You’re ready to create what’s inside you. Finally, you’re at a place where you can devote yourself to your creativity.
At Original Impulse, you’ve found a safe haven to dedicate yourself to projects that matter to you. Through online workshops, creativity retreats, our long-term creativity apprenticeship and customized one:one coaching, we are here to make writing a fun and vibrant part of your life.
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Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb
I just loved this book about a therapist, her patients, and her own mental health journey. It almost makes me want to change careers and become a therapist! Reading stories about the struggles her clients face allowed me to see my own challenges in new ways.
Back to school time! Are you like me, with fond memories of school supply shopping? Do you love the fresh slate of a new class or semester?
It’s hard to rally that focus on our own, but it’s possible. You don’t have to get all fancy or formal. Just focused. Below you’ll find the inquiries I give my clients when they want to focus on learning and making and growing.
What do you want to learn? This is a great way to narrow down options and get excited about specifics. What is your creative edge, the thing you want to get better at or learn about?
What resources will help you learn this? What books, podcasts, courses, or lectures meet you where you are and help you with what you want to learn?
This is a good question to ask when those random opportunities arise. The irresistible class. A great new book. The OMG she launched that THING and I gotta do it! It’s all too easy to sign up for everything and then do nothing. To feel like we have abandoned the thing we wanted to focus on.
When opportunity knocks, simply ask: How does this help me focus on and meet my goal?
Speaking of goals, what is your desired outcome? (I don’t really go for goals; instead, I work on projects and set a deadline for when I want to launch or finish them. That feels better for me, but you may prefer the word ‘goal’.)
When designing your own course work, ask yourself this:
When will you study and work? Determine how much time you will have for this and when it’s right to do your coursework.
Where will you study and work? Sometimes it helps to have a space that’s outside the norm. I get a lot done at the cafe, but you may prefer a quiet corner in your home.
Who will help you? Perhaps you sign up for a class or have a buddy. We often go further together, but maybe you prefer your own private Idaho.
What supplies will you need? I always LOVED back-to-school shopping. But now, as an adult, I realize that we usually already have everything we need to do the work at hand. I believe that consumerism is the weakest form of creativity, so don’t go buy stuff when what’s really called for is sitting down and doing the work. That said, if you really need a new notebook or gear to do the work, what would that be?
How will you determine your satisfaction? How will you ‘earn your A? This is a concept from Benjamin and Rosamund Zander in their book The Art of Possibility. I have adapted it for my Atelier program. Instead of earning an A, I ask what participants need/want to do to earn their JOY. This helps remove any striving or perfectionism.
Keep it simple. Don’t spend too much time planning. Just enough to get focused. Trust yourself to know what’s right for you.
What else would you add to your curriculum? Make it fun, make it yours and make it meaningful to what you want to write.
This fall I will be bringing back something I can’t wait to share with you. I am at a creative edge and it’s thrilling. I’ve been studying and focusing and I enjoy the feeling of being a student again. I’m using my Atelier to keep me on track.
What do you want to learn this year? Check out the workshops I have for writers this fall – I bet one of them is perfect for you.
Share your thoughts and curriculum plans below.
Overcoming Underearning by Barbara Stanny
There’s nothing that will change your world more than getting your financial act together. Not just the surface stuff like staying solvent. The underside of our financial selves is also driving our actions. Our history, emotions, thoughts and beliefs all contribute to our financial well-being. Barbara Stanny’s books are among the first I recommend for those ready to get financially fit. Secrets of Six-Figure Women is inspiring, and Overcoming Underearning is a practical guide to work through all this stuff. Change your money, change your world.
Do you love back to school time? I do, and always have. While summer delights me in so many ways, my eager student self always welcomes the focus of fall. Time for support with online writing workshops!
What if your writer self got to go back to school this fall? What would they want to learn?
I’m a fan of designing my own curriculum based on what I want to learn. In my unique online writing workshops, participants get to choose what they want to focus on and what they want to learn. My workshops don’t focus on craft or contain a lot of lessons to fall behind on.
I create a safe and supportive container for focus and progress on writing projects we care about. I help you know, like and trust yourself and your writing process so you can write what you want, when you want, with joy and ease.
