Creativity

What are you hungry for, creativity-wise? If you’re like me, you have plenty of ‘good’ ideas. Maybe you’ve followed one of those genius ideas only to realize you had no gas in the tank to take it very far. It was a ‘smart’ idea, not a ‘heart’ idea.

You have probably heard me talk about creating from devotion, not discipline. Sure, we need structure to bring our ideas to life. But if we are forcing ourselves to do show up, it just won’t happen.

This was my experience last fall, when I committed to a writing project that was not aligned with my soul. I thought that accountability and structure would do the work of making it viable. Instead, it just felt awful. I cycled through a lot of dark forest paths until I found the bright light of my truth:

I cannot do anything that doesn’t come from the heart. 

This insight came to me during a reflective writing practice in my Write ON group. Wow, was it powerful. It may sound obvious but I truly felt the difference between the mind’s ideas about what we should do – perhaps driven by cultural expectations – and the heart’s desire – driven by our soul work.

This brings me to a natural experience – hunger. We know when we are hungry, and if we pause to inquire within, we also know what we crave. I believe this is the same for our creative work – it’s a natural impulse.

What are you hungry for now? What do you devote yourself to this year? 

After three years of writing and publishing a novel, I’m now hungry for my visual art. I have filled pages in my new artist notebook with what I want. Over the holiday break, I spent time every day painting in my studio and it filled me up and made me hungry for more.

I’ll share more about my Creative Edge for 2026 soon. For now, here’s the first painting I made when I came back to my watercolors. I love these colorful macarons so much. I simply played with my watercolor palette, exploring different color combinations.

Later this week, I will share what’s coming up for us in 2026. A couple of big new things are on the agenda and I can’t wait to share with you!

I filled this custom-designed accordion notebook in a week, using our fun, easy and quick sketchbook practices. Writing, drawing, filling pages with the delight that is Lisbon.

Three spots left in our April, 2025 Capture the Lisbon Wow! Reserve your spot here!

Sometimes I feel guilty that in the realm of writing and creating, I really know what works for me and what doesn’t. Owning my process and honoring it reduces SO much stress.

I trust myself, and I know how to manage the inner and outer obstacles of making. This allows me to focus on the real work = the very challenging work of writing a good novel!

But then I remember that guilt does no good, and that I have devoted my entire professional life to helping others feel this kind of creative empowerment. I want this kind of confidence for everyone.

My work as a coach focuses on helping people know, love, and trust their own creative process. Sure, people hire me to help them with their writing. But we do that by helping them clarify and honor their own whackadoodle ways of getting things done.

Your Artist Knows the Way

I’ve taken everything I know about how we can honor our creative habits and put it into a program I am certain you will love.

Your Artist Knows the Way is a free program on Substack. In it, I guide you through writing your own manual for your artist. What do they love? What do they need to create more easily? You’ll find out and capture it in a way that will change your creativity forever.

You’ve probably read plenty of how-to books on productivity and creativity. You’ve possibly failed to stick with their advice and been left feeling like it’s your fault.

I believe the way to being satisfied with our creative output is to know our artist inside and out.

Your Artist Knows the Way is not another how-to program. It’s a know-you process designed to help you release your abundant creativity in fun, empowering ways. 

Each month features a different theme, with three invitations. You can get a free subscription, or you can upgrade to paid interaction with me, discounts on coaching with me, and handy PDFs at the end of the month so you have all the invitations in one place.

You are going to LOVE this! Come on over and check it out. 

PS This is a great thing to do with friends, so pass this on to your creative buddies so you can do it together.

Don’t have creative buddies? They are waiting to get to know you in Your Artist Knows the Way!

What’s your plan for staying on track with your writing project this summer? This year’s sunny season is different for me. I have a couple of big projects plus a coaching skills training I am taking. I’m also hosting a 14-week session of Write ON, my coaching group for writers with a project they must focus on. We have a few spots left, and we start soon. Find out if you are a fit for Write ON here. 

Why you must create

If you’re reading this newsletter, you are an artist of some kind. A writer, painter, knitter, gardener, chef…your creativity is a force of nature that you must express. You likely have experienced the consequences when you don’t let your art into your life on the regular. If your creativity is on the shelf too long:

• a lingering sense of dissatisfaction can permeate life
• jealousy replaces the joy we deserve to have around our creative drive
• we lose touch with the part of ourselves that makes us whole.

