Whenever I run a conference, I always present somewhere around 8-12 hours a day. Somewhere between 3 and 5 days in a row.
Every year, our virtual conference is a collection of what I’m going to be working on and thinking about for the upcoming year. It’s usually a combination of patterns I’m seeing in coaching writers, and the latest learnings in success psychology, personality work, or the publishing industry.
It’s often the highlight of my year.
This year, I have prepared for the conference a little differently. I’ve released videos on the “101” level of the content ahead of time, so we don’t have to spend so much time on it live. And most of the work in the actual conference is going to be a deeper dive. But it also gives me the chance to spend more time talking about different topics.
I’m trying to prepare us (as an industry, and as a community) for the upcoming years. So of course, sustainability and resilience feature big.
But the first presentation is on reclaiming the joy in writing.
Because I cannot tell you the number of coaching calls I have done in the last year that specifically name “lost the joy” as a primary problem in their writing career (full-time or not).
For some people, I recommend reading Big Magic. For others, The Artist’s Way. For yet others, Joyful. But so often, what we need to practice joy is a template.
So here’s what I use.
* lower the stakes
* question the premise
* practice the silence
* raise the engagement
- Lower the stakes – practice nervous system regulation, increase your personal security, and confront your quote-unquote-demons.
- Question the premise – most of what you “should” be doing as an author, you already intuitively want to do… listen to your intuition more than you listen to experts.
- Practice the silence – have significant periods where you are completely off social media, where you don’t listen to podcasts or workshops, and where you’re not on your phone or computer. Significant periods. Wait as long as you possibly can in the day before you enter the social media vortex.
- Raise the engagement – write what you want. Stop chasing trends (unless you are a very hungry Drafter–from the Write to Market archetypes continuum). Listen to your intuition.
Listening to your intuition is a big feature. Learning how to hone your intuition is a big feature. So often, when people take off, it’s for things they couldn’t not write. Things that they wanted to do or things that were calling to them. We think there’s so much “evidence” for writing to market. But the reality is, there is equal evidence for intuition and strategy. (And–this is an important “and”–so, so, so many people who think they “have to be smart” would do better being intuitive.)
If I could tell writers one thing, it would be to practice listening to their intuition. And if I could tell them two things, it would be intuition and security. Practice and increase your personal and relational security. Get a job if you need it. Keep a job if you have it. You’re going to need the security in order to be creative.
Love you all.
– Becca