This foundational work gets overlooked in craft classes. My workshops address the writer, helping you past any blocks or obstacles that keep you from writing your best work.
In my upcoming classes, this is what you will learn:
Eight-monthcoaching group to focus on one project
September 20th – April 30th, 2022
We begin the Atelier on September 20th and meet for eight glorious months. All the details are waiting for you here.
October 8th – November 9th, 2021
This is the most fun class! You didn’t know you needed this kind of space and guidance to write about your travels, did you. And I bet you have so many stories about your travels that you want to explore and rediscover. This class is in itself a journey – perfect for those who haven’t been traveling as much as they like. 
In this six-week, live course, we explore:
What do you want to learn in your writing life this year? Which option meets your current writing needs? Contact me if you have questions about which of these workshops are right for you now.
You may have more than one book in you. If so, choosing which one to write first can be challenging. This choice is something you will have to decide for yourself based on a number of factors:
Do a free-write to get deeper into the answer about which book you should write first. I always suggest free-writing as a way to get clarity for yourself. It’s amazing how much more insight can come through free-writing as opposed to just thinking or talking through the issues.
There are many types of books you can write. Your book might be a blend of your own stories and some guidance. In her book Soulful Simplicity, Courtney Carver shares both her personal journey and specific guidance on how we can simplify our lives for more satisfaction. Her tagline and Instagram account are called “Be More with Less,” and that’s the basic promise of her book. We all want to be more, right? But how to do it with less stuff and less activity, that’s new.
In Your Story Is Your Power by Elle Luna and Susie Herrick, the authors help the reader excavate their stories and live in new, empowering ways as a result of knowing and owning their stories. The exercises in the book are fabulous, and the stories the authors tell to accompany the exercises help make them sticky. While the book isn’t personal essays or memoirs per se, a little bit of this kind of writing blended throughout makes the book more powerful. The colorful illustrations add a lot to the book as well.
It may take time to choose which book is first. This is something only you can decide. Use your intuition and your instincts alongside your intellect to choose the book to dive into first.
What book will you start with and what makes that a good choice for you?
This is an excerpt from my book, The Busy Woman’s Guide to Writing a World-Changing Book. If you’re ready to write your book and want support along the way, this is the guide for you. Available wherever books are sold in paperback, e-book and audio book. Get your copy now.
Feast Your Eyes by Myla Goldberg
I am a Myla Goldberg fan, so when I saw this at the library, I had to get it. It’s the story of a female photographer when photography was just being born in the ‘50s. Another great story about the creative life and what it costs women to be artists.
A couple of weeks ago, I went to a movie that energized me like few others. Pieces I Am is a documentary about the novelist Toni Morrison. I saw it again last night, and got even more from it.
I googled Toni after I got home and discovered that she is 88. Wow, I thought. That’s impressive. Then, last week, I got word that Toni had died.
I found it hard to feel sad. 88 is a long life. And Toni had done so much. She wrote many books. Since I read her novels in my early ‘20s, I’ve been inspired by her talent. Toni’s writing was evocative and she shared stories of the African-American experience that I hadn’t known before I read her work.
But the documentary filled in the picture of her life. Toni was an editor at Random House. There, she focused on publishing the work of other African-American women writers like Angela Davis and Toni Cade Bambara. She worked full-time, wrote novels and raised two sons as a single mother.
Through her talent and determination to write her stories, she earned a Pulitzer Prize. And, she was the first African-American woman to receive the Nobel Prize. What an amazing life and career! Rather than feel sadness that she is gone from the earth, I celebrate and am grateful for how she lived and what she did for American literature and for African-American people.
It might be easy to see this legend and think, oh, I could never do anything like that. And, for the most part, it’s probably true that neither you or I will get the Nobel Prize. (But you never know!!)
I want to underline four things I gleaned from Toni’s life for us:
Toni had an unshakable passion for writing and confidence in herself and her stories. Facing criticism that she didn’t include white people in her stories, she stood her ground. She wrote about and for African-American people. Her stories that did not center on or include the white gaze. This was groundbreaking and lit the way for other authors to stand in the truth of their vision. I am taking this inspiration now in the project I am writing. What stories must you tell that others might criticize you for? How will you set aside perceived pushback to write your truth?