Our original impulse, the drive to make things that matter, is as necessary as our need to eat, be sheltered and be connected to others. I assert that creating belongs on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

I’ve been coaching creative people to be their most creative selves for 25 years. When we make space for our creative work, more happiness, more connection, and more satisfaction come almost immediately. This satisfaction ripples out into all areas of their life like a radiating sun. When we’re happy creators, everything is better.

Here’s a note from Tina Bettison, a client who knew she needed her creativity back:

“When I think back to how I felt a year ago – lost, depressed, grieving, unsure of who I was and the point of my existence – and how I feel now, I’m soooo different. Soooo alive. Coaching with you has literally turned my life around and given me back myself.”

– Tina Bettison

Creativity is not optional. Our original impulse must be heeded. I believe that we derive our vitality from our creativity. When we are making things or writing, we feel alive. We feel a sense of purpose. Getting lost in our creative work is its own escape.

You feel most alive and happy when you’re creating. It’s your birthright and it’s who you are. To not create means unhappiness, and dissatisfaction and detracts from the overall quality of life. I believe creating must go on the list of other essentials like food, shelter, love, money.

One more reason why you must create

When I wrote my ebook, Cross the Finish Line, I realized something profound.

It’s okay to dabble, explore, and have a lot of creative interests. And when we finish a meaningful project, we glean the deep gifts of that work. Finishing and publishing my novel revealed to me that I am a tenacious person whose commitment goes beyond the many challenges that arose during the thirteen years it took to write.

Imagine the enormous confidence that I gained from recognizing myself as a persistent person. With that confidence, I crafted a new vision of myself. I used that new self-perception to step up to more creative projects.

I want everyone to be creatively fulfilled – on their own terms. Knowing what works for us is key to making things that make us whole. This belief is at the core of what I am making for you. I hope/plan/intend to launch it sometime next month!

In the meantime, I’d love to hear about the challenges that stand in the way of you fulfilling your creative destiny. Feel free to share your inner and outer obstacles here.

Any change in our routine — holidays, vacations, visits from loved ones — can bring a slump in our creative work. Even when we’re completely into our book or art projects, there’s often an inertia that keeps us from getting back into the groove.

Shifting from one mode to another is a challenge for most creatives. We want to get into the flow, but there are a million things we need to do first. Then, when we’re in the flow, it’s hard to tear ourselves away and return to the ‘real’ world.

I coach all my clients on this. It’s one of the biggest problems we solve together – how to get back into the groove.

Here are three things that help my clients rekindle their dedication to their projects.

Lower the bar. Expecting to jump back in full speed just adds pressure. Let your return be as slow as it needs to, but be firm with yourself about getting back to your writing and creative pursuits. Build up to where you left off, if needed. Start with brief (10 minute) free-writes or similar warm-up exercises. I invite my clients to have a 15-minute ‘date’ with their project, to get back in touch without pressure.

Connect to the love. What do you love about your writing practice, your project? You may take a few moments to jot down what you love about it. If you have already done this writing, take it out and revisit your passion.

Design new support structures. Make appointments with your mastermind partners and set up a meeting with your coach or writing buddies to design structure and accountability that works for you.

Beating yourself up over what’s actually a natural ebb and flow cycle doesn’t help us get on track. Be kind to yourself as you resume your writing or other creative work.

What works for you to get back to the writing or art-making?

I’m plugging away at my Lisbon novel. Like most of us, I always want to do more than I actually do. Sigh.

As a coach, I know how to get things across the finish line. But that doesn’t mean that wrangling focus is easy.

My deadline for a completed draft (that I can send to an editor) is October 14. That’s when I go to Europe to lead Paris Sketchbook and do a reconnaissance trip for Capture the Lisbon Wow. A trip makes for a strong deadline/motivator to keep working.

But that’s months away. I need a shorter deadline for real focus. My commitment for this summer is to make the novel my #1 priority. ‘Summer’ seems endless and long. But when reality check the calendar, I have only nine weeks. This excludes the weeks when I am leading my Vermont and Montana retreats. (We have a few spots in those if you need a break from your routine to uplevel your joy.)

