Point A to point B and beyond
An exercise to help begin to surface the gap between where you are now creatively and where you want to be
Let’s take it a little bit meta today and focus on You the Writer, rather than on your writing itself.
Make a list of your creative goals right now. Then, go back through it and add the other creative desires you have that you might feel a bit sheepish to name. (You’ll know them because they’re often accompanied by an immediate urge to excuse or justify it because deep down you might believe that desire means something about you. For example, “I want to be a famous writer…” you think, but then that’s followed by “…but not because I'm insecure and want the external validation, I just think it would mean that I’ve achieved a certain level.”
Guess what? The goal doesn’t actually have to mean anything about you. (And, just to close the loop on that particular example, achieving some level of prominence or note, by the way, might be about external validation-seeking, but it also may very well be an acknowledgement that visibility is power. You can get a lot of shit done with far greater ease with recognition than without it, friend. And there’s nothing wrong with wanting that.)
But back to your list of goals to which you’ve added your safe-to-admit goals and your sheepish-to-admit goals. You’re safe to name them; it’s okay. Nothing bad will happen because you admit true shit to yourself. I promise.
Next, free write a bit about how you tend to introduce yourself, how you talk about your work, how you present on social media and so forth.
Now compare these two creations. Are you talking about your work and presenting in a way that feels aligned with and in support of your list of goals, especially the sheepish-to-admit ones? Or are you presenting in a way that even undermines the safe-to-admit goals, much less the sheepish-to-admit goals? Spend time with this, thinking carefully and being very clear with yourself about it.
Sometimes, just seeing that there is a disconnect is enough to radically transform it right away. Other times, it might take a little more effort to free write again around how you might present yourself and talk about your work in a way that is more aligned with all the things you want. Write into that gap, make it a brainstorm, a manifesto, a stream-of-consciousness rant, whatever you want. But name it, feel into it. Let’s go.
Related to this, if you’re feeling eager to step into bigger visibility in your creative career and shake things up for yourself with a solid, strategic plan for your creative work, I have a thing for you: The Seen AF Method, the hybrid course/coaching program to challenge narratives around creative work and visibility and build a unique-to-your-art strategy to set yourself and your work up for more.
Doors open August 26. Soon after that, it’ll be six months before I open enrollment again.
Register by August 20th for a 1:1 bonus strategy call, a session I lovingly describe as an “unfuck your project” call. Learn more about the whole thing here, and/or book a chat with me about it here and we’ll see if it’s a good fit for you.