Toni knew and trusted herself. At the time, she was one of the few women in the publishing world and certainly one of the few African-American women. But when faced with a room of white male colleagues, she didn’t waver. “I knew I was more interesting than them.” She didn’t try to be like them. She owned herself and her place at the table. Now more than ever we are called to stake our place in the conversation. To not back down, to not water it down and to not abandon ourselves. How can you trust your unique gifts and bring them to the conversation?
Toni asserted her authority. As an editor of Muhammod Ali’s book, she was responsible for helping him on his book tour. But he couldn’t really see her. She realized that he had her in his mind as a woman, and that he didn’t regard women as having any authority. When this became apparent to her, she shifted. She moved into ‘mother mode’, dominating him in a way he could understand and accept. Sometimes we have to exert our authority in new ways, but without abandoning ourselves. How can you claim your authority today?
Toni ‘went there’. Her books are so enduring because Toni addressed taboo subjects. She staked a claim for the African-American experience, and didn’t shy away from the bloody parts. Beloved, a novel about a slave mother who kills her children rather than see them return to slavery, shows the deep and absolute desperation of a mother who sees no way out for her children. While many would call a mother like that a monster, Toni saw her humanity. She strikes to the heart of the slave experience in ways that no one else had. Where do you need to take your writing to reflect a deep honesty that may not be expressed otherwise?
I could go on and on. Toni’s life and body of work is a true gift to the American people – to all of us. After I saw Pieces of Me, I felt so energized. I believe everyone should see this movie. Don’t doubt me on this one, friends. Just find it if you can and go see it.
It’s a fun game for budding authors to go to the bookstore to see where their books will go on the shelves. It’s a deep honor for me that my books nestle alongside Toni Morrison’s books. I don’t have any illusion that my talent matches hers even remotely. But I know that we share space in the pantheon of novels. That we have both taken the risks to write about what means most to us.
What has Toni Morrison inspired in you? What creative risks are you willing to take now? Share your thoughts below.
Bring to mind that feeling when you finish something. When something ends, you feel space open up. Like putting away the holiday decorations, completing a project at work or finishing a school year. You have time and energy to bring something else onto your plate. You also know the feeling of overwhelm, having too many things to manage.
Most of us juggle many priorities: children, work, home, significant other and more. It’s not easy to find space or bandwidth for our own projects. We also underestimate how much space things take, and I am not just talking about physical space. There’s also mental, physical and temporal space. We have a warped idea of how long things take. Most of us feel disappointed that we didn’t do as much as we wanted in any given week. What if we had more spaciousness? What if we could fit our projects into the time available and leave stress of over-committing behind?
When my clients come to me feeling overwhelmed, I ask them to identify their tipping point. When is it all too much? What obligations on your plate put you over the edge? Hopefully, with awareness, you can learn to stop committing before you are plunged into overwhelm.
I have had clients who added book writing to their agenda in the same year that they were either buying a new house, moving to a new country, moving parents out of a childhood home, getting a new job or moving across the country. Guess what happened to their books? They aren’t on the shelves of bookstores. They are sitting in computer files waiting for actual space and the commitment to be written. No amount of coaching could reduce the amount of space those other things were taking in my clients’ lives. It just wasn’t the right timing for them to write their book.
You have a full life too. You are busy. But that doesn’t mean you can’t make space to write your world-changing book. You may have heard of the “write your book in a weekend” workshops. The truth is, it’s going to take much longer than that to get your book written and into a form that’s ready to share with the world. Like renovation projects, your book will take longer and require more from you than you might expect.
The biggest mistake people make when getting ready to add a book to their plate is not removing obligations. Sometimes when I ask clients what they will put on hold, they stubbornly say, “Nothing!”
