As a child, you may have yearned to play the piano professionally, to act on Broadway, to write a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Perhaps you mentioned your aspirations to someone and were met with laughter or the assurance that there was no money in it. You swallowed your creative dreams and satisfied yourself with listening to […]
Transition Rituals for Creatives
You’re in the middle of writing the most fabulous paragraph when the phone rings. It’s your child’s school and you’ve forgotten to pick her up. You leap up, caroming from blissful creative mode to full-on panic mode. You rush out the door, the cursor on your screen blinking, your creative bliss lost. We become grumpy, […]
The Best Use of Rejection Letters
If you’re in the writing game, you’ve got them. They weigh a ton, those form letters, graciously declining your novel, screenplay, chapbook, self-help book. They’re the letters that swing through your mailbox, hitting you in the gut like a sledgehammer. No, they don’t want your precious creative offspring, no matter how much time and love […]
Find your Creative Ancestors
It’s always scary to leap into the new, which is why I always suggest looking for role models. Those who have gone before give us inspiration, provide a map of courage, and prove to us that it can be done. My biggest Creative Ancestor is Sylvia Beach, the subject of my novel. Sylvia went to […]
Ten Paper Tigers Scaring You Away from Your Creative Ideas
Brian Clark, of Copyblogger, issued a challenge: Write a headline that is sexy a la Cosmo magazine – something that grabs the reader by the collar and makes her stop at the checkout counter and pick up the magazine to see how she can titillate her man in bed all night long. Here’s my headline […]
Carving Out a Home Writing Retreat
The phone rings. The laundry pleads to be stuffed, cycled, dried and folded. Chaos reigns in the kitchen, e-mails queue for attention. Our lives are at once mundane and undeniably seductive at the same time. When we sit down to write at home, suddenly everything that marks our existence as tedious becomes compelling. Writing at […]
Thirteen Words Associated with ‘Adventure’
The best way to make adventure for yourself is to make your art, write your works and build a business. We help you do that here! One:One coaching, group coaching and writing workshops in Paris all lead you to live your life as a creative adventure. I’m Cynthia Morris and I’ve been coaching creatives since […]
Post-Show Debrief
Have you ever done a performance, mounted an art show, given a speech, taught a class, or any other scenario where you are in front of a group, doing your thing? If so, chances are the performance gremlin has shown up right afterward, ready to tear you apart. This mean-spirited or judgmental part of yourself […]
13 Ways to Bust Through Writer’s Block
Yippee! It’s Thursday again. Time for another Thursday Thirteen. And it just happens to be the 13th of the month. Woo-ooo. Here’s advice on getting over yourself and getting to the page. Want to write but feel the weight of writer’s block? Use any or all of these ways to get your fingers in gear […]
Self-Censorship Hurts
Self-censorship hurts; here are some strategies to still the inner critic.