, if you have a YouTube channel, check to see if you’re authorized to create and broadcast live streams through that platform.
Will You Make Neo-Patronage Through Patreon One Of Your Revenue Streams?
So what do you think? As independent creators, we know how important it is to have multiple streams of income flowing from our creative endeavors. Will you make Patreon one of those streams? Why or why not?
Are you already employing neo-patronage through Patreon? How’s it working out for you?
Let’s talk about it in the comments!
The post Neo-Patronage Revisited: Patreon and the Community of Friends and Fans appeared first on the official website of author and creator Matthew Wayne Selznick. Visit his site for more articles, podcasts, and other content to help you stay human as you build a successful and healthy writing life.






June 13, 2018
Six Podcasts and Websites To Fill Your Creative Well
There are dozens, or maybe scores, of creative writing podcasts, and undoubtedly thousands of creative writing websites with blogs.
Most of the podcasts deal with indie publishing and marketing more than they deal with the actual craft of writing, and a good deal of the websites are launched by first-time or aspiring authors in order to, at least in part, build an audience for their upcoming publications… and by the way, writing articles aimed at other writers is not the best way to go about building an audience for your first book if your first book isn’t actually written for other writers!
But that, perhaps, is a rant best reserved for another day. Or maybe I’ve said all I need to say about it. Should I elaborate? Let me know in the comments!
I’ve listened to most of those podcasts and read many of those websites at one point or another over the last fourteen years. There comes a time when they collectively reach a point of diminishing returns, saying much the same things in slightly different ways.
The turning point came for me when I started hearing and reading other people quote me (without attribution or perhaps even awareness that they were quoting anyone) on a few different podcasts. It’s a sort of compliment that’s also a sign of how far I’ve wandered from the zeitgeist factory.
To be fair, I’m at that weird “experienced beginner” point on the twisty, switchback-heavy path of my creative career, so it makes sense that I’ve had my fill of podcasts and websites dedicated to nuts and bolts marketing advice and thick with “let’s be on each other’s podcasts” indie author cross-promotion.
I’m looking for something a little different.
I’m looking for what makes people tick — especially creative people.
I’m looking to get a glimpse of the creative process.
I’m looking for common threads and themes and subject matter that points to commonalities between creators across generations.
I’m looking for new ideas.
I’m looking for inspiration!
Here are some of the places I find these things. Even if you’re still soaking up the “how to” and marketing podcasts and websites for writers and other creators, I recommend you check these out.
Six Podcasts and Websites for Ideas, Inspiration, and Insight for Writers and Creators
Brain Pickings is Maria Popova‘s self-described “inventory of the meaningful life.” I think of it as curated fuel for human empathy. Several times a week, she highlights an essay, poem, talk, or book from somewhere within the last two hundred years or so that describes a facet of the human experience, usually tying it to similar pieces by other creators from other generations. The value is not only in the exposure to lesser-known treasures from (mostly) Western literature, but also the tapestry of connected creative thought that emerges from the loom of her collective effort.
On Being and The On Being Project are from the inquisitive and thoughtful mind of Krista Tippett and her collaborators. On Being is heard on about four hundred National Public Radio stations, but I prefer the podcast feed, especially the “unheard cuts” version of each episode, which is presented completely unedited, always includes more content than the edited-for-radio version, and inspired me to provide an unedited edition of my own podcast for my patrons. The overarching theme of both the audio and blog content is, broadly speaking, an exploration of what it means to be human, especially, but not exclusively, through the lens of belief and spirituality, with a supplemental foci on poetry, literature, race, and science. Always inspiring; sometimes challenging; often delightful.
WTF with Marc Maron is the actor / writer / comedian’s interview podcast, mostly featuring other actors and comedians. I take in a lot of interviews via podcast, radio, and television, so believe me when I say that Marc Maron is one of the finest conversationalists working today. Vulnerable, transparent, empathetic, and ruthlessly self-aware, Marc brings out the same qualities in his guests. I don’t know of any other venue in any media (with the possible exception of Inside The Actors’ Studio ) that reveals the history, personality, and processes of creative people with as much raw truth as WTF. You will learn things about making things. (Also… I can’t be alone in thinking that Marc Maron should be a guest on On Being, can I?)
In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg is a BBC Radio 4 show that is, thankfully for the rest of the world, also a podcast with over eight hundred episodes and counting. In each, Bragg assembles a casual panel of experts to provide a comprehensive overview of a single topic in “the history of ideas” covering culture, history, philosophy, religion, and science. Under the host’s deft direction, in under an hour the guests deliver an education that’s as densely packed as it is entertaining. And kudos to the BBC for providing an alphabetized list of every show… it’s like having a condensed and free version of The Great Courses at your finger… or, ear… tips. A must for all creators, but especially fiction writers… if your storytelling motor doesn’t rev up with new ideas while listening, I don’t even wanna know ya.
OtherPPL with Brad Listi is for authors what WTF is for actors and comedians. Listi focuses mostly on literary authors. I sincerely hope that doesn’t turn off my readers who mostly consume genre fiction, because, much like Marc Maron, Listi gets to the heart of his subjects and coaxes out honest, “real talk” conversations. Another show that puts emphasis on a creator’s background and creative process, which is always enlightening and inspiring to hear. His introductory monologues, again, like Maron’s, are endearing and almost always wry and funny. And hey, would it hurt you to be turned on to some lit-fic, dear reader? I think not.
Selected Shorts presents an hour of short stories, usually sharing a theme, read before a live studio audience by an accomplished television, film, or television actor like Richard Kind, Alec Baldwin, Cynthia Nixon, Sigourney Weaver, and many others. Why include a fiction podcast in this particular recommended list? Because consuming fiction is one of the best ways to learn fiction, and hearing fiction read well can sneak it closer to your critical brain for analysis and deconstruction… and it doesn’t get any better than this. (One of my most cherished memories was watching Leonard Nimoy read Raymond Carver’s “Lemonade” live at the Getty Center many years ago… now, when I read Carver, I hear Nimoy’s voice…)
What Podcasts and Websites Inspire You?
I’m always open to more websites and podcasts that deal with the more human side of creativity. What are you consuming that fits that bill? Share with everyone by dropping a link or three in the comments. Remember, I’m not so interested in the standard “how to be a writer / self-publishing marketing” stuff. And yes, if you’re making something like the sites and podcasts I’ve mentioned, you’re welcome to promote your thing, too.
Also, are you listening to, or reading, any of the resources I spotlight in this post? I’d love to hear about it.
The post Six Podcasts and Websites To Fill Your Creative Well appeared first on the official website of author and creator Matthew Wayne Selznick. Visit his site for more articles, podcasts, and other content to help you stay human as you build a successful and healthy writing life.






May 27, 2018
Rituals, Habits, and Practices To Beat Back the Blues and Get Back to Making Stuff
I struggle with maintaining a regular creative practice. The reasons vary (fatigue, redirections, assumed responsibilities, and so on), and the underlying reasons for the reasons are complex (depression, lack of confidence, anxiety, and so on). And of course, when I get into hyper-critical self-assessment mode, I am selective when it comes to which creative accomplishments are actually valid.
After all, I’ve been creating high value podcasts and blog posts with consistency for nearly two months straight, haven’t I?
That counts!
Doesn’t it???
But then… I start to think about the unfinished-for-years short stories and novels… and the shadows start to creep in.
They got pretty dense recently, those shadows, so that’s my cue to figure out why, and remind myself of how I’ve dealt with it in the past.
