The Time is Right: Recent Episodes
The Time Is Right
The Time is Right for living a creative life. We discuss how to live life with a creativity-based focus, and why that's a good thing for everyone.
Creatives need tools. The right tools for the job. But it's easy to get distracted by our tools causing us to procrastinate.
The post Episode 26: Too Many Tools first appeared on The Time Is Right.
Each creative deals with this in our own ways. There is no single best approach other than to use or perform creative work in the manner that serves you best.
The post Episode 25: Creativity During Tough Times first appeared on The Time Is Right.
In this episode, John and Kevin discuss whether creatives should focus on making weaknesses stronger or double down on our strengths. How do we even evaluate what a strength or weakness is? Should we label something as a weakness? We each want to improve in our craft, but what's the best way to frame how we do that?
Resources Kevin suggests reading Cory Doctorow's article about how social media platforms change over time. Why they always (so far) serve the owners and never (so far) their users or the content creators in the long run. Read it here.
John recommends a strengths and weaknesses listicle from Elite Daily. The presentation undermines the message, which isn't actually wrong but sounds like it is.
In this episode, John and Kevin dig into how the pursuit of perfection in our creative work can hold us back. They discuss how and when perfectionism can manifest during the creative process and ways they have overcome the pitfalls.
ResourcesPsychology Today primer on the psychological definitions of perfectionism: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/perfectionism
Mindful Art Studio: How Perfectionism is Killing Your Creativity:
https://mindfulartstudio.com/how-perfectionism-is-killing-your-creativity/
Psychology Today: Getting Creative by Striving for Excellence Vs. Perfection:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/our-innovating-minds/202110/getting-creative-striving-excellence-vs-perfection
In this episode, we're joined by Dewi Hargreaves, who is an author and artist. He shares his creative mindset and process, and his journey to living a creative life. You can find him here.
Resources MentionedEmbrace Your Weird: Face Your Fears and Unleash Creativity by Felicia Day
You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost): A Memoir, by Felicia Day
The Artist's Way, by Julia Cameron
John is reading The Creative Act: A Way of Being, by Rick Rubin but has not finished it yet.
Find Your Prompt! If you're stuck or just looking to do something new, find a resource for prompts in whatever creative endeavor you do, and unlock your creativity.
This month, we go deeper into the idea that the process is more important than the outcome. We discuss why valuing, even honoring, the creative process is so important to our creativity. We explore the significance of practice, experimentation, and intention. Also, why it's important to create our creative spaces and time.
For a creative: if time is money, then process is the currency and the outcome is what you've purchased.
Resources MentionedThe Artist's Way by Julia Cameron
The Slowdown podcast
The last episode for the year was supposed to be a review of our favorite books about creativity. That didn't work out so well. But we did look at what inspired us and what we'll be doing in 2023.
Resources Mentioned
The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron
The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield
A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker
Ezra Klein Show: This Conversation About the 'Reading Mind' Is a Gift
This time, John and Kevin discuss finding creativity. Finding a creative path in the first place, or finding our way back to creativity. Recent years have been both a boon and a bane to creative work. We offer some thoughts and ideas for getting going or getting going again, and why you should.
Resources:
John is reading: Essentialism by Greg McKeown
The Science Behind Creativity
This article summarizes some of the science around creativity: https://extension.sdstate.edu/mental-health-and-creativity
One article talks about the benefits of Expressive Writing. https://www.psychreg.org/expressive-writing/ We might not think of journaling as creative, but it absolutely is.
So is knitting, for example: https://www.mhanational.org/blog/mental-health-benefits-knitting
And, we discussed why creativity is important in Episode 1.
In this episode, John and Kevin discuss sharing our creativity. Not just posting a picture on social media or putting something up for sale, but sharing our process. Or even sharing the activity itself and discoveries we make along the way. How do you share creativity?
Resources Mentioned
Figuring by Maria Popova
Cognitive Surplus by Clay Shirky
Venus Theory, Musician and Youtuber
Mary Spender, Musician and Youtuber
Show Your Work, by Austin Kleon
Inspired to Write, Instagram account by Amie McNee
Reading Glasses Podcast with Mallory O'Meara and Brea Grant.
Are you a creative with an interesting story about finding your way to a creative life? Would you like to share it through our podcast? If so, tell us about yourself here.