We have a skewed perception of how much we can actually do at any given time. The space in our imagination is vast—infinite, even. Yet the space we have in a day is, alas, limited. Our energy isn’t always full steam either. So we have to go with the flow of what’s manageable in any given week. We need to make space on our calendar for writing time, organizing, researching and all the other tasks associated with writing a book. Some things will contribute directly to our book. Clients, teaching, interacting with our book’s audience, networking at conferences. There may be volunteer obligations or other family obligations to set aside while writing the book.
Now, I am the last person to use the word “realistic.” I learned early on from a former yo-yo pro boyfriend (that’s right, yo-yo pro) that anything is possible—and I have seen all kinds of “unrealistic” things happen in my clients’ lives. I believe the word “realistic” exists largely to shut down innovation and creativity. But in assessing whether you have the space to write a book, you do want to bring in a dose of realism. The last thing I want for you is to add another stressor into your life. It’s okay if now isn’t the time to write your book. Setting yourself up with the space to succeed will build competence and confidence that will allow you to enjoy writing the book.
Let’s take a look at your current commitments. Here’s an exercise my clients have found useful to see what they are committed to. I call it “Mind Mapping Your Plate,” based on the common phrase “so much on my plate.” Putting your obligations visually on one page can give an immediate sense of how much you are actually taking on.
Get a regular sheet of printer paper. On sticky notes or in drawn bubbles, jot down all the major projects and commitments you have over the next three months. They could include:
When you see all your current commitments on the page, it’s easy to get a true picture of your availability. This is where you may see what you can set aside while you write your book. As you go through your months writing, many opportunities will arise. How will you fend off more projects and keep your writing space intact? Sometimes we have to spell it out for ourselves. I once made a sign that says “Add No More.” When I pull it out and hang it in my writing space, it reminds me not to add more things to my plate.
Perhaps you thought that because of the title of this book, I would have a magic solution to help you write your book even when you are juggling other major projects. Yes, I can help you, and you will have to make time, space and focus for your book. Consider if this is the right time for you to take on another project.
Are you able and willing to commit space to making your book a priority?
This is an excerpt from my book, The Busy Woman’s Guide to Writing a World-Changing Book. If you’re ready to write your book and want support along the way, this is the guide for you. Available wherever books are sold in paperback, e-book and audio book. Get your copy now.
I knew right away that this book was unlike anything I have ever seen. I love Elle Luna’s first book, The Crossroads of Should and Must.
Your Story Is Your Power is co-written with Susie Herrick, a psychotherapist and trainer. It offers a whole new way to look at our stories, the ones we are aware of and the ones that are culturally embedded in us.
This book promises to help us see, feel and act in new and empowering ways. I think we need that, yes? Gorgeous, unique and powerful, this book changed the way I see my life and the way I interact with others.
Are you an audio book listener? I made something for you!
The Busy Woman’s Guide to Writing a World-Changing Book is available in audio format (as well as paper and e-book). The chapters are short and sweet. I made them that way so you can listen, get ideas for your book and immediately start writing.
I’ve shared the audio intro elsewhere, so here’s the chapter on how you can feel great while writing even before the book is done.
Get your free audio book with an Audible subscription here. Or, purchase the audio book wherever audio books are sold.
And yes, I did the narration! That’s me at the mic.
Clients often tell me: “I need to just sit down and write.”
This sounds reasonable, right? I mean, just DO IT!
But there’s something sort of punitive about this. The feeling I get is like being told to sit down and shut up. Be quiet. Toe the line.
Maybe it’s all my formative years in Catholic school with the nuns, but any kind of forcing or punitive vibe one my creating just doesn’t work. I can’t even use the word ‘discipline’ because it brings to mind punishment rather than focus. Dustpan spanking, anyone?
If you’re feeling stuck creatively and hear words in your head telling you what to do, and you’re not following that voice, perhaps it’s because the vibe is more of a punishment than an invitation. I mean, really. Who wants to be told to sit down and do anything, even if it is our own voice?
It may be that sitting down to write is not your style. Perhaps standing and jamming on the keyboard Tori Amos style would be better for you. Or bouncing on a big ball along with your typing.
But, honestly, most of the tips and hacks for getting our work done avoid the real issue. We’re scared. It’s scary to write our truth. It’s daunting to invent worlds and inhabit them with characters we will care about. It’s scary as hell to ‘put ourselves out there’.