I recently heard from a number of people in an online writers’ group that their number one creative challenge was anxiety and depression, so it’s my hope that sharing what works for me might help you, too.
Rituals, Habits, and Practices
If I’m honest with myself, the last time I consistently felt pretty good about myself — healthy, happy, and productive — was over a year ago, in the early summer of 2017.
Thinking back, I had some specific rituals, habits, and practices I employed that kept me feeling the most like myself and kept anxiety and depression at bay… but still allowed me to be open, empathic, and emotional.
Defining the Terms
Definitions for rituals, habits, and practices could overlap or feel interchangeable. Here’s how I think of them:
Rituals are actions with an associated metaphoric and poetic meaning. Prayer is a ritual. Lighting a candle in the name of an intention is a ritual. Rubbing the belly of the Buddha for luck is a ritual.
Habits are actions repeated so often as to be done nearly without thinking, or without conscious or directed effort. In this context, of course, we’re talking about positive habits. Brushing your teeth before bed is a habit.
Practices are regular actions that strengthen or improve a particular skill feature.
For me, rituals, habits, and practices do, indeed, blend and overlap. We’ll get into that.
“Wherefore he sought to have that by practice, that he could not by prayer.” — Sir Philip Sidney
You Do You — No One Else Will Do
Rituals, habits, and practices — systems of meaningful and positive behavior — have great power against anxiety, depression, and their offspring, procrastination. But here’s something I’ve learned: no single solution is going to work perfectly for you.
You’ve got to figure out what you respond to… and I’ll tell you right now (as evidenced by the need for me to write this article), even if you do figure out what works for you, it might not work forever. Perhaps the most important practice is being self-aware, so you can recognize diminishing returns and adjust accordingly.
It’s important to actually know yourself, the good and the bad. To be as conscious of, and conscientious with, our mental health as we are regarding our physical health.
Brains, Body… Both!
When there’s something physically wrong with our bodies, we take appropriate action.
If you’re nearsighted, you don’t fumble around in the world pretending you can see just fine.
You put on some glasses.
If you have a broken arm, you sit out a few baseball games while you wear a cast, then a sling, and then probably get some physical therapy.
It’s important to treat our emotional health the same way, starting with understanding how it gets messed up in the first place.
If you’re experiencing a mental or emotional health issue… newsflash, friends: that’s also a physical health issue.
Your emotions and mood aren’t ephemeral states imposed upon us by daemons and geni. They’re of your body; the result of a complicated wash of chemicals across your brain, gut, and endocrine system.
Sometimes — and this is a gross oversimplification, but roll with it — things get out of whack.
We know what to do for a broken arm. For nearsightedness. For a stiff neck.
We treat the problem. Often, we’re proactive about preventing the problem from happening again, or at least minimizing its effects if it does.
Similarly, there’s often something we can do for our anxiety, our depression, and the other situational or chronic emotional maladies that keep us from being productive creators.
Here’s where I throw in what should be obvious: I’m not offering medical advice. You should seek professional help for any mental illness. What works for me might not work for you.
That said: I know things go better for me when I engage in some particular rituals, habits, and practices.
What (Usually / Often) Works For Me, and Why
I know, usually, exactly how I wander off the emotionally healthy path, and I know what to do (and not do) to get back on it.
Diet
Most obvious for me: when I don’t eat right, my mood suffers. This is especially true if I have stuff with too much processed sugar or grains.
Here’s the science: processed and refined sugars and grains are inflammatories that have adverse effects on the gastrointestinal, immune, and neurological systems of human beings. Inflammation is an immunological defense mechanism that upsets a whole convoy of biological apple carts.
The trouble is, our brains (which often don’t know what’s good for us… ironic, no?) really, really love sugars, and foods (like grains) that convert easily into sugar in our bodies, because to our brains, it’s like we hit a gusher of metabolic energy and we’re all gonna be (metabolically speaking) rich!
So we crave it. Especially when we’re accustomed to getting it.
But sugar, especially, is also food for depression, anxiety, and even schizophenia.
And man, I feel it. If I succumb to a before-bed ice cream or graham crackers snack (not at the same time… I’m not a savage), the next morning I wake up horribly sluggish, with a stuffed up nose, physically sore, and (no wonder) emotionally glum. It’s a vicious circle, too: the physical lethargy triggers emotional lethargy; rinse, repeat.
So how do I make sure this temptation doesn’t send me straight to hell? #hyperbole #sortof
It’s not just enough to not have refined sugar or grains in the house. After all, there’s a convenience store, um… conveniently(?) just a three minute walk away.
I need to have alternatives readily at hand that scratch the same itch.
If I’m snacky, that means (for me) fruit like strawberries and blueberries, and dark chocolate (80% cacao or higher). Cashews are good, too.
I don’t really crave grains / breads… but stuff that includes dough, usually highly processed dough? That’s another matter. Hello, pizza, I’m looking at you! I go into eating pizza knowing that it’ll probably be okay unless I’ve already been otherwise off my dietary game. But I usually skip the crust. Pizza dough is a delivery system for cheese and other yummy horrible things, nothing more.
Maintaining a diet that’s good for my mental health is one of those things that’s both a practice and a habit.
If you’re accustomed to regularly consuming sugars and grains, cutting them out is likely going to be a challenge! Again, our brain loves the stuff! You’re going to have cravings… maybe for a week, maybe for two. You may even feel flu-like symptoms for a bit, but they will pass.
Once you get over the hump, though, you will likely experience a host of benefits, including improved focus, mood, sleep habits, and even (probably not surprising) weight loss. And as an added bonus, naturally sweet things like fruit will begin to taste sweeter!
You’ll need to adopt a dedicated practice at first… but as your body and mind begin to reap the benefits, eating a diet mostly free of refined sugars and grains will become a habit.
A couple of things worth mentioning about any dietary adjustments:
After an initial detox period (Whole30 is popular for this), I don’t recommend trying to fanatically and completely eliminate sugar and grain from your diet. It’s not about denying yourself… it’s about treating yourself right, and knowing yourself. Make the occasional donut a deliberate choice, not a go-to immediate gratification junky fix, and you’ll be all right.
Having said that… beware of backsliding hard during times of stress, or out of convenience. I know of which I speak! My belly fat testifies! Again: know yourself. Be cognizant!
Exercise
Does this seem obvious?
Does that make it easier to actually exercise?
Probably not. Not for me, anyway.
Physical exercise does so much more than build strength and help you lose weight. Exercise measurably improves mood in the short term, and even helps alleviate long-term depression and anxiety.
The reasons are complicated, and I believe it has everything to do with the fact that we’re essentially omnivorous primates that evolved to hunt and gather in a relatively unstable and changing environment, including a semi-arid savanna / grassland.
We are optimized to exert ourselves both in short, intense bursts, and over extended periods of time. Humans might not be the fastest animal, but we can push our bodies to operate in an extreme state longer than pretty much any other land animal on the planet.
There are rewards for this, biochemically: we are good at catch prey because we can chase them until they literally die of exhaustion… and we can avoid becoming prey because we can run away long enough that we’re just not worth eating anymore.
Maybe this is, in part, why we feel a mood boost — a rush of endorphins, the “euphoria” brain chemical — when we exercise: the brain wants to reward behavior that keeps it alive.
Exercise also produces serotonin, which is directly related to initiative and willpower. That sounds like a great counter to anxiety and depression, two forces in our brains that work to drain our vitality.