Don't forget to rate and review The Time is Right podcast on your favorite platform.
Jordan Duncan is a multi-creative writer, poet, editor, blogger, and more. She's half of the Coffee Book and Candle blog duo. You can find out more about her and her work at Twitter and Linktree, and her poetry here: Quill and Crow Publishing.
Creativity Resources Mentioned:
Dan Koboldt: Putting the Science in Science Fiction
Audacity: free audio editing
Davinci Resolve: video editing
Movavi: audio and video editing
Canva: Image editing
Gimp: photo manipulation
Affinity: photo editing
Photoshop Lightroom (mobile): photo editing
Marijah V. is a writer, poet, editor, photographer, musician, adventurer and all-around creative. Marijah joined us for a conversation about creativity and how her various outlets have grown and changed. She's a firm believer in putting your creativity out into the world because you will receive more than you give.
You can learn all about her at her website: marijahvwanderlust.com or Instagram or Twitter.
Resources mentioned:
Virtual Reality: Oculus (Now called Meta Quest) with travel apps to explore the world you can't visit.
Marijah V. Wanderlust photos, volunteering opportunities, and more.
A Field Guide to Getting Lost, by Rebecca Solnit. Essays on finding yourself by allowing us to lose ourselves.
Why I Wake Early by Mary Oliver. Poetry as Essay. She discusses feeding creativity by finding a quiet place that speaks to you and just notice the details.
Are You a Creative Fraud?
Some refer to this as Imposter Syndrome, but that can be a serious condition, and while it doesn’t have an official diagnosis, psychologists treat it seriously. Untreated, the effects can be devastating. If you believe your condition is serious or chronic, seek a professional therapist.
What we’re talking about are the feelings creatives get periodically where we believe our work doesn’t stand up to that of others or the vision we set for ourselves.
Feeling like a Creative fraud.
In this episode, John and Kevin discuss the times they've experienced this and what they've done to cope with and get beyond these periods.
Resources Mentioned:
Skill Share Guide: Creative Imposter Syndrome: How to Beat Feeling Like an Artistic Fraud
Time Article: How to Deal with Imposter Syndrome
APA Article: Feeling Like a Fraud
Psychology Today Article: Imposter Syndrome
An Introvert's Guide to Beating Imposter Syndrome
Kristin Osani is a queer writer who lives in Kyoto, Japan where she works as a freelance Japanese-to-English video game translator when she’s not wordsmithing, working on nerdy cross-stitching, or cuddling her two cats (three if you include her husband).
Her fiction has appeared in FlashPoint SF, the Arcanist, and Ghost Orchid Press’s Beyond the Veil: Supernatural Tales of Queer Love anthology.
Kristin's website is https://www.kristinosani.com/
Kristin shared her experience with creativity through her work as a video-game translator, her writing, cross-stitching, and drawing.
Kristin's creative resources:
For writers struggling to create protagonists well: The Protagonist Problem.
Brandon Sanderson's Creative Writing Lectures on Youtube
Ellen Brock's YouTube channel
Writing Excuses Podcast
Save the Cat!, by Blake Snyder
Take Off Your Pants!: Outline Your Books for Faster, Better Writing, by Libbie Hawker
The Emotional Craft of Fiction: How to Write the Story Beneath the Surface, by Donald Maas
Wonderbook: the Illustrated Guide to Creating Fiction, by Jeff VanderMeer
The Nebula Conference is a great place for SFF writers to connect and learn.
John suggested The Listening Book: Discovering Your Own Music, by W. A. Mathieu
Kevin mentioned** the book The Lady from the Black Lagoon, by Mallory O'Meara
**Actually, Kevin mis-titled the book repeatedly in the episode. That's what happens when you don't look at your notes. 🙄 Apologies to Mallory O'Meara.
This time we're joined by author, artist (painting, NFT, sculptor), musician, and teacher Jonathan Hansen, aka Johan Michaels. We talked about deciding which creative endeavor to pick up when he has so many, creative energy, his influences, writing, and music. Jonathan also talked about NFTs as a creator.
Jonathan's website: https://johanmichaels.weebly.com/
Resources we mentioned:
- A good video explaining NFTs
- Pexels is a resource for royalty free videos.
