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Hello Family,

I apologize for the delay in offering season two of "Surviving Creativity." I had major hardware trouble and am currently in midst of a data recovery project. So please hang on for a couple more weeks.

Also, please forgive the sound quality of this episode. I recorded it on a ZOOM H1n, in an empty room of my new house--the room that will eventually become my studio. I haven't put up any soundproofing, nor did I have any of my real equipment. The H1n is great for meetings, but not really made for high quality audio to be shared with others. This being said, I felt the urge to drop an episode because I've been doing a ton of visualization/mediation with my clients and it has been such an amazing tool.

I hope you all find this episode to be a value add. 

Peace. 

ST

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Creating something can be a difficult endeavor, letting go of it so others can experience it can be even more difficult. If it isn’t a journal entry, you have to prep yourself for your creation to be in the eyes/hands/ears/hearts of others.

What’s even more disconcerting about this step in the process, is that once it is out there, it is no longer ours. We created it. We may profit from it. But our audience, the people who will form relationships with and to our work will own it in a very unique and personal way. You did your job, let the audience do theirs, and don’t get too hung up about it.

Easier said than done. I know.

Tools/Assignments:

• Produce two (2) things per month, for three (3) months and offer each and every one of them to the public. The easiest way to do this is in blog form or TUMBLR, AO3 (for the geeky/nerdy set), or your social media. I understand that this is easier for certain art forms than others. The goal isn’t to be prolific, but to get into the rhythm of creating and releasing to the public, and being able to ask for and receive feedback in a healthy way. Not refreshing the page every couple of minutes to see what people are saying about what you’ve done. But reading and incorporating the feedback you agree with. Nothing will humble you more—and make you better at your craft—than good and honest feedback. No ad hominem zone.
• Another way to approach this is when you’ve completed a thing, make a release/distribution strategy part of your creative process. It looks like this: Your thing is done. Now ask yourself the following questions: ‘Who is this for? How will it help them? Where do they “hang out?” What’s the best way to get this to them? Who can help me get this to them? When do I want them to have it?’ This is a rudimentary distribution plan.

You got this. I believe in you. You deserve all the success—-but you won’t be successful if you don’t get it out there.

Until next season.

Peace.

ST

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Hello All, 

I apologize for there being no tools and assignments. While I was recording this episode, I received some bad news via text and didn't have the energy. You might hear my voice shift and recognize a change in my demeanor. 

I've made a pact with you to release weekly content, and I wanted to honor that. I will post these written assignments when I'm through this...family stuff. 

Peace. 

keepcreating

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Tools and Assignments 

Read: “In Defense of Kanye’s Vanity” by Heben Nigatu You can find it here.

Please do: List your five greatest accomplishments. Not what society would deem great or accomplished, but five things you deem to be your greatest successes. After you have your five, contact two-three people to share them with. Whomever seems to be the most excited about your wins, engage them in a conversation around being a part of your “Brain Trust” as mentioned in Episode 4 (Ignition). Those who don’t seem as excited or are dismissive or are unsupportive, you might want to reevaluate your relationship with them.

Workshop Information.

As always, not everything is for everyone. But give it a try. You just might find some value in it. 

Until next time…Peace. 

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“You are worth every promise made to yourself. You are worth every personal deadline met.”

• Shawn Taylor

Tools/Assignments:

I want you to give yourself a week—a week from the time you’ve finished listening to this episode. I then want you to look at your calendar and carve out seven (7) hours of uninterrupted time: one hour per day for seven (7) days, but not the same time every day. Some productivity coaches argue that you should do the same thing at the same time every day as to build a habit. I don’t want you to build a habit. I want to you to fuel yourself via intentionality. If you have a smartphone, set alarms for ten (10) minutes before your chosen hour of creative productivity. This will give you time to settle in. Then set beginning and ending alarms for your creative hour. Then I want you to set a goal for each hour. Any goal is fine, except for anything having to do with amounts: page numbers, minutes of music, etc. Make your goals more specific: I want to write this particular scene, I want to finish this bridge and chorus, heck, if you’re a martial artist: I want to work on my jab, hook, cross, elbow, knee combination. Any goal except for goals that have to do with an amount of something, a number of something. Here are the steps, disaggregated:

1. Give yourself one (1) week from the time you’ve finished listening to this episode—including the day you finished listening to this episode. Look at your calendar and schedule seven (7) uninterrupted hours: one (1) hour a day for seven (7) days to work on a project. But not the same times every day. Once you’ve scheduled your week you’ll…

2. Set alarms for ten (10) minutes before each of your creative productivity sessions. This will give you time to settle in and prepare. If ten (10) minutes causes you too much anxiety, reduce this to five (5) minutes. Once these alarms are set you’ll…

3. Set beginning and ending alarms for your daily one (1) hour creative productivity sessions. Remember: set one alarm to begin and another to end. When the ending alarm goes off, don’t continue on, even if you’re in a flow state. Complete the thought and then stop working. You’ve made a promise to yourself to work for one (1) hour. Don’t over-promise or overcommit. During your creative hour, make your goals hyper-specific, but don’t make them about amounts. Don’t make them about page numbers or minutes of music or what have you. Set the goal for a particular scene or lyric or panel of a comic book.