“The opposite of depression is not happiness, but vitality…”— Andrew Solomon
Remember, though… your brain ultimately wants to do the thing that conserves energy and protects the safe, secure status quo. And your brain is stupid — it doesn’t know the difference between deliberate stress with a potentially positive outcome and no physical danger (like exercise, or facing a challenging interpersonal situation, or finishing a freakin’ blog post, darn it…) and, y’know, running like hell to get away from a lion in the tall grass.
So we have to push past our sneaky instincts. Because we can train our stupid brain.
There’s a happy positive feedback loop at work with exercise:
You might not want to exercise because you’re feeling glum and not particularly inspired to do something that sounds like, well, work. That’s your serotonin-starved brain doing the talking.
You tell your brain to shut up for once, and you go for a brisk walk around the block, or do some push-ups and squats in the living room.
IT FEELS ALL RIGHT!
In a few days, you decide you should try that again. Your brain, even though it’s really slow and would rather just sit soaking in warm cerebrospinal fluid getting all wrinkly (well, it’s already kinda wrinkly), remembers how it felt the last time you exercised. It wasn’t so bad… and this time, your brain doesn’t fight so hard to keep you on the couch.
You walk a little farther, do a few more push-ups and squats than last time, or generally exercise a little longer / harder / more than last time.
IT FEELS PRETTY GOOD! In fact, when you’re done, you think maybe you’ll take a look at that short story draft on your laptop!
(repeat a few weeks)
O hai, you’ve lost a little weight, you’re a little physically stronger, and you’ve been sleeping better. If you’re sleeping with someone, that’s been… better… lately. If you’re not sleeping with someone, it feels more like something you might do than it has in a long time. Oh, and you’re making stuff!
Your brain doesn’t complain even a little bit when you wanna exercise. In fact, it nags you a little bit if you let too much time pass since you’ve exercised, because your brain is simple, and it likes the chemical candy you’ve been tossing into its mouth.
GOOD THINGS.
I’ve gotten away from regular exercise myself. That’s, again, one of the reasons I’m writing this post… to hold myself accountable.

So right now, I took a break from writing this article and just did what used to be my preferred, regular routine: a round of body-weight calisthenics that include rotating sets of pushups, squats, pull-ups, and planks, all done “to failure” — in other words, until you absolutely cannot do another rep or hold the plank another second — and with about a minute break between each one. (My legs are wobbly.)
This practice of intense, brief exercise with periods of inactivity and measured, meditative breathing is a variety of interval training. Interval training improves fitness and builds muscle faster than “steady state” cardio where you’re doing essentially the same thing or maintaining the same challenge level over your entire workout. I like it because it mixes things up quickly… and I took to calisthenics because it doesn’t necessarily depend on any equipment, other people, going to a gym, or anything that could serve as procrastination fuel for my lazy-ass brain.
Also, if you’re going to be exercising regularly, don’t forget diet! Your metabolism is going to get faster and more efficient. It’s important that you keep it going with the proper fuel. That’s why I wrote about diet before I wrote about exercise.
It would take another thousand words, at least, to go deep on how diet and exercise co-mingle, so that’s not gonna happen here. Try here, for starters, instead.
Finally, as with diet, and, heck, anything involving your physical and mental health, do not trust me to be an authority. I’m here to share what I know and what I do… but you should do your own research and consult actual physical and mental health professionals so that you’re doing what’s best for you and your health.
Ritual, Metaphor, and Living Poetically
Body and mind are all “body,” one way or another, as I’ve mentioned. In the common vernacular, though, I recognize that both diet and exercise are two things we do with our bodies that have a positive effect on our emotions.
Let’s address ways of thinking that have a positive effect on our emotional health.
First, I gotta say that I have even less authority and expertise in this realm that I do when discussing diet and exercise. As always, I’m only going to talk about what works for me, and some of the reasons why. Your mileage may vary. You might find other things more effective.
My real goal here is to open you up to some useful behavioral tools that might help you build a healthy creative life.
So there’s a really funny skit from Inside Amy Schumer (video link, not safe for work) that pokes fun at the use of “the universe” as shorthand for a kind of quasi-divine instrument of, well, self-serving rationalization. As in, “I really love The Expanse and want it to come back next year, so I asked the universe, and Amazon Prime picked up the show after SciFi cancelled it!”
Thinking something entirely outside of your sphere of influence came to pass because you made, essentially, a wish, is probably some variety of narcissism, at best, and a tragically insecure attempt at establishing one’s sense of control over the world at worst.
However!
We’ve already talked about how the brain is, at its (literal) root, kinda simple-minded (sorry…). It creates our moods (more specifically, our gastro-neurological system creates the chemicals that create our moods) based on stimuli both real and imagined with equal vigor. Watching a violent crisis on the news triggers the same reaction as being physically threatened.
Happily… this can work positively, too!
“The universe” isn’t really going to get you an apricot puggle. But through mental exercises like creative visualization, mindfulness meditation, and behavioral practices like deliberately fostering positive emotions like gratitude and compassion, you can adjust your attitude around the likelihood of your achieving a goal, which, in turn, can elevate your mood, making you more alert to opportunity and more energized to be pro-active when those opportunities present themselves.
To carry the puggle thing along… let’s say you want an apricot puggle, but you don’t have a big enough apartment for a pet. But you keep your eye on the prize. You believe you will eventually get that dog. You have confidence that you will get that dog.
Buoyed by this self-assertion, you work a little harder. You make more money. You can afford a bigger place. You get better hours at work. Until one day, almost as a secondary realization, you look around and think, “hey, I can totally get that apricot puggle I’ve always wanted.” And you do.
Compare this to going through life thinking, “I can never get an apricot puggle.” With a negative worldview, your initiative is diminished. Your tendency toward depression may grow. You don’t work as hard. You stay in the same dead-end job and never move to that bigger place. And yep, you never do get that apricot puggle.
I know, it’s a silly example (stolen from the Amy Schumer video). But I hope you see the point: the attitudes we adopt can, and do, have a direct impact on the life we live.
The form those mental attitudes take is a personal choice. Some folks find religion provides a powerful framework, with prayer, contemplation, and faith serving the purposes of positive emotional practice and creative visualization. Some go the purely scientific / humanist direction.
What matters is that each of us find an approach that works.
For me, I think of it as “living poetically.”
I know the science behind these techniques, and for a long time I got along eating the dry dog food of secular rationality, if you will.
But I was raised Roman Catholic, a tradition rich with ritual and symbolism. I have been a pagan, too… which makes sense, since Catholicism got much of its ritual and symbolism from the pagan belief systems it assimilated.
I like the poetic, metaphorical logic of sympathetic magic. Of signs and portents. Of talismans and objects of power. Of ritual.
I’m comfortable with it.
The forms it takes are personal to me and a very select few. But it works for me, especially when I keep it front of mind. When I make it a practice.
I don’t think I can ask the universe for an apricot puggle. But I do practice gratitude, and I do focus my intentions through meditation and sometimes impromptu ritual, often involving primitive archetypes and “what just feels right.”
I embrace convenient convergences when they happen — signs, omens, and portents, if you will — without literally believing that “the universe” is trying to tell me something. Rather, the act of staying open to metaphor and “poetry” helps me recognize connections I might not otherwise see.
The result is an outlook that helps me stay positive and optimistic, and keeps me open and available to opportunity.
How To Tie It All Together And Beat Back the Blues So You Can Make More Stuff More Often
I know what to do.
It’s no more or less difficult than eating right and exercising regularly. By practicing the deliberate perception of life as full of poetic metaphor and meaningful ritual, I will develop a habit of positive thought, which will make exercising and eating right more appealing because of a generally positive and energized attitude.