Some weeks have more client meetings than others. Like you, I have to squeeze my passion project into the spaces around paid work. Here’s how I have shifted things to honor my #1 priority:

No new work projects. This is harder than it might seem; I love to tinker with the systems that make my work work. My focus is my clients, my retreats, and my novel. That’s it.

I’ve set aside my non-fiction book for now. It was okay to work on two projects earlier this year. But I am highly motivated to get this novel done and into the world. Hopefully by 2025!

Reduce my subscriptions. I love reading others’ newsletters. The trouble is, I am easily distracted and think I need to know about/do/take on the thing they are talking about. This week I unsubscribed from a lot of newsletters that I don’t really read. It was hard to let go of hearing from people I love, but I can go back when I don’t need such focus.

Put the novel first. On non-client days, I usually write my newsletter and work on my creativity retreats. Now, I start the workday with the novel.

Join a writing challenge. Jami Attenberg has her free #1000wordsofsummer challenge. Can I write 1,000 words a day for two weeks? Indeed I can, and this will add an extra layer of focus. Check it out and join us. 

I’m fortunate to have a flexible schedule. These measures help, and I still have to deal with the insecurities and cluelessness about writing a novel. It helps me a ton to write about this in my author notebook.

I’m sharing more about how to stay focused in my newsletter, Impulses. Get your subscription here.

What are you working on this summer and how is it helping you focus? Share in a comment below.

Many of us have complex relationships with our bodies, and this course is an opportunity to cultivate a new, more harmonious connection with ourselves. Whether navigating a major life change or simply seeking to honor your body as it is, Reclaim Your Body’s Wisdom will guide you toward a deeper understanding and appreciation of yourself.

At Feathered Pipe Ranch near Helena, Montana, this yoga and writing retreat takes place on August 19 – 24, 2023.

Co-led by yoga teacher De West and writing coach Cynthia Morris, this will be a transformative and fun retreat. Experience the transformative power of yoga and writing in Reclaim Your Body’s Wisdom, a unique course that invites you to explore the innate wisdom of your body.

In this retreat, we’ll use yoga, writing, and creativity to access insights that have been hidden from us for years. With plenty of integration time and a relaxed pace, you can stabilize your understanding and solidify the insights you’ll take home with you. As a community, we’ll share laughter and lightness throughout, and you’ll have the chance to let your body flow at our dance party!

By the end of the course, you’ll leave with:

• a new language for communicating with your body,
• a deep awareness of how your senses guide your truth, and
• a recognition of yourself on a more authentic level.

Join us on this transformative journey towards self-discovery and embrace the wisdom of your body. Spaces are limited. Reserve your spot here.

Escape the busyness of daily life and reconnect with yourself in the serene Montana Rocky Mountains. Surrounded by the scent of pine trees and refreshing breezes, you’ll savor the delicious organic food the ranch has to offer and enjoy plenty of solo time.

Meals at the Ranch are delicious, homemade, mostly organic, and locally sourced. Gluten-free and dairy-free options are abundant. Beyond that, the kitchen is skilled with customizing special diets. You can also book a massage with one of the outstanding bodyworkers, take a hot tub, hike a mountain path, or jump in the lake in the warm afternoons. Take a hike through the forest, swim in the lake, or relax in a hammock as you access a new sacredness of being in your perfectly imperfect body.

Optional evening activities could include meditation circle, fun writing games,  Q&A, Dance Party, evening hikes (weather dependent), restorative yoga, Bonfire connection, and stargazing! *some nights will be free nights as well.

This retreat is the reset you’ve been craving, and you’ll leave feeling wiser, refreshed, and ready for whatever life invites you to do next. All bodies and genders are welcome; no prior writing or yoga experience is necessary. Bring a friend along, and you’ll both save $100.

Spaces are limited. Reserve your spot here.

Being a writer or an artist requires a lot from us. Yet it’s not all about discipline and focus and whatever it takes to finish projects. What are ephemeral necessities

These are the things artists and writers have in their lives on a regular. They include: 

• slowing down
• noticing feelings
• describing their inner world in words or images
• engaging and celebrating all the senses
• being open – to surprises, synchronicities, suggestions.

These are the hard-to-articulate ephemeral necessities things that make up a writer. All these pieces contribute to how and what we write. 

