Blogging isn’t easy, and while there’s a low bar to entry – anyone can blog – we’re not always pulling off stupendous blog posts.

There’s a lot involved in keeping a blog active and even more effort to make sure your blog is helping you achieve your goals.

But a methodical, committed approach blended with plenty of patience can yield results rather quickly.

I’ve seen this for myself but even more for my blogging students. Alyson Stanfield and I just finished teaching our updated course, Blog Triage for Artists. The participants made great strides toward enjoying blogging more, and their blogs look great.

Alyson and I couldn’t be more pleased to see awkward blogs become appealing and engaging. It’s thrilling to see artists make their art look better by making their blogs better.

We’re toasting all the efforts and improvements made by our students. Check out their blogs and get inspired!

Nerissa Alford, Kuwait City, Kuwait

Mandi Ballard, Austin, Texas

Kathryn Dettwiller, Nashville, Tennessee

Joanne Harrill, North Carolina

Jennifer Hawkes, Princeton, New Jersey

Nanci Hersh, Landenberg, Pennsylvania

Annie Johnson, Johnstown, Colorado

Amelia McSweeny, Fairfield, California

Pam Mingle, Lakewood, Colorado

Nancy Egol Nikkal, Hastings on Hudson, NY

Dempsey Rice, Brooklyn, New York

Karen F Rose, Gainesville, Florida

Toni Ruppert, Oak Forest, Illinois

Talisa Selby, Ball Ground, Georgia

Margret Short, Lake Oswego, Oregon

Jan Small, Myakka City, Florida

Susan Tantlinger, Clark, Wyoming

Denise Bellon West, Indian Hills, Colorado

AnnaMaria Windisch-Hunt, Coconut Grove, Florida

Dannie Woodard, Weatherford, Texas

Want to improve your blog? The next Blog Triage class will be in 2011, but you can start healing your blog today with our Blog Triage Self Study course.

I love blogging, and have enjoyed the continual learning curve that blogging throws me. Author Janet Skeslien Charles interviewed me in Paris about the glory of blogging. Enjoy the video here.

I’ve been buffing up my blog behind the scenes. When I launched my new web site in September, I still had a lot of work to do on the blog. Last month I was working in the blog trenches with my students. I hope you like what you see.

Let me know what you think – what you want to see more of and what you want to see less of. Share your opinion in a comment below.

Blog Triage with Alyson Stanfield

Online course: April 13th – May 13th, 2011.

Finally – feel good about your blog!

Register online now.

Curious Excursions to Tap Your Creative Juju:

Curious Boulder

June 24th – 26th, 2011

Curious Paris

September 1st – 6th, 2011

]]> http://www.originalimpulse.com/upcoming-events/feed/ 0 http://www.originalimpulse.com/juju-infusion-books-review/ http://www.originalimpulse.com/juju-infusion-books-review/#comments Tue, 30 Nov 2010 11:16:05 +0000 Cynthia Morris http://www.originalimpulse.com/?p=2433

Paris Persimmons

I’ve tried to avoid boring you with long explanations of what I am doing and why. I find the explaining or exposition of a story can be tedious. Perhaps it’s the ‘show don’t tell’ mandate I carry over from writing.

Still, some information about what’s happening can be helpful, so I will try to be brief.

In April, I began a weekly broadcast of my web TV show, Juju Infusion. My original impulse was to share things that I love, to inspire your creativity and give you an infusion of inspiration.

I made 26 weekly shows, videos of 6-10 minutes in length. You can see all of my videos at my YouTube channel. (Nearly 80 to date!)

I got a serious infusion from making these videos; I LOVE the medium and have been gathering even more ideas for ways to play with video.

But the format had to change. I chafed under the demands of a longer show: many segues, several elements in one show, the time to edit it all. Then there were the larger issues: the file size of a ten-minute show is enormous and distribution proved difficult.

During my recent trip to Europe, I took a break, and, my apologies, I didn’t leave an ‘out of the studio’ note for you. I am sorry that I left you hanging like that. I wasn’t sure what I’d be able to do while working in Rome and Paris. I also knew I wanted to change the format, but wasn’t sure how.

Candid

The juju from the journey gave me inspiration to experiment with a different structure. You’ll still get Juju Infusion, but more of it. I’ll be making shorter videos (challenging myself to a 3-minute limit) and I’ll be broadcasting more than once a week.

You’ll see book reviews, interviews and an ongoing peek into my studio as I write my novel, run Original Impulse, and let my artist play as often as possible. You might see messier hair than usual, and the unfashionable bundling of sweaters I’m required to don to stay warm in my studio.

What Juju Infusion do you need? What topics or questions do you want addressed? Let me know in a comment below.

for the artists, art supply manufacturers, gallery owners and museum keepers. They remind me that expression matters, and for that I am grateful.

for all my contemporary artists and writers who share this amazing time with me. They keep me fresh, and for that I am grateful.

for my parents for giving me these genes that have me be this way – curious, stubborn, colorful and multi-expressed. They believe in me, and for that I am grateful.

for my body, for its strength, resiliency and for being the portal to sensual discoveries. I am healthy, and for that I am grateful.

for the natural world, the source of so much peace, inspiration and reality checks. Mother Nature guides me and for that I am grateful.

for the United States of America, imperfectly bold and adventurous. Creativity is at the core of this country, and for that I am grateful.

for my friends, colleagues and clients, a true tribe of amazing people, brave, kind, supportive, loving, boundlessly creative. You inspire me, and for that I am grateful.

What’s your version of a gratitude prayer?

Happy Thanksgiving, Americans.