It’s a loop, the great worm Ouroboros, that archetype of wholeness and perpetuation.
I’ve seen it all work in my life.
The challenge is maintaining it all.
Each piece — diet, exercise, ritual / mindset — compliments another. Each helps keep the positive feedback loop going.
What’s important is to keep everything balanced. If it seems like that might be a difficult, remember: a tripod can be very stable so long as the object atop is centered… and the object atop stays centered by making sure each leg of the tripod is equidistant — each bearing an equal amount of the weight.
Everything works together.
That doesn’t mean you have to keep everything perfect all the time. That’s the kind of expectation that leads to failure… and it’s tempting to fall into accepting that expectation, because then your lazy, greedy, growth-adverse brain can go back to its old ways. You know where that gets you..!
No, rather than fretting that everything is perfect, look at it holistically: if you ate poorly for a few days, maybe focus a bit more energy on creative visualization and gratitude as you get your dietary practices back on-line. If you’ve been hit by a stretch of misfortune that makes it difficult to feel gratitude or compassion, bypass the temptation to drift into depression by exercising a little more.
And let’s not forget the one element that supercharges all the rest:
Making things.
Make things for yourself, first and above all.
And as you do, count every little win: every new idea; every time you sit at the keyboard; every new melody you hum into the audio recorder on your phone; every sketch; every couplet.
Creativity is a ritual, a habit, a practice. It’s the Brave Thing that your dumb ol’ brain both thrives on and is terrified by.
All your other rituals, habits, and practices support your ability to make stuff.
So stay healthy, and stay positive. Follow the many, many links in this article to learn more about the things I’ve written about. Adopt what works for you, and go go go.
What Are Your Rituals, Habits, and Practices?
I’ve shared what works for me. How about you?
Let me know about your own healthy rituals, habits, and practices that help you maintain mental and physical health.
Or, if things aren’t working for you right now, tell me about that, too.
Together — me, you, and other readers — we can help each other figure this out.
Let’s talk about it… in the comments!
This article and Sonitotum episode 004 compliment one another… you should check it out.
The post Rituals, Habits, and Practices To Beat Back the Blues and Get Back to Making Stuff appeared first on the official website of author and creator Matthew Wayne Selznick. Visit his site for more articles, podcasts, and other content to help you stay human as you build a successful and healthy writing life.






May 8, 2018
WorkFlowy: A Free Creative Writing Tool To Use On Any Device
The mission of Scribtotum is to share what I’m learning in my quest to live a healthy, productive, successful creative writing life. Of all the tools in my virtual kit bag, few help me be healthy, productive, and creative as well, or as frequently, as WorkFlowy.
WorkFlowy describes itself as “a zoomable document that provides unprecedented flexibility in organizing your ideas.”
I bet the fine folks at WorkFlowy spent a lot of time refining that description, for WorkFlowy is one of those deceptively simple tools that appears rather plain at first glance… but in fact, contains multitudes.
Your multitudes! Organized however you’d like, and accessible on pretty much any device, anywhere.
Don’t Call WorkFlowy An Outliner
It might be tempting to call WorkFlowy an outliner (a text editor used to create documents with a hierarchical tree structure for planning / organizing) and leave it at that. And sure, you can create document outlines in WorkFlowy, and it’s really, really good at that. In fact, in just a bit I’ll show how I use it for outlining fiction.
But don’t sell WorkFlowy short — or limit its benefit to you — by thinking WorkFlowy is just, or even primarily, an outliner.
Basic at the Core
Workflowy has two primary content types:
Items
Notes
That’s it!
Items are bulleted content. These can be nested, which is why WorkFlowy most readily resembles an outliner.
Notes are content associated with an individual item.

Any item can be moved anywhere in the document, either up / down or indented / outdented.
Additionally, WorkFlowy employs tags (#todo, for example) and asperands (@JohnDoe, for example) to categorize items and notes, and has functionality to mark items as “completed” (and hide or display completed items at will).
Every parent item can be collapsed to hide all its child items, and every item can be “zoomed in” on to be the only one on the screen.
Everything in WorkFlowy is searchable.
Finally, thanks to a variety of intuitive keyboard shortcuts, to use WorkFlowy all you have to do… is type. So work… flows!
Hmmm…. is that where they got the name..?
From Simplicity… Everything and Anything
WorkFlowy is the encrypted Omega-Level mutant test-tube offspring of a text editor, a to-do list, a notebook, and yes, an outliner and word processor.
It’s my outboard brain. Here are some of the ways I use it:
Calendar
To-Do Lists
Grocery lists
Notepad
Project Planning
URL bookmarking
Brainstorming
Commonplace book
Storyworld bible(s)
Plotting
Outlining
Writing
One of the problems I always run into with more structured organizational systems is that none of them work exactly the way I want to work. That’s one of the best things about WorkFlowy: its simplicity and flexibility allow you to use it in a way that best suits you.
I have over four hundred (and counting) individual items in my WorkFlowy, all organized in a hierarchical, tagged system that makes sense to me. And I can adjust it or change it outright, any time I want, as easily as dragging and dropping.
Creative Writing In WorkFlowy
WorkFlowy is a text editor with some basic formatting (bold, italics, underline) built in. The content you enter into WorkFlowy can be exported as formatted text, plain text, or OPML, so whatever you put into WorkFlowy can be easily transferred to Word or OpenOffice Writer.
What more do you need?
Nothing! But thanks to WorkFlowy’s hierarchical, zoomable document structure, you get lots more.
That’s why I use WorkFlowy more and more as the central repository for my creative writing.
Here’s a glimpse at the top-level items in the Writing parent item of my workflowy account.
Under the fiction item, I have individual items for each of my storyworlds (the distinct milieus in which most of my fiction is set), including several items under the “meta” child item.
Under “meta,” the lists vary according to storyworld, but some common items include characters, places, items, animals, organizations… that’s the “story bible” section of my WorkFlowy.
I also make a new item for each of my works of fiction or non-fiction. I tend to plan novels; short stories I usually make us as I go along and then retro-fit them in a few planning sessions. All of that work is done in WorkFlowy under an item dedicated to that particular work.
The thing I love about writing in WorkFlowy is… well, heck, there are a number of things I love about it:
Everything is within reach: notes, storyworld details, character details, my outline, and the story itself.
My content is synced between platforms in real time, so if I start working on my desktop computer, I can take my laptop to a coffeehouse and pick up exactly where I left off. On the drive over (having pulled over, of course), I could add a note in WorkFlowy on my phone… and see it on the laptop when I sit down with my chai tea latte.
My content is encrypted both in transit between me and WorkFlowy’s servers, and at rest on their servers.
I can export my content in a variety of formats.
Did I mention it’s free for up to 250 items per month (you can pay $5.00 / month or $40 / year for unlimited use, or get 250 additional items per month by recommending WorkFlowy to others)?
But I Already Use EverNote, or Scrivener, or Some Other Note Taker / Outliner
WorkFlowy is designed to be a flexible “offboard brain” for text.
It’s not an EverNote killer; Evernote is built to do something different. If you need to clip and save websites and multimedia and scans of business cards and stuff, use Evernote.
It’s not an outliner-plus-word-processor-plus-ebook-creator; use Scrivener for that (but you’ll need to buy the desktop and mobile versions separately, there’s no Android version, and if you want your different versions to sync, you’ll need a separate Dropbox account…)
The key to what makes WorkFlowy different, and the clue to its purpose, is right there in its name: Work Flow.