I cultivate ephemeral necessities when I get out of my routine. Travel really fluffs up my creative energy. So many of may values and themes are honored when I leave the comfort of home. 

What ephemeral necessities do you feel need a ‘fluffing up’? On my creativity retreats, all these things and more get their due. 

We particularly lean into the invisible requirements of creativity in Meet Your Writer in Paris. You’ll get access to the things that make your writer sing inside and out. 

The early registration discount for Meet Your Writer in Paris ended yesterday, but I am leaving it open for one more day. Find all the details here and reserve your spot to meet your writer in Paris. 

What ephemeral necessities do you cultivate regularly? Leave a comment below! 

I want to let you know about something magical I will be co-leading this year. The Vermont Landscape with Lorraine Glessner. I was camping with friends and we were chatting about American states we wanted to visit. Vermont came up and I said, yes, I’d like to go there. I’ve never been, and I have a couple of clients who live there that I’d like to visit. 

The next morning, at the campfire with my coffee and journal, I got a distinct inner nudge to check my email. I resisted because I am trying to keep weekends to myself and not my work self. But after three nudges, I got my phone out and checked the email. 

Subject line: Co-teach a retreat

Inside was an invitation from encaustics artist Lorraine Glessner, whom I had coached years before. She leads retreats and invites other artists to co-lead with her. This time, she was looking for a writer. 

When looking at my website, she saw my Paris retreats and felt there was a strong synchronicity. 

And guess where she leads these retreats? Vermont. A mere twelve hours after I said I’d love to visit Vermont, an invitation I couldn’t refuse showed up. 

I was giddy and alight with magic for hours. My mind wanted to sort out how, exactly, this kind of thing happens. My magical self said, just enjoy it. 

In July, we will co-lead The Vermont Landscape as Muse: Encaustic on Paper & the Written Word. I will of course be leading the writing part of it. Spaces are limited to just ten participants, so if this is appealing to you, check it out and snag your spot now. 

My Paris creativity retreats also had this kind of magic surrounding them. For more information on them, have a look at Paris Sketchbook or Meet Your Writer in Paris.

Leave a comment below! 

I’m not immune to the stuff that makes life feel deflated. I fall prey to the things my clients do: forgetting our milestone wins, getting overwhelmed, and letting doubt and insecurity into the writing room.

Luckily I believe in walking my talk. I don’t ask my clients to do anything I don’t do myself. So as I prepare to lead Annual Review for Creatives, I pulled the productivity bus over to get a view of the bigger picture. And boy, am I glad I did.

Somehow stuff that happened in the early part of the year got into the way back. I had to use some of the methods I teach in Annual Review for Creatives to recall that I had:

• Drafted my book, Design Your Creative Life
• Was a reader for the Courage to Write grant
• Took two writing classes
• Designed a coaching workshop around my book, The Busy Woman’s Guide to Writing a World-Changing Book
• FINALLY got my coaching work around values and themes into a workshop – Your Creative DNA.
• Drafted a novel! Complete surprise.

These are just a few of the things I designed, wrote, or manifested this year. If I had not taken the time to write it all down, I would have thought this year was ‘meh’ creatively. But instead, I realize it’s been one of the best years of my life. I feel empowered to keep going on the books I drafted this year and do other projects.

Make your year feel even better with a reflection process. This will help you feel a sense of wonder, appreciation and gratitude for what you’ve done, however small.

Reserve your spot in the Annual Review for Creatives workshop here.

I recently signed up for an online course delivered by email. It was a seven-day program, and it didn’t cost much. I was excited about it. But guess what? Guess how many days of the program I actually showed up for? You’re right – three. You probably guessed this because you have likely done this yourself.

While it seems like a good idea to be able to take a class on your own, often we flake out on it. I don’t blame myself or beat myself up about it – and I don’t judge you, either. I just think it’s a flaw in the way people are delivering their good content now. To get more people into the program, they sacrifice an actual connection with the people they’re serving.

I think this is the biggest problem with online learning today. Self-study, on-demand programs can be great, and sure, some of us manage to work through a self-guided class all on our own. More often, though, we don’t set ourselves up to do the work. What originally seemed like a good idea becomes yet another thing you didn’t do. It becomes a drain on your vital life energy. Even free courses can become a drag if you don’t show up to do the work.

