Archives for March 2020

3 Easy Ways to Be More Creative Now

March 4, 2020 by jjscreativelifemidwife

Are you stumped to find a way to express yourself creatively?

Today in this post and in the video above, we will talk about easy ways, such simple ways to get into the creative flow.

We all get stumped and stuck with stuff from time to time. We get so busy living our lives that we never seem to have any leftover – any down time where we are able to finally get to that task of starting a blog or having our own podcast or making that video.

That’s why it is so important to honor your call to be creative – even when feel like you are too busy to do so.

Learn how to create in small chunks of time.

I have been writing and publishing content since my children were babies. I would write everywhere. In hot Bakersfield summers we would go to the Fast Food places not for the food, but for the indoor playland. I would buy one soda, a milk and some French fries and my kids were happy AND COOL and I would scribble articles and outlines on the back of the tray liner.

I would carry a small notebook in my purse, though now I often use my phone for this same purpose. One of my tactics is to listen to other people’s conversations and write them down, verbatim, so I learn how people actually talk so that when I wrote dialogue, it sounds like people talking not like a writer writing like she thinks people talk.

Do you get that distinction?

On to our next easy tip to find your way back to your creativity.

2.Learn how to create in small chunks of time..

For you writers: You may believe you must do your writing in one specific place. The truth is, that is a block you have created for yourself – another way to measure up to an ideal.

Waiting for your child to get out of their gymnastics lessons, sitting in any waiting room, riding on the train from station to station – pull out your phone on the notes section and put your thoughts down. Use where you are to stir those creative juices.

You may find you get so creative “out and about” that this will become a NEW ideal – but the most valuable thing you can do is train yourself to be right and be able to create – wherever you are.

Letting go of perfectionism will help you let go of doing it in any one specific way and instead, do it where and how and whenever you find yourself.

3. Find a creative accountability buddy either short term or long term.

This is a person you will reach out to and say something like, “Hey, I am about to start my art-journaling (or writing or video making or blogging or painting or whatever it is.) and I will check in with you when I am done.”

This helps in an infinite number of ways. You will be heard, you will be encouraged and you will get more done.

How to find such a person? Seek assistance in the communities you are already a part of, for example a facebook group.

How to find your buddy?

Ask around the communities you are in right now – perhaps you are in a facebook group.

You may make your ask like this:

“Who else is struggling creatively? I would love to have an accountability buddy to check in with today.”

I know, this feels very vulnerable. That’s the thing – creativity itself is vulnerable. The better we get at being vulnerable, the better we will be as creatives. The two go hand in hand, heart to heart, soul to soul. How exciting that you will finally make what you have wanted to make and be who you have always wanted to be.

Are you ready to commit to passionate action now?

What are you going to commit to TODAY to make your creative life take shape?

Julie JordanScott typing a love poem on the edge of a foothill of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Julie JordanScott is the Creative Life Midwife. A writer, speaker, life coach and multi-creative who “walks her talk” she provides the world fuel for creativity, intentional connection and purposeful passion in order to eradicate loneliness and the symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Writers: Let’s Fall in Love with Revision Using the Wisdom of May Sarton

March 4, 2020 by jjscreativelifemidwife

Just reading this makes me feel better about revision. So much of my creative life gets stuck in revision and editing.

Writer sitting at a typewriter revising her writing.

I am highly practiced at creating different versions of the same piece of content and ruthlessly cutting and shaping for different purposes – in fact, I make this into something of a game to share social media posts made up of earlier blog posts or book chapters.

For my current work-in-progress, I am choosing to address the final revisions and edits from this new perspective. There is no universal rule saying I can’t have a variety of versions for different purposes, especially in this time of using more content for social media posts.

I can feel the weight coming off my shoulders.

What do you think about revisions and edits?

.Prompt: When I think about editing and revising, I feel…

The idea of taking one piece of writing and using it for multiple purposes (social media posts, blogging, public speaking) is…

Julie JordanScott writing poetry at a downtown Bakersfield flower shop.