What works for me and my clients is to make a commitment. And honor it. And honor our own way of doing things. If writing in the cafe works for you, do it. If writing standing up makes it easier to be with the discomfort, do it.
I invite you to bring pleasure to the process, not punishment. What delights you and your inner writer or artist? Maybe you ‘reward’ yourself after creating. Maybe you sip the cappuccino while you create.
I’m working on a writing project – NOT a book – that is daunting as hell. So I bring extra compassion and kindness. This does not mean bailing on my writing dates. It does not meaning skipping writing when I don’t ‘feel like it’. (We usually never feel like it.) It means showing up for writing dates in ways that help me focus, follow through and finish – in my way.
This approach to creating is the very foundation of my work as a coach. We each have to find the process that works for us. Take all suggestions and ’tips’ that work for you and adapt them for yourself. Make up your own crazy rituals. And if a dustpan spanking works to get your work done, well, more power to you.
Whatever your rituals for making, make them work for you. Don’t bully yourself into it; you will just rebel against the meanness. As well you should.
What pleasures help you to get your creative work done? Share what works for you below!
When I was promoting my novel, Chasing Sylvia Beach, I found a way to share the book’s message that didn’t feel like I was always shouting, “Buy my book!” Instead, I paired two things that are important to me: life-changing conversations and leadership. I love rich conversations that bring out new ways of thinking and being. In my work as a coach, I get to talk with people about what’s truly important to them. We dig deep to find the truth of their life and work and then seek ways to express that more on a daily basis.
Leadership is also important to me. I believe that creative people and women are leaders. We have experiences that differ from the male experience. Now more than ever, we have the opportunity to initiate conversations to make the world a better place.
A book can serve as a conversation leader and an emissary, bringing your message to the world and leading the conversations you want to have. Women are being called to speak up and speak out like never before. Our voices and ideas are needed to help build a new way of being. And it’s never been easier to write a book and get it out into the world.
When you think about your book, return to your rallying cry. Conversations and leadership matter to me. What matters to you?
At the core of your book are the things you care about deeply. Your book holds the key to the change you want to see in the world. There are many reasons to write a book, among them:
Each of these reasons is valid and may motivate you to write.
I found it helpful to have a reason connected to one of my core values—a reason that got me excited to do the work of writing and promoting, even when it felt scary. For me, it is about starting conversations, and a book is a conversation starter. My values of communication and life-changing conversations allowed me to think of the themes in my novel in a different way. When it came time to write articles and guest posts about my book, it was much easier to come from the place of initiating a discussion rather than marketing my book and trying to get someone to buy it.
Saying you are an author and sharing the content of your book leads to conversations that you want to have. Our conversations can change the way we think, what we believe and how we act. The world has plenty of problems that need solutions. They need you, a woman with something to say, to take the lead and offer your insights and expertise. Write your book. Lead the conversation.
Make a list of the conversations that might spring up around the topics in your book. What do you want to be sure to talk about when discussing the book? These ideas can also be used as talking points when preparing for interviews about the book. Add to this list throughout the process of writing the book.
This is an excerpt from my book, The Busy Woman’s Guide to Writing a World-Changing Book. If you’re ready to write your book and want support along the way, this is the guide for you. Available wherever books are sold in paperback, e-book and audio book. Get your copy now.
What I don’t want to tell you
What I’d rather hide
What must be overcome
I’m scared. You too?
The smell in the air?
Rubber meeting road. Burning. Run. Hide. Avoid.
What’s the problem? What’s this current fear?
Launching my book into the world.
Sending up flares to spread my message far and wide.
Asking for reviews.
Continuing to show up for the book
even when I am ready to play with other projects.
What I want for the book:
Read it. Do the work. Write your book.
Change the world.
No more hiding your voice, your message, your power.
That’s what I want for anyone who wants to write a book.
The courage to do it. To open up your heart and share.
I return again and again
to why this book matters
why this book holds more strength and courage
than I do some days.
It’s time. It’s time for all of us to
Step it up.
I stand upon
my fears, my excuses, my inclination to play it safe.