Like the best software and hardware tools, WorkFlowy does its job and stays out of your way while it does it, leaving you free to focus on the work itself.
A Jump Start To Fiction Writing In WorkFlowy
WorkFlowy has changed the way I organize things in my everyday life. It’s helped me consolidate from many tools to one. And it’s absolutely boosted my productivity when it comes to being creative and writing.
I want you to reap those benefits, too!
Another of WorkFlowy’s neat features is the ability to share items, or “WorkFlowys,” with other WorkFlowy users.
I’ve adapted the fiction outline template I created for yWriter for use in WorkFlowy. I want you to have it so you can hit the ground running with your own WorkFlowy account!
How To Get the Fiction Outline WorkFlowy
Get WorkFlowy! It’s a web application at its core, so simply get your own WorkFlowy account and then come back to this browser tab.
Make sure you’re logged into your WorkFlowy account.
Come back to this browser tab and open this Fiction Template WorkFlowy link to my shared fiction outline template and follow the prompts.
The shared Fiction Template will now be in your WorkFlowy, but it’s not editable. Let’s take care of that:
Hover over the Fiction Template bullet point (touch on a tablet or a phone)
Select “Duplicate” from the sub-menu
The duplicate Fiction Template is now editable in your own WorkFlowy! You can delete the original if you like.
Using the Fiction Template WorkFlowy
The Fiction Template is based on the work of Larry Brooks. It’s what I used to plan and plot my second novel, my serial fiction, and I continue to use it for most of my fiction. Even if you’re a “pantser” who writes fiction without any kind of advance plan, plugging your first draft into this template will help you see where your work needs improvement.
There are notes built into the WorkFlowy fiction template, and they should be self explanatory. Some items are placeholders (bridge scenes, for example), and it’s expected that you will probably need more bridge scenes than I’ve provided — all you need to do is duplicate an existing bridge scene, and edit your copy.
You can use my fiction template to plan your fiction and write the actual text elsewhere, or, if you prefer, you can plan, plot, and write your work entirely in the template. I recommend keeping one “pure” version of the template and work from a copy (change the name of the parent item to something that makes sense for you — probably the name of the work in question).
I’d love to hear about works you create using the fiction template. Tell me about them in the comments!
More WorkFlowy Resources, Templates, and Tutorials
WorkFlowy is deceptively simple! If you want to really go deep and also get the absolute most out of this remarkable tool, check out the following links.
Here’s a directory of WorkFlowy templates you can import into your own account
The WorkFlowy blog will keep you up to date on developments with the software and presents regular tips and tricks
This YouTube video provides a one-minute explanation of how to use tags in WorkFlowy, which is essential for categorizing your items for later discovery.
An in-depth article on how one creator uses WorkFlowy for their to-do list.
Follow the WorkFlowy channel on Quora for questions and answers related best practices using the tool.
WorkFlowy creator Jesse Patel’s articles on Medium, and his hour-long interview on the Indie Hackers podcast.
What Do You Think of WorkFlowy?
I love WorkFlowy enough to write a sixteen hundred word article and create a free fiction template for you. Obviously, I’m into this particular tool / service!
I want to know what you think of WorkFlowy! Are you using it? Are you writing with it?
Tell me about your WorkFlowy experience… in the comments!
The post WorkFlowy: A Free Creative Writing Tool To Use On Any Device appeared first on the official website of author and creator Matthew Wayne Selznick. Visit his site for more articles and content on how to help you stay human as you built a successful and healthy writing life.






April 22, 2018
The Necessity of Solitude In Your Creative Writing Life
A few days ago, talking on the phone with a friend, I mentioned I was catching up on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (I’ve been a Rachel Bloom fan since that song appreciating Ray Bradbury (NSFW)), and that I’d been brought to tears more than once during the twelfth episode of season two, “Is Josh Free In Two Weeks?” (Spoilers at that link, duh.)
My friend was excited, because like me, she loves the show, and unlike me at the time, is all caught up and had been dying to talk about it. “Ooooh… what parts made you cry?”
That gave me pause.
I couldn’t remember the specific moments in the show that brought the waterworks even though I’d seen it, like, three days before, and I definitely remembered crying.
Twice.
I glossed over it, saying I’d been extra emotional in the last week or so… but it made me think.
I have been more emotional lately. In the last two weeks or so, I’ve been more thoughtful, maybe a little more reflective, sometimes more melancholy, and for sure, crying more regularly and readily than I have for some time.
What’s been going on?
Self, Allow Me To (Re-)Introduce My… Self
For more than half a year, from late August of 2017 until very recently, I’ve barely kept my head above the turbulent surface of a sea of crisis and drama; some of it mine, some of it the splashing and flailing of others.
Family life-and-death medical stuff. Expensive car issues and resultant mobility restrictions. Financial issues. Relationship pressures. The holiday season. And then, starting at the very beginning of the new year, I took a full-time temporary position in an office setting after working from home for the last seven years.
I was spread gossamer thin; running on automatic; intently focused on being there for others while putting up a sociable, public-appropriate facade at the day job forty hours a week. Time to myself was uncommon and fleeting, and if I did find some quiet space, I was usually too mentally and physically spent to take advantage of it.
As someone who consistently scores “public extrovert / private introvert” on personality tests (I’m also INFJ on the Myers-Briggs matrix), I can — and did — hang in there for the most part, but over time, the situation became absolutely untenable. I was drained of, and detached from, my “best self.”
I sure did recognize the person I’d turned into, though, because I’ve been him before, and he’s no good for me or for the people I care about.
Opportunity Knocks…
Then, in the second half of March, I found myself with two consecutive house- and pet-sitting bookings, with only a few days between each engagement.
I was already spending just two or three days a week in my own apartment due to certain logistics, so housesitting meant still more time away from my own familiar and energizing surroundings, and that brought its own variety of emotional strain.
But!
During those house-sitting stints, from the moment I left work in the afternoon until the moment I returned the next morning, I was alone.
Due to her own travel plans and other circumstances, I didn’t even have much contact of any kind with the person I’d been seeing. During the evening hours and on the weekends (and for one delicious weekday when I played hooky from the day job) of those last two weeks of March, I had hours and hours and hours of alone time.
And something started to happen.
Realization Dawns
I found myself able to focus.
I entered periods of flow state while I worked on this very site, and on other creative stuff.
Heck, the fact that I was able to do creative stuff for myself, and not just for my clients, was evidence I was somehow finding energy I’d lacked.
I also found, as I tended to cats (first house) and dogs (second house) and generally spent quiet time watching animals be animals, that my thoughts were flowing, too, unbidden, and without direction or agenda.
Gradually, I didn’t so much come to certain conclusions as much as they simply presented themselves, along with suddenly obvious awareness of what I had to do.
A Difficult, Unassailable Course of Action
I had to manage my time and my energy such that I put myself, and my mental health, and so, my ability to be productive and creative, first in every way that was practical and possible.
I had to get back to myself.
That meant making some potentially fraught decisions.
Most difficult was taking a big step back from the person I’d been seeing several times a week for over half a year.
Although it makes me sound like a dead-eyed monster, I want to be clear: the decision itself wasn’t difficult for me. I was committed to do what was necessary to bring balance and sanity back into my life, and I was resolute and even eager to begin.
I was — I am — driven.
Unavoidably, though, I hurt a person I care about, and if I could have seen a way to proceed without causing her pain while still being true to myself and what I needed to be healthy, I would have taken it.
