"That always happens to throw me off"
Yeah, let's talk about that category of things today
All November, we’re focusing not only on non-fiction writing prompts but also on your writing output and overall creative career strategies.
We got into the idea of creative self-sabotage the other day, but today, I want to come at it from a different angle.
Free write a bit around times when things have been going really well for you creatively. What, historically, “always” seems to happen every time things seem to be going really well for you? What kinds of things always seem to pop up every time you’re super close to a creative breakthrough? What categories of things have happened to derail creative projects for you in the past?
To be clear, I’m not saying any of these things you may uncover are your fault or your doing. But, this exercise can be immensely helpful in identifying patterns of your own but also of those around you. If, for example, every time you’re about to do something to really level-up in your creative work, a particular friend of family member has a crisis and needs you, that’s good information of how to (and not to) talk about your work with that person, or perhaps even an invitation to examine the deeper dynamics there. If you mysteriously get a cold every time you’re on a sprint of doing really amazing work, that’s good information that might cue you to up your self-care when you’re really cranking on something. You get the idea.
Write deeply into this and see where you land today.