I prefer to spend time with the people I’m helping. That’s why most of my workshops are live or include time with me. I’ve got one coming up I want to be sure you know about, because it’s truly life-changing and I love teaching it.

One of my favorite workshops is the Annual Review for Creatives. We get to take a ‘mini-retreat’ together to reflect on the year and all we’ve done. This program is designed specifically for creative people. It’s all too easy to let our writing or art-making efforts go under the radar.

In this workshop, we give ourselves credit for all the ways we showed up for our creative selves. It’s fun, empowering and effective. And it’s live!

We meet on Friday, December 9th for three hours. I’ll guide you through my process for making the most of the year. I’ll also share some of my highlights from 2022, including surprises and wins I didn’t plan at the outset.

Get your seat here. And if for some reason you cannot make the live event, you can access the recordings and handouts through December 31, 2022.

If you’re like me, when you travel, you get a ton of inspiration. When I lead writing and creativity workshops, I invite people to gather their inspiration in one place. I call this ‘Flashes of Inspiration’. It’s a page at the back of my notebook where I write down all the wacky ideas I get. I don’t worry about feasibility or whether I will ever implement these ideas. It’s easier to find these gems later when they’re all in one place.

As a coach, I am about actionable ideas. There’s a point where more ideas aren’t really good. We creative types can easily get overwhelmed and then just do nothing. 

But while walking with my group in Paris, I reconsidered the value of ideas. Whenever I get an idea, I think to myself, “This is a GREAT idea!” I am full of enthusiasm, possibility, and joy. It doesn’t really matter if the idea is good or actionable. What if just the idea in itself, that blip of SQUEEE!! Is enough? What if we didn’t have to take action on everything?

I get joy from looking at my Flashes of Inspiration list. I typed up the ideas I got while leading Paris Sketchbook and Write Your Heart Out in Paris. The last item on the list is where my coach or project manager wants to come in. Do I need to make this list actionable? Probably not. Usually, things that rise to the top of the priority list get done. Sometimes, years later, you will pick up a list and see you’ve done most of them. 

Here’s my list, shared with you, with all the wild and whackery of it, in no particular order. 

1. Invite a ‘focus’ group of people for different sections of the book, most specifically ‘space’. “Listening party” (from Krista Tippett)
2. Paint my one small wall with chalkboard paint and do patterns on it. Or paint a pattern on the wall. (recurring inspiration)
3. Go back to the Portugal romance – fictionalize it and make it fun. 
4. Write the Portugal novel as a graphic novel. 
5. Digitize the Paris coffee books – aka take photos and put them into Notion so when I am in Paris I can use it. 
6. Grow an indoor herb garden in the winter. 
7. Make some kind of art or sculpture from Steve’s matchbooks – what would be a cool way to display them? 
8. Print photo stickers for the sketchbook. 
9. Resume meditation practice!
10. Write up Gigia’s melon ball apple trick and send it to Cook’s Illustrated. 
11. Never eat molten chocolate cake again. 
12. Take a romance novel writing class. 
13. Take a graphic novel writing class. 
14. Go back to healthy eating!
15. Sign up for the swim class. 
16. Write 10 jokes a day. 
17. List and illustrate 100 things from my favorite Paris market. 
18. Try more abstract paintings. 
19. Do a giant painting for the living room and frame it in a gold frame. 
20. Turn Write Your Heart Out in Paris into a class or ebook (or it actually belongs in current WIP).
21. Something about Chardon – do a painting or write a bit about it. 
22. Do a book of all my illustrated city alphabets. 
23. Use Smart and Soul website for professionals who want to write personal projects. 
24. Illustrated series – sinks of Paris. They are so tiny and cute. 
25. When in Paris, have projects to do. Like when I researched and wrote a historical novel. 
26. Get a better tone for my phone and ipad timer. 
27. Make that dance mix I keep talking about. 
28. Set up a call with Andrea to talk about pattern design. 
29. Study French more. 
30. Hire a creativity coach. 
31. Write a novel about the weekend in France during NaNoWriMo. 
32. Do NaNoWriMo about the novel in France. 
33. Submit my illustrated journey blessings to a travel magazine like Afar. 
34. Gather my photos into a Dropbox folder. 
35. Choose which of these things I will do and when. 

How do you capture and take action on the inspiration when you get while traveling? Share your secrets below.