4. At the conclusion of your week, please let me know how this has worked for you. Email me at: hello@shawntaylor.net and leave the following information:

5. Name/Location (or remain anonymous)

6. The project you worked on (a painting, a piece of writing, etc.)

7. Your progress before your creative week

8. The results of your creative week

I would really love to hear about the milestones you achieved.

Remember, not everything is for everyone. But give it a go. Y ou just might find some value in it.

Until next time.

Peace

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(If the workshop poster doesn't appear in the show notes, please visit here.)

As promised, here are the tools and assignments for this week’s episode.

Read Daniel José Older’s essay, “Writing Begins with Forgiveness: Why One of the Most Common Pieces of Writing Advice is Wrong” here. Please reflect on how you’ll incorporate this message into your life and practice.

Your work, from this episode:

I want to you work on noticing when you’re starting to get down on or doubt yourself as a creative. I want you to recognize your antecedent behaviors and actions—the things that you do before the full-on harsh self-critique. I want you to record the conditions/contexts that triggered the behavior. Then I want you to detail the behavior itself, how it impacts your work, your mindset, and others in your life. Once you’re able to do this, I want you to script a new way to react. Don’t care what medium you use, but try to craft new behaviors, responses, and feelings. By doing this, you’re able to readily imagine a new and more productive way to be.

Remember, not everything is for everybody, but please carefully considered what we’ve just discussed. You may be surprised by just how valuable the information is to you.

Here is the poster for my workshop. You can register here.

Until next time.

Peace.

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Resources:

An old (yet useful) primer on #chaosmagick.

Octavia E. Butler's "Positive Obsession" essay.

If the above do not work on your podcast host, go to www.shawntaylor.net.

Tools/Assignments:

Create your own anchoring/centering formula or mnemonic or acronym. Make it easy to remember. Simplicity is so underrated. Just because something is complicated doesn’t mean it is better or more useful.

You could try a formula like I shared in this episode (Imagination x Will + Focus = A Result), something that kind of builds on the thing before it. Or you could do something like a client of mine (a comic book creator) did to remind herself to keep practicing the basics. Her anchoring phrase was DRAW. Every time she felt stagnant, or sluggish, or unmotivated, she’d remind herself to DRAW. D.R.A.W. Drawing, reading and writing. She put this on post-its all around her apartment, in her phone with alarms, it was something she attributed to her current success. When she was down, she’d see DRAW everywhere and would draw something, read something, or write something. Didn’t matter what it was. He centering mechanism wasn’t designed to create something specific. Hers was designed to give herself a swift kick in the pants, to jumpstart her creative process. Once she knocked off the dust and rust, she was ready to do the work. Think of your center/anchor as a promise you will keep to yourself to keep creating, despite perceived barriers—design it to remind yourself just how dope you are and that you deserve to revel in and celebrate your creativity.

Remember, not everything is for everybody, but give it go. You may just be surprised.

Until next time.

Peace

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Hello All,

Please forgive the poor sound and percussive sounds. I was on a walk a felt that I needed to speak on the events of 1/6/2021. This is me raw, unfiltered and lightly edited. 

If you're questioning your work during these tumultuous times, let me assure you we need your specific and pluralistic voice, now, more than ever.

Take care of yourselves. Take care of each other. 

Peace. 

ST

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Disclaimer: If you're struggling with ADD, ADHD, Anxiety Disorders or anything else that would make starting a project overwhelming, please disregard what isn't helpful to you. You need to create on your time, at your speed, in your own way.

Tools/Assignments:

• I know I talked about not talking about your projects, but it can valuable to create a brain trust. Ask 3-4 people to be accountability partners. In your brain trust, each member should have a specific function and/or talent: One is the same kind of creative as you are, but established—at least more established than you. They can talk craft with you. One is the timekeeper. They’ll make sure that you meet the deadlines you state. One is the truthsayer. They’ll tell you when your work is not where it needs to be. Another could be the one you go to when you need motivation. Make sure you explain to them their roles. If they aren’t okay with those roles, ask them what they’d be okay with. Don’t assume. Then develop a meeting schedule. Meet once or twice a month as a group, and your individual folks (Mahyad Tousi and his people at Starfish Accelerator and Boom Gen Studios call this a ‘creative village) whenever you need to—and they have the time.

• Either journal or record your voice (or make videos) detailing what you want and how you’ll get there. Be very specific. Along with fear and the illusion of not having enough time, we rarely are specific about our goals. When you’re specific, you can develop concrete steps to make that goal. Along with detailing your goals and the steps to achieve them, add things that motivate you, activate your imagination, propel you towards success.