I also quit that full-time temporary job three weeks before my time there was scheduled to end. The gig, which I’d taken to infuse some predictable revenue into my freelance income, turned out to take too much time and too much energy to be worth the money I was making. In terms of mental health and financial health, I literally could not afford to continue working there.
All the same, I’d spent three months with that team; we’d gotten to know each other. Although I knew their jobs and workload would not be seriously affected by my absence, I had to grapple with some false feelings of obligation.
Learning to not honor false obligations is a big life lesson for me. I could write another post all about that. Maybe I will; maybe it will be an episode of Sonitotum.
Anyway, I quit. The parting was amicable; the door is open to return one day.
Saturday morning, April 7, 2017, I woke up in a quiet apartment, more alone than I’d been in months.
Hello, me.
What now?
Front Only the Essential
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” — Henry David Thoreau
It didn’t take long before my relative state of solitude bore fruit that fell, like apples of Newtonian mental health, all around.
After all, I was abruptly, mostly, by myself. There wasn’t anything to “eat” but the fruit of my solitude.
Sure, there was still social media, and texts and messages and phone calls, but I found (I still find, writing this and hearing my phone buzz) myself recoiling from those intrusions. “I don’t want caramel on my apples unless I ask for it.”
(All right, all right, I will try to make that the end of the apple thing…)
Alone for extended periods of time, I began to hear my own thoughts in my own voice. I began to see my own self.
The silence forced me to hear me. The absence of others forced me to look in the mirror.
I think it’s telling that what we see when we look at a mirror is called a “reflection.”
It is, I submit, what we should do now and then. Reflect.
It wasn’t always pleasant. But it was educational.
Cleansing, too. The more time I had alone, the more it seemed as if I was sloughing off the thick, calloused skin I’d needed to be tough enough to handle all those external obligations.
The greatest gift of solitude has been the return of my vulnerability.
And so, pink, and raw, and often red-eyed and runny-nosed…
I found myself facing loss and regret and sadness over things I’d assumed I was over, but in fact I’d only shunted aside to deal with immediate, external concerns.
I found I could be honest with myself regarding my priorities and my commitments.
I found myself missing and wanting to reconnect with people I see far too infrequently, and I’m taking steps to do that. (Seem contradictory to the solitude thing? Heck, even Thoreau knew to take the donut…)
I found I had not just the time, but also the mental and emotional energy to return to my creative endeavors.
I found myself crying over episodes of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. By the way, I did finally recall what two scenes had done it for me, but I’m not going to share it here because Spoilers. If you have Netflix, go, watch the series from the beginning. Or buy it. It’s a brilliant and even important show.
Okay, You Needed Some Alone Time, Selznick. We Get It. Why Is Solitude Important For My Creative Writing Life?
Solitude must be a priority if you’re going to live a successful, balanced, and sane creative writing life.
And I don’t just mean the alone time you ask for when you’re actually writing.
I mean you must get away from others and simply be with you… long enough that the “you” you’re with really is the core you. Front the essential. Get to the root. Shuck off the husk you present to others.
Only then will you be vulnerable enough to connect to your most basic, authentic nature.
Only when you recognize the authentic in yourself can you present it back to the world through your writing.
Only by being authentic do we truly connect.
Walk it out with me: Vulnerability is the engine of connection.
If you’re cut off from your authentic self, your ability to communicate in any sense to anyone — not just in your writing — will be ineffective at best, and dishonest at worst.
If you want to be the best creator you can be… if you want to express your essential, most meaningful truths… you must take the time to be alone.
Vulnerability is the engine of connection.
Tweet This To Your Friends!
Your Own Hard Choices
I’m a single guy with no kids who works from home. Easy for me to advise taking alone time, right?
Look, I know it might not be so simple for you. Everyone has their own set of obligations.
It might not be simple, logistically. But there’s nothing complicated about it, either.
Look at yourself.
Reflect.
Your practice of vulnerability and authenticity might be at a Brene Brown / Elizabeth Gilbert level of mastery… but you’re hanging out here with me, so I’m betting… no.
Because even best-selling authors and TED speakers recognize that living a vulnerable and authentic life is a practice. You’re never done trying; there’s always room to do it better.
Just like your art, right?
Remember: The shaman who doesn’t use their gifts to help the tribe — healing, advising, gathering and transmitting history and lore — is just a weirdo muttering in the corner of the lodge, eating food they didn’t hunt.
Again, that’s probably a topic for another post… but the point here is: you have a responsibility to the world and to yourself to make your best art.
You know you don’t feel all that great if you’re not making your best art.
To make your best art and be your best self, you must be alone as often and for as long as it takes. Put another way: you cannot serve others effectively at the cost of serving yourself.
So make those hard choices. Start those difficult conversations. Adjust priorities. Adjust relationships.
The shaman who doesn't use their gifts to help the tribe is just a weirdo muttering in the corner of the lodge, eating food they didn't hunt.
Tweet This To Your Friends!
The Goal is Balance
Please don’t think I’m advocating hermitage in any sense.
I’m advocating balance, and a measure of control over your own life when and where you can take it, despite how uncomfortable it might make you or others.
The discomfort you feel is fear metabolizing into growth.
The pain others might feel is their own. Manage their expectations; avoid making promises that might just be attempts to smooth away conflict.
Solitude is helping me remember myself and find my own level. Time alone is, ultimately, an investment in greater connection with my community of people that matter to me.
Starting with me.
You deserve that for yourself… and the world deserves the art that results.
The discomfort you feel is fear metabolizing into growth.
Tweet This To Someone Who Needs It!
Not Alone In Being Alone
I’d love to know what you think about solitude and its role as a catalyst for self-awareness, vulnerability, authenticity, creativity, and, ultimately, community and connection. Let’s talk about it in the comments section!
The post The Necessity of Solitude In Your Creative Writing Life appeared first on the official website of author and creator Matthew Wayne Selznick. Visit his site for more articles and content on how to help you stay human as you built a successful and healthy writing life.






April 11, 2018
Why You Need a Mailing List
No matter where you are on your creative path, it’s a safe bet you’re aware of e-mail newsletters and you know what a mailing list is. Chances are you even subscribe to a few.
Do you maintain your own mailing list?
If you don’t, you’re missing out on the absolutely best way to reach your community of friends and fans, grow your audience, and sell more of what you create.
What’s So Great About a Mailing List?
Writers focus a lot of their valuable, limited energy on social media. That’s probably you, right? I bet you’re proud of the hundreds — or even thousands — of followers you have on different platforms.
Unfortunately, despite “Likes” and “Hearts” and “Shares” and “Claps” and whatever the current approbation du jour might be, you have no way of knowing who actually reads your social media content. Unless they comment or otherwise take the time to write about your social media post, “fans” remain effectively anonymous and invisible.
Also, we all know a “Like” is a one-click effort requiring little investment and zero commitment. Think about how easy it is to click “Like” and then never give that content a second thought. Be honest: can you remember each of the posts you “Liked” yesterday? Heck, how about today?
Of course you can’t.
Bottom line: Your social media followers are mostly casual and, profile pictures aside, faceless unknown quantities.
A mailing list subscriber, on the other hand, is so committed to your work they’ve invited you into one of the last private spaces online: their personal e-mail inbox. They want to engage with you… and they are explicitly asking you to engage with them.
And when you do?
It’s far more intimate than a reply on a Facebook wall. Sure, the e-mail you send to your list goes out to all of your subscribers at once, but everyone on your list can reply directly to you.
It’s a one-to-many communication with a built-in invitation to become a one-to-one relationship.