Never hide

There’s been a shakedown here at Original Impulse Inc. This happens every time I come back from Europe – we’re back in the home office ready to put our juju to work. The artist wants more time in the schedule, and the CEO is busy making plans to grow Original Impulse. The writer staged an artful takeover a few months ago – finally refusing to write in a suit.  (She made good on the juju she gleaned in June in Paris.)

Our dilemma

They’ve all been trying to have a constructive conversation for years. The puzzle the attempt to solve: How to bring more art into Original Impulse?

Sound familiar? I know you’re juggling these roles and others. You find they don’t always cooperate.

We want what we love

The good news is that upon returning from Paris earlier this month, the CEO, the writer and artist are fired up. They each have their plans, sparked by Paris juju.

The artist has decided to do a daily drawing in an accordion journal, because she loves it and secretly wants to be an illustrator.

We're picnicking in the Luxembourg Gardens

She’s also excited to return to producing videos. She has several ideas and a handful of interviews already filmed.

The CEO has big plans for existing and new classes and for developments for her private clients. She likes the growth that Original Impulse saw in 2010 and wants more for 2011.

The writer will finish that novel, by god. She is seriously committed to completing Chasing Sylvia Beach by March 14, 2011. (Sylvia Beach’s birthday.)

All three of them are united on the main project for next year: Journal Juju, an illustrated revision of the Creative Toolkit for Travelers. It’s going to be adapted to creative illumination found at home, not just while traveling. We’re going to develop workshops  to share this invigorating creative play with others.

All of me says yes to all of this. We can do it! We get the calendar out and plan:

• Mon, Tues, Wed – Original Impulse writing and client work
• Thurs – Video production, creative play
• Fri – bookkeeping, administration
• Sat – whatever the hell we want to do
• Sun – Chasing Sylvia Beach

‘Reality’ kicks in

But it’s not long before I’m cranky, frightened and angry. The CEO is also the CFO and Marketing Maven. Original Impulse takes a lot of time. It’s not so easy to squeeze all this into the little boxes on the calendar.

In the past, we’d bust it all out on evenings and weekends. But now there is no more extra time. We feel a growing need to slow down, rest and rejuvenate. We can’t work these crazy long hours anymore.

This is where some kind of drill seargant or parent figure kicks in. You’ve experienced this. It’s the ‘get real’ moment where the balloon of your creative fantasy must ground down to get fuel and directions. And perhaps jettison a few things.

Sigh. What must I give up?

Work? Of course not. Money needs to circulate through my world. And we do love our work!

Writing? No way. That novel will get done by March. And I need to keep writing to grow Original Impulse Inc..

Videos. Yep, that’s it. Gotta give those up. But I love them, and you do too! I can’t stop that now.

All these pieces get shuffled in and out of the calendar’s boxes, trying to find space while leaving breathing room.

Then, after spending time last week with Chris Guillebeau and his big picture questions, it hits me. The pieces of my work and creative life don’t align linearly, they overlap.

Here’s how.

My big dream

The producer in me has always wanted to do a reality show about the creative process. Show someone in action as she strives to complete her creative projects while juggling everything else. In the past, my inner critic gets a whiff of this and rises up immediately with a snort. “Who wants to see a writer’s process? It’s a lot of sitting around staring into space. Pfft!”

The other parts of me unite against that derision. We have all the pieces of a reality show: several creative projects underway, strict and daunting deadlines, and the day job. Plus the burning question that keeps all of us tuning in:

Can she pull it all off?

This is exactly what you’re trying to do – pull off an integrated life of creativity and discovery. My hope is that witnessing my struggle rather than reading about the creative process will nudge you to your own creative successes.

Let the artist lead

So, I’m letting the artist lead for the winter. I’m going to finish my novel, relish my daily drawing, and plan my illustrated book and workshops.

I invite you into the studio with me. It will all be shared on the Original Impulse blog and in this newsletter. You’ll see:

• illustrations from my journals
• the remarkable story of the last revision of Chasing Sylvia Beach
• things I love that guide my creative work
• interviews with other artists.

The artist will decide when and what to post. Videos will come any or every day of the week. Blog posts when inspired – and they can be mostly images with a few words sprinkled in if I want. Newsletters twice a month as usual, with deals and perks for you.

We are pretty excited over here. My CEO rushes to implement a different kind of schedule. My writer begins drafting this letter in her head. My artist twirls around the studio – she can’t believe she will get so much time to create with color and letters and drawings.

Career suicide or career renegade?

This is an experiment that flies in the face of business wisdom – don’t talk about yourself too much. Keep it focused on the reader.

But two very successful online artists – Lisa Call and Chris Guillebeau both told me this weekend: Don’t plan. Just do. Put it out there and tweak as you go.

Your attention is valuable to me. My intention, as always, is to inspire you to your own creative action. If seeing more of my process is a yawner, just let me know. I’m open to feedback; email is best.

So I am plunging in, and I hope you come along for the creative chaos that will ultimately yield two or more finished projects: Chasing Sylvia Beach (by March 14, 2011) and Journal Juju (working title, no deadline yet).

It’s all happening here. Don’t miss a thing: Subscribe by RSS or email.

Thank you for your attention and support. May it come back to you tenfold.

Illuminated manuscript

Bottom line:

Sometimes the artist needs to lead.

Coaching Inquiry/Writing Prompt:

What can you turn over to your artist this week? Want to join me in the creative cave this winter? What’s your project?

Share your juju in a comment here, with a link to your studio so we can visit you!

Fresh Resources for the creative journey

I’m reading Patti Digh’s book, Creativity Is a Verb. I can’t believe how perfectly aligned her wisdom is with my leap right now. Every page is a yes, yes, yes, go, go, go encouragement from Patti.

The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guillebeau If you need permission or role models for the unconventional life, this book has it.