Mapping creative hopes
I want you to get every win you want
Today, write about all the writerly and other creative hopes and goals in your heart right now. Write without stoping* and capture every idea that surfaces without judging it; just keep listing until you feel completely finished.
This list will change and reshape itself over time but right now, give yourself permission to name everything you want to do or try to accomplish creatively, even everything you think might be silly or too outlandish, everything you think might be wonderful but you may be scared to try, and especially anything you aren’t sure you know how to or deserve to achieve.
Next, spend a moment with each item on your list, thinking about how you plan to or might approach doing that thing if you absolutely had to do it very soon, what you need in order to do it, how you’ll know when you’ve done it to your satisfaction, and capture anything else that comes up about it.
Next, go back through your list again and think of the most maximized version of it. Allow yourself to imagine: if everything went amazingly well with accomplishing this thing, what would that look like? What’s the biggest/deepest/most wonderful version of that hope or goal you have? Don’t rush this part. Think deeply about where it might feel good to expand your plans even more. What big, wild other ideas pop up when you do this? Capture those, too.
Now, you could be finished at this point, but I strongly urge you to take this one bold step forward: do this whole thing with a trusted creative partner or a regular collaborator or other person with whom you can dream and plan safely and vulnerably. When you both get to this point take it further: talk about your respective lists and map out where you can help each other, where you might want to collaborate, and where you’d each like extra support. Then, offer each other ideas for how you each might maximize your goals even more.
That last part is especially important because we can fall into a trap of cutting our ideas short and sometimes making ourselves play too small when we aren’t sure we deserve big wins or when we aren’t used to being told we do.
And if you don’t have a trusted creative partner (because writers gonna writer) maybe today is a great day to reach out to someone and ask if they’d like to try some kind of creative goals accountability/co-conspirator/help-each-other-win situation.
Let’s do this. I’m rooting for you.
* The reason it’s important to write without stopping: when we pause to consider what to write next or to fix a typo, our editor-minds kick in and so does our self-judgment and we begin to censor ourselves. It’s a way, way more effective exercise to write without stopping and capture the full stream of thoughts rather than just write down what your mind decides is good enough to write down. List it all. You can always pare it down later, or not, but this method can allow big things to emerge from the depths. It’s safe to try.
** For this post, I’ve turned comments on for everyone. If you want to post about a thing you’re wanting to accomplish or a thing you’d love to help others do, I would be tickled pink if the comments section turned into a creative support tank or helped people find creative accountability partners.