For a fan, that kind of personal access to an author or creator they admire is very special indeed.
Because of their deliberate intention, and the intimacy of their direct connection with you, your mailing list community members are, on average, far more likely to buy your books or other creative work when you ask them.
Why?
Because they’re personally invested in your success thanks to the direct connection and trust you’ve established.
Your mailing list subscribers are the crème of the crop. They’re more important to your success than almost any other segment of your community of friends and fans.
Stuff You Can Do With A Mailing List (That You Can’t Do With Social Media)
If you’re willing to get your hands dirty (up to the elbows, in some cases), you can get an approximate idea of how many of your social media fans read a post on your page / wall / stream. Because social media sites (Facebook in particular, amirite?) know so much about everyone on their platforms, you can often get some nifty information like gender, location, age, and so on.
But you still don’t know exactly who – John or Mary or Sven or Helen – read that post. And just as importantly, you can’t know who didn’t read it.
You can do that with a mailing list.
You can tell who opened the email, and who clicked what links in the email. With my preferred mailing list service provider, you can even set things up to figure out who went so far as to purchase a book on certain sales platforms… and who did not.
Wouldn’t it be great to know who clicked on a “buy me” link for your latest book… but didn’t actually buy the book? Wouldn’t it be great to send those people a follow-up email asking why they didn’t ultimately make the purchase?
You can do that.
Wouldn’t it be great to be able to poll your subscribers and, based on their answers, segment them into interest groups so you know you’re sending them only the information they care about most?
You can do that.
Social media is great for being… social. That has its place, and is certainly valuable.
That said, a mailing list takes the social aspect of your marketing (one-to-many / one-on-one interaction) and adds laser-like focus and highly granular analysis… all while still communicating, in your voice and with your style, with the people most committed to supporting your work.
How Do I Choose A Mailing List Service Provider?
There are a lot of companies providing mailing list services. You can even host and manage your own… but I wouldn’t recommend it. Just because one can do something doesn’t mean one should do something. You have better things to do with your time (like make more art).
In my many years as a fiction and non-fiction author, magazine editor, serial fiction writer, and creative services provider (even though I’m starting over with a blank slate), I’ve used a lot of different mailing list services. I’ve even done that very thing I just advised you not to do: I’ve installed and run open source mailing list software myself (ugh).
Comparing Two Mailing List Service Providers: ConvertKit and MailChimp
After sampling the field and, sure, wasting some precious time on other, less effective choices, I’ve come to most appreciate both MailChimp and ConvertKit — for different reasons.
ConvertKit and MailChimp are both great choices for authors and other creators, and each has pros and cons. Let’s go over some of them:
MailChimp and ConvertKit both provide custom sign-up forms that can stand on their own or be integrated into a website.
ConvertKit and MailChimp each have automation and “auto-responder” functions to send messages in a “time released” fashion.
MailChimp and ConvertKit both provide extensive statistics and analytics to help you understand and take actions informed by your subscribers’ behavior.
Both ConvertKit and MailChimp help you create beautiful e-mail message templates that look great on the desktop, tablet, or phone.
Mailchimp also allows you to create Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns that seamlessly integrate with your mailing list without ever leaving your Mailchimp account.
ConvertKit has a more intuitive workflow and user interface, including a way to segment and group subscribers based on their activity, that’s more refined than MailChimp.
ConvertKit also integrates with third-party services and applications like shopping carts, lead generation and lead capture tools, and automations services like Zapier.
ConvertKit and MailChimp have different approaches to how they handle the concept of a subscriber list:
MailChimp requires you to have different, distinct lists for different subject matters. For example, if you have a user who wants to be on your New Releases announcement list and your Weekly Updates list, those are two different distinct lists.
ConvertKit maintains your subscribers in one master list. You organize the members of that list (through the software) by segmenting that list. It’s subscriber / community based, rather than list based.
Whether you select MailChimp or choose ConvertKit, it’s important to note that with both services, your data is your own and is very easy to export in an easily understandable and reusable format. You’re not “locked in” to either service.
What Do These Mailing List Service Providers Cost?
MailChimp lets you start for free with limited functionality, and then pay as you go or pay as little as $10 / month (based on subscriber count) for extra functionality, more message sends, and a larger subscriber base.
ConvertKit begins as low as $24 / month for up to 1,000 subscribers, with higher rates for larger subscriber counts. All price points include full access to all features offered by the service.
Which Mailing List Service Provider Is Best?
Figuring out which service is best for you depends on your needs and, to a lesser degree, your budget. I will say this: assuming you consistently release books or other creations / products people can buy, your investment in a mailing list service will pay for itself and help you make more money in the long run.
Mailchimp is less expensive than ConvertKit for smaller lists, but more expensive as your list grows. If you choose MailChimp’s free plan, you will not have access to the platform’s full range of features.
ConvertKit requires an investment from the beginning, but offers more flexibility and gives you access to its full feature set.
Mailchimp may be better for simple lists with one product line or area of focus: For example: “I just sell books.”
ConvertKit is the better choice if you’re an author or creator with more than one product line or area of focus or plan to offer more than one product line or area of focus. For example, I am an author, but people who read fiction might not care to read my non-fiction. I serve clients as a coach and consultant, but most of my clients have no interest in my fiction.
ConvertKit enables me, through automated features, to categorize my subscribers into segments that ensure they don’t receive e-mails outside of their declared interest.
Which Mailing List Service Provider Do I Use?
Having paid to use both MailChimp and ConvertKit extensively for years, ConvertKit is the best choice for me. I prefer ConvertKit for its flexibility, range of features, ease of use, and support response time. It’s also a smaller company, very nimble and responsive, and I confess, I usually back the underdog.
Finally, from what I’ve read and heard and seen, I like and respect Nathan Barry, the creator of ConvertKit. The fact that this has led me to support ConvertKit with my wallet is a testament to the idea that building a connection with your community matters a great deal (and that’s what having a mailing list is all about!)
As with many of the products and services I use, recommend, and endorse, I have an affiliate relationship with ConvertKit. At no additional cost to you, I will receive a monetary commission if you click through to ConvertKit and make a purchase. MailChimp does not have a monetary affiliate program, however if you click through via any of their links in this article to MailChimp and use their service, I will receive “email credits” on my free MailChimp account.
Now That You Have Your List…
Okay, let’s say you’ve decided on a mailing list service provider and now have a shiny new mailing list.
How do you get people to subscribe?
The best way (and this is the golden rule for everything you do with your list) is to provide something of value in return. When discussing attracting new subscribers, this thing of value is called a “lead magnet.”
The lead magnet should be something special (read that as: meaningful to your specific community) that’s also exclusive: the only way to get it is to subscribe.
For fiction authors, a side story featuring a supporting character from one of your novels is a great choice… and a great way to introduce people to your work.
For non-fiction authors, bloggers, coaches, and service providers, it could be a checklist or a “cheat sheet” describing a process, or a compiled list of handy resources related to your subject matter.
Either way, it’s a digital product – an e-book, or a printable PDF file – that you can make once and distribute forever with no cost to you.
Both MailChimp and ConvertKit make it easy to send the lead magnet once a new subscriber confirms their subscription.
You can promote the lead magnet to your social media followers, announce it on your website, and so on.
Once People Are Subscribed To Your Mailing List… What Next?
It’s time they got acquainted with you (and you with them).
I recommend setting up a sequence of email messages that automatically go to a new subscriber at regular intervals (say one message every day).