I step up instead of
hiding behind.
Join me.
Let your bold moves and works of art
ignite the world with love and power.
Now is the time.
To send copies of my book to strangers
to ask for help
to keep pushing past outdated fears to get. my. message. out.
Even if it’s only one person in the world
whose life will be changed by my book
that’s enough.
What fears
will you disbelieve today
what bold moves will ignite the world?
Share your bold moves below.
As I write this, I am sitting in a café next to an acquaintance. I know she wants to write a book. When we both sat down, we each said we were here to write. My fingers have been flying on the keyboard. Hers haven’t. They’ve been tickling her phone because every couple of minutes, someone pings her and she picks up the phone to respond. If my phone has been pinging, I wouldn’t know it—it’s in my purse, and with the loud café music, it’s out of range of my hearing.
The time I have spent here today has been a rare and precious period of focus, and my computer battery is going to run out soon. I am more invested in leaving here feeling good from having gotten my desired writing done than in responding to others’ agendas.
Maintaining focus is an ever-greater challenge as we live a more connected lifestyle, checking our social media feeds, scanning the internet for yet more stimulus. But if you are trying to write a book or create on a regular basis, you must learn to command a certain level of focus. The minute you leave your project and go off on another thread, it’s as if you have put yourself back at the beginning. You have taken one step forward and two steps back.
We do not have to be available 24/7. As women, we are oriented toward making sure everyone else and everything else is taken care of before we do our own work. These days it’s incredibly hard to find the focus required to write anything, let alone a book. Yet we must cultivate our ability to focus. A special kind of attention is required to say what we want and need to say.
Assess how much focus you have for all the projects and obligations in your life. You can have a lot on your plate and still be able to focus. Everyone talks about time management, but what’s really required for your creative work is focus management.
Harnessing your focus is like shutting the door to your office or writing room. You are temporarily holding off your other obligations to dive into your own work. Consider how easily you move between tasks, roles and projects. Are you able to release your thoughts about other obligations and drop into a focused state?
I hope that you learn to love the focus you have when writing, that you can drop into a zone where you are in touch with both your material and how you want to communicate it. This will require some training. Consider that the real work of writing a book is less about time management and more about focus management. The quality of your focus will determine the quality of your writing and your book.
What helps you gather your focus to write or create?
CTA: This is an excerpt from my book, The Busy Woman’s Guide to Writing a World-Changing Book. If you’re ready to write your book and want support along the way, this is the guide for you. Available wherever books are sold in paperback, e-book and audio book. Get your copy now.
It’s my birthday today, so I am thinking about gifts. We get so many gifts from our parents and ancestors. It’s up to us to use the these gifts, so we can continue and build upon the legacy we’ve been given.
From my parents, I received creativity, rebelliousness, and tenacity. They taught me a love of nature, of plants, gardening and cooking. They gave me a sense of style and taste that differed from the norm. My parents worked hard to make a beautiful life for us.
Our home wasn’t a place of creative projects or writing. But the way they lived, with their innovative taste and willingness to do things differently, showed me how we can carve out our own paths and live according to our values. I’ve been able to turn those gifts into a livelihood that allows me to express my other gifts for writing and art. Big gratitude to all my parents have given me and all the support they have shared for my unconventional life path.
What happens when we don’t use those creative penchants? It might seem benign to shelve our creative dreams, but I see otherwise. When we don’t express our gifts, when we don’t heed the call, they become a burden. Our project ideas linger in the space of fantasy. If you don’t become a creative doer, you’re not honoring the gifts. That brings pain, lack of integrity, and suffering.
And, another way to look at it – not using your gifts is holding back from the rest of us who might truly benefit from what you create. Don’t hoard your gifts!
Don’t be stingy with your gifts. When you express your creativity, you give yourself the joy and pleasure of creating. Let the challenges you face when doing your creative work empower you. But it’s not all difficult! Gifts are meant to be given. You are the first recipient of your gifts. Give yourself the satisfaction and joy of your gifts and see where it leads you.
What creative gifts have you been hoarding or ignoring? How can you honor them more this month? Share your thoughts in a comment below.