Remember, not everything is for everybody, but give it go. You may just be surprised.

Peace.

Until next time.

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‘Curiosity killed the cat, satisfaction brought it back.’ That is the entire saying. Provides a whole lot more context.

Curiosity seems to fall between two poles: Wanting to know how something works, how it ends, what’s it made of and curiosity just to have an experience without any preconceived notions, ideas, or expectations of an outcome.

Tools/Assignments: If you’re listening to this during the pandemic, please do this exercise from the safety of your bubble. If not, feel free to go outside.

1. Get a notebook and pen, or some kind of audio recorder (the one on your phone is fine) and I want you to imagine that random objects have a secret to tell you—their own secret history. Speak from their point of view, in their voice. These objects are speaking directly to you. Spend about 2-3 minutes per object. Once you’ve done this, I want you to have a conversation with the object or objects you’ve chosen. Let the conversation flow to its natural conclusion. Yes, it is mad awkward. But it’s a good curiosity reset.

2. If you have access to a magazine I want you to select a random photo (if not, pull up a random photo from the web) and I want you to give yourself sixty-seconds to study the photo. After the minute is up, I want you to take three minutes to write what happened five minutes before the events depicted in the photo and three minutes to write about what happened after the events depicted in the photo. This forces you to activate and deploy your curiosity. The thing about this exercise is that it seems like its end goal curiosity. But try it. I believe that you’ll find it has the opposite effect.

3. A final exercise. Taking the same photo as above, or get a new one, and give yourself a good minute to ninety-seconds to study the photo. At the conclusion of the time, using pen and paper or the recorder, I want you to describe the photo. What are the colors being used? The positions of people and objects—notice any juxtapositions? If you can draw, try to recreate the photo in a drawing.

These exercises are designed to activate your curiosity. To have you let go and just play for a bit.

Curiosity is an invitation to play.

Remember, not everything is for everybody, but give it go. You may just be surprised.

Until next time.

Peace

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Why are you the right person for this particular form of expression? How does it align with your values? What does your unique POV add to the culture? 

Here is the play I mentioned: The Recognition of Shakuntala (aka Abhijnanasakuntalam) by Kalidasa. Read it here.

Here is the Tool/Assignment for this episode:

Okay, so how to tap into your specificity? This may seem completely counter to what we’ve just talked about, but bear with me. I want you to take any of the following three stories (please forgive the Euron-ess of them all. When I was talking to my brain trust, with sadness, they all suggested I use popular European stories because most people wouldn’t know stories from the continent of Africa, the West Indies, or Spanish-speaking Caribbean), so, European stories its). Even if you aren’t a writer (I chose a writing exercise because it is the cheapest to do), take one of the following stories:

Goldilocks and the 3 Bears

Little Red Riding Hood

Or

Hansel and Gretel 

Rewrite them from your particular point of view. Ask questions that the originals don’t or couldn’t ask. Make connections that only you could make. Swap protagonists. Play with it. Remember, be specific without being unique. This isn’t about making work to sell. It’s about you acknowledging and honoring your specific experiences, to shine lights in areas we may never have thought of, if not for you. 

Once you’re done, see how much the story has changed. How much more “you” did the story become? What did that personal excavation and deployment feel like? How useful will you find it for your future creating?

If you’re deadest against writing, take the themes of your favorite photo, piece of music, whatever you want, and address that theme through the lenses of your specific personal experiences. What happened? What did you create? Was it a difficult exercise to do?

Remember, not everything is for everybody, but give it go. You may just be surprised. 

Peace.

Until next time. 

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It's rough out there, family. Don't be too hard on yourself. If you need to rest, then rest. If you're amped and ready, channel that energy to make something great. 

Be kind to yourself. 

If you’re up to it, if there is anything artistry/creativity related you’d like to discuss, please email me at hello@shawntaylor.net. Make sure to indicate whether or not you’d like to be named as I like to cite my sources. 

Peace.

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In this episode we discuss what is the thing, the idea, that drives your creativity. It's important to discover the  primary generator of your creativity to create work that is presents you as your most authentic, most values-aligned, self.  At the end of the episode is an activity for you to do that will help answer this question.  Here it is, in text form:

Part One: Your Values. Take a sheet of paper, yes, paper, and list as many of your values as you can.

Part Two: Values in Action. Take another sheet of paper and, referencing your list of values, write about an instance where you lived that particular value. Write about a paragraph for each.

Part Three: Skills. Reread your paragraphs and then tease out the skills you deployed to take those actions. Did you deploy humor? Patience? Active listening skills? Did you take a complete idea and make it easily understood by others?

Part Four: Your Meta. Now you have a list of skills. What do your skills tell you, and how you've utilized them, tell you? Do they point towards you being a helper, or someone who serves others? Do they point to your being someone who inspires and/or motivates? Are you someone who fixes things? Are you a guide? Maybe a combination? 

Finding your meta isn't a silver bullet, but it can inform you to make the work that shows the world who you really are.