In this sequence, you can introduce yourself and your work, ask the subscriber to share their own interests (this shows them you care about them as people — and you had better!) and ask how you can best provide value for them. When the sequence is over, offer them a discount or early access to one of your books or other products (if that fits with what it is that you do).
During the sequence, let your new subscriber know how often they can expect to hear from you… and stick to that promise. Once the sequence is over, resist the urge to only write them when you have something to sell.
Remember: Provide Value!
You can…
• …send behind the scenes glimpses of your work in progress
• …offer tips, resources, and best practices for your readers who like that sort of thing
• …give subscribers first looks at book cover designs, deleted scenes, and the like
• …run polls and contests
• …organize a street team of virtual promoters who get special perks in exchange for spreading the word about your next book or other product
• …turn the spotlight on subscribers themselves by highlighting one of them!
Remember: a mailing list is the number-one best way to sell your books and other creative works, whether you use ConvertKit, MailChimp, or some other service… but that’s not the only reason to have one.
Use your mailing list to build a committed, close-knit community of friends and fans, the finest of the fine… Treat them that way with content that keeps them there for years and years and makes them super-fans!
Talk To Me About Mailing Lists!
Do you have a question about what you’ve read here? Any other recommendations / suggestions? If you already have a mailing list, how about sharing your experiences and how you use it? Let’s have a conversation and raise everyone’s collective level of awareness… in the comments!
Feature image photo credit: Petar Milošević. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
The post Why You Need a Mailing List appeared first on the official website of author and creator Matthew Wayne Selznick. Visit his site for more articles and content on how to help you stay human as you built a successful and healthy writing life.






March 29, 2018
Reset
Call it a reset.
A reboot?
If the word didn’t have so many negative connotations, I would even go so far as to say it’s a creative bankruptcy, because that’s what it feels like: I have so many real and assumed creative obligations to myself and to my community of friends and fans, but it’s been so long since I could dedicate time and resources to being creative, the psychic pressure of that debt has become a source of daunting stress.
What’s been going on?
Well. An awful lot, personally and professionally, both with me and the people I love. I’ve been drained, frankly, and I haven’t had really anything left in me to dedicate to creative endeavors.
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The psychic pressure of my fallow creativity…. call it a creative deficit… has contributed to my overall anxiety and stress, like a stack of unpaid and overdue bills on a dusty corner of the kitchen counter.
So. I’m starting over as a new independent creator; my slate, as much as is possible in the real world, wiped clean.
I’m forgiving myself of that debt.
I must.
It’s my hope that you will forgive me, too.
How Can I Just Decide To Be “New?”
As someone who was one of the first podcasters, one of the first independent publishers; someone with hundreds of original songs and lots and lots of content out there in the world; someone who’s helped scores of creators with their own creative endeavors across the last fifteen years… how can I declare myself as “new?”
If I’m honest about it, the independent creative universe of authors and podcasters and musicians and bloggers is so different and so much larger than when I started creating content twenty years ago, I, who was never more than (briefly) a medium-sized fish in a few small ponds, am now more like a brine shrimp in the ocean.
It doesn’t matter that I’m not literally new on the scene. For most of the world, I’m utterly unknown.
I’m embracing that fact.
I’m taking advantage of it!
A Renewed Commitment to Learn and Share
I have so much to re-learn, and learn, and forget, and discover.
As I do, I’ll document it here, and on the Sonitotum podcast (coming soon…), and in other media as it seems appropriate… so you can learn with me.
I hope you’ll join me, whether you’re an absolute beginner, a seasoned creative pro, or, like me, someone looking to start fresh with a beginner’s mind.
Together, we’ll examine how to build a balanced, mindful, sane creative life while also touching on craft, practice, resources, tools, and interesting stuff that attracts my attention along the way. The emphasis will be on creative writing, especially fiction, but since I’m also a musician with an abiding interest in the processes behind all creativity, expect me to touch on other forms of creative expression, too.
It’s my experience that art and life are intricately, persistently, and messily intermingled. Tangled, even. So I will be getting personal, at least as personal as is possible while still respecting the privacy of others. It’s a counter-intuitive fact that an experience is more relatable when it’s very specific, so in the interest of creating “teachable moments” (and believe me, I gotta million of ’em) I’ll be as transparent as possible.
Let’s Be Absolute Beginners Together

Here are some of the ways you can come along with me:
Subscribe to receive new articles in your email as soon as I publish them – click here to sign up!
Join the community of friends and fans receiving my e-mail newsletter.
Subscribe to Sonitotum, the podcast companion to Scribtotum (coming soon — stay tuned to the e-mail newsletter!)
Become my patron to both support this endeavor and enjoy patron-only content and access — click here to find out more about patronage!
Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Subscribe to my YouTube channel.
Here we go!
The post Reset appeared first on the official website of author and creator Matthew Wayne Selznick. Visit his site for more articles and content on how to help you stay human as you built a successful and healthy writing life.






July 18, 2017
Gratitude Will Make You A Better Writer
Every night, the last thing I do on a media device of any kind (okay, usually the last thing… I’m as addicted to screens as the next person), is post a fourteen second Instagram Story expressing both gratitude for a single thing, and a single hope for the next day.
Sometimes it’s hard to come up with things that inspire gratitude and hope. But I find those two things, however seemingly trivial they sometimes feel, and I put them out to the world, where they remain for twenty four hours.
It’s a ritual.
Ten to fifteen people watch those videos every day. Often the same folks… and often some of them, whether they know it or not, are the very people inspiring my gratitude or hope.
That’s nice. It’s a tiny tribe, and I see them, and I marvel that some of them, for whatever reason, are there every day.
Climb Out, Fill In
As much as I appreciate that tiny tribe, the real purpose behind those videos is for me to be actively grateful and hopeful. To fill in neurological trenches of negativity with Zen-garden paths of positivity.
When you’re in the trenches… entrenched… and look left and right and ahead and behind, all you’ll see is trench.
When you’re on a path, the world is available, all around, to be experienced and savored, and it’s easier to explore and wander and blaze new trails.
So I do this ritual. And it’s working in my life.
I’m perceiving opportunities that I would have missed back when all I could see was proverbial dirt walls. I’m taking chances, and being bold (#declareforbold), and giving voice to my heart.
It’s Sciencey
It’s working, not because of any kind of paranatural mysticism (although there’s nothing wrong with choosing to live poetically; to seek out and embrace metaphor in the everyday), but because I’m literally changing the way my brain works. It’s sciencey, for reals.
Thanks to the resulting net gain of positivity in my thoughts and mood, I’m measurably more creative, more often.
I’m writing songs. I’m in the fiction or non-fiction or blog post writing chair most every day, instead of once a week or every couple of weeks. I’m thinking more like an active artist, and therefore, behaving more like one.
Three Simple Steps; One Cumulative Result
Many things in our lives are are imperfect and stressful. It can be so hard to find the mindset we think we need to be creative, and challenging to allow ourselves to actually sit down and Do the Thing.
But this one thing done every night — embracing and deliberately expressing gratitude (thankfulness for what’s in your life) and hope (optimism for what you want in your life), and doing so in some kind of public space (declaring your gratitude and hope) — can make it possible for happiness to flow around and gradually erode the muddy trench walls of imperfection and stress that crowd your mental landscape.
Be grateful.
Dare to be hopeful.
Tell people about it…
…and see what happens.
The post Gratitude Will Make You A Better Writer appeared first on the official website of author and creator Matthew Wayne Selznick. Visit his site for more articles and content on how to help you stay human as you built a successful and healthy writing life.