- Distrokid is a service that distributes music to all the major platforms, like Spotify and Apple.
- Steven King's On Writing is a good resource for writers.
- Fabula - storytelling cards
- NFT Marketplaces you can browse: OpenSea and Objkt
Also, take a walk when the going gets tough, and keep a creativity journal.
We continue our interviews, this time with Sci-Fi author Geoffreyjen Edwards.
We get into many aspects of creativity, including collaboration and how challenging yourself by going big rather than going home can be a successful creative strategy.
Before becoming a science-fiction writer, Geoffreyjen led a successful career as a full-time scientist. Indeed, he populates his world-building by drawing on experience in fields as diverse as astrophysics, artificial intelligence, geomatics, design, disability studies and the performing arts. Plenum: The First Book of Deo, is his first published novel. Dr. Edwards lives and works in Quebec City, Canada, and has published smaller pieces in both English and French. He also is a fashion designer. Look him up at http://www.geoffreyjenedwards.com.
Our Resources Mentioned:
Kevin talked about Art Breder: a site for making art cooperatively with artificial intelligence.
John suggested everyone bring and use their phone's recorder to capture notes and ideas in those hot moments they occur. Also, a towel.
Geoffreyjen mentioned a site for ongoing conversations called Infinite Conversations. They are also running a publishing cooperative called Cosmos Coop.
Our first interview with someone who isn't us! We spoke with Lily Hammer (aka Kate), a writer, drummer, photographer, and all around creative. She talked about her approach to creativity, and how her creative efforts and interests have changed over time. She also shared how creativity helped her cope with a dark time in her life. How placing creativity at the forefront helps her be the hopeful and creative person she is today.
You can find Kate (Lily) on her website, Twitter, and Instagram.
This week's creativity resources
Kate mentioned a TED Talk by Sir Ken Robinson during the interview. She also suggested the book Deep Work by Cal Newport.
John talked about the book Silence by John Cage.
Kevin recommended the poet Joy Harjo's body of work. Poetry, essays, and flashes of memory. You can sample her work here and her books are here.
In this episode, John interviews Kevin about his creativity.
Kevin talks about why he writes and what happens when he lacks creative focus. He discuses taking his creativity full time and his other creative outlets, like playing guitar.
Our interviews highlight people, famous or not so famous, living lives focused on their creativity.
Creativity Resources:
Kevin suggests using podcasts and searching often. We often forget that people publish new ones all the time.
John recommends Get Back, the Beatles documentary by Peter Jackson on Disney+.
In this episode, Kevin interviews John about his creativity.
John talks about why he focuses on music, and why having a creative focus is important to him. He also discusses other creative endeavors, such as photography, and doing creative work with his partner.
This is the first in a series of interviews with people living creatively. Our goal is to highlight people (famous or not) living creative lives.
Creativity Resources: John and Kevin unknowingly shared the same resource. (Something incorrectly attributed to great minds thinking alike.) But the unanimous recommendation is: The Marginalian by Maria Popova. Maria shares posts two to three times a week about creativity, love, poetry, science, philosophy, and really captures the essence of living a creative life.
In episode 5, John and Kevin discuss creativity as a process rather than an outcome. Every creative person produces finished work from time to time. For each creative work, however, there is a process of continuous learning and improvement that goes into it. They discuss the importance of a growth mindset and being open to viewing each work as a step along the way of a much longer journey.
The guys also talk about studies done in the 1960s that show we are all born creative and we can recapture that creativity at any point in our lives.
Resources
Much of the material for this episode was drawn from an article by James Clear: Creativity is a Process, Not an Event. Check it out on Jame’s Clear’s site.
Jame Clear and the hosts also discuss a landmark study done by George Land and Beth Jarman in 1968. Click here for an article and TED Talk on this study.
The Funniest Joke in the World (you’ll know why we sent you here)
Kevin brought Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind by Scott Barry Kaufman and Carolyn Gregoire. If you want to understand what being creative does to our brains and bodies, this is a great resource.
John introduced the book Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon.
Kleon’s book discusses many of the same subjects as the hosts do in the podcast but puts a great deal of emphasis on learning from, and emulating, your influences as a way to help find your own voice. In turn, Kleon discusses the value of learning from the influences that inspired your creative heroes.