This post is a part of the Women’s History Month Writing Quotes & Prompts series from Julie JordanScott, the Creative Life Midwife, and her Word-Love Writing Community you may join for free on Facebook. During March, there will be daily discussions on the quotes and prompts we present here, too. Join the conversation and improve your writing at the same time!

The Magic of Letting Go of the Handsome Prince Rescuer

March 3, 2020 by jjscreativelifemidwife

Each day during Women’s History Month we will be sharing a quote, a short essay and a prompt from a woman writer. Enjoy!

I must confess: I have not felt like a very good administrator of self-rescue lately. I have been distracted.

It doesn’t matter how, or why and I realize as I write this morning, it isn’t like my distraction is a permanent situation. My distraction has happened before and it may happen again.

The thing is, as my own “administrator” or Chief Courage Officer and Leader Transformational Specialist, it is within my domain to pick myself up and set myself back on the route to reunion with my best self.

So far this year has been exceptional with many breakthroughs. Just a few more will take me to my next remarkable new beginning.

Sometimes I long for a “handsome royal person” to swoop me up and out of my challenges and yet I also know what I would enjoy even more is a partner or team with whom I could work to bring my vision to life.

No sooner do those words come off the tips of my fingers I realize I have that, too, within me.

Once again, I am grateful how just a few minutes of writing brings me to an entirely different perspective. Incredible how easily it happens.

That’s how it is when we are the administrator of our own rescue! Thank you, Elizabeth Gilbert, for the flashlight!

Prompts: When I take on the role of “life administrator” it feels like….

When I consider being rescued by a (handsome) prince, my natural response is…… and in the future, I would prefer to intentionally respond….

Messages of Mystery and Wonder: Start Your Creative Flow Here

March 2, 2020 by jjscreativelifemidwife

Last night I went through the drive-thru at Panera Bread. I thought a green smoothie would be a wise choice before going to bed and didn’t have the energy to make my own, even though my own are quite a bit more satisfying.

I have been known to have conversations with lamp posts if they will answer back in a satisfying way – and last night the young man serving me at Panera was a much better conversationalist than that. We found out we both had experienced unsatisfying sleeps the night before. I told him I was attempting to stay up late enough that I wouldn’t have a middle-of-the-night wakening again.

As I was ready to drive away he said, “Have sweet dreams tonight!”
Sweet dreams.

This is my before bedtime catch phrase. When I attended my aunt’s funeral and shared a room with my cousin, we discovered our mother’s both said “sweet dreams” which mean chances are our grandmother said it, also.
“Sweet dreams” – something I don’t often hear from others but was exactly the best pre-sleep message I could receive, like a gift from an invisible loved one, whispering into this young man’s ear.

Perhaps it is just a coincidence. Perhaps he is a long-lost distant relative who shares the same tradition.

Whatever the circumstance, I left with a smile and I am still smiling the next day.

Anonymous angels: mysterious and wonder-filled. Gifts from the universe or the holy spirit or from love… I allow the memory to wash over me, much like I allow poetry to float over me when I read or hear it. I don’t worry myself with understanding fully just like I don’t need to understand how the inner workings of my car engine function.

What I do know for certain is when I show up with my heart open, it is easier for others with wide open hearts to tune in and offer those simple yet meaningful gifts of mystery.

Prompt: Write of a story of a simple mystery from your life. If you are stuck, start a list or even two.

One list may be “mysteries” and one list may be “wonder filled moments.”
Then chose one that seems most inviting and allow yourself five minutes to write, simply allowing your pencil to float across the page effortlessly and with the energy of infinite love and gratitude.

Tonight, before you go to bed, share the message of sweet dreams. You don’t know who might be waiting to hear those simple yet deeply loving words.

Writing prompt quote from poet Lucille Clifton: Poems come out of wonder, not out of knowing"

How Writing Into Your Sense of Mystery Builds Trust:

March 2, 2020 by jjscreativelifemidwife

How Not Knowing and Allowing the Energy of Wonder Will Make Your Writing Better: Writing Prompt inspired by Lucille Clifton

Sometimes writers create elaborate schemes and outlines and wildly detailed storyboards regarding where their unwritten story, novel, screenplay or poem will take their reader.

This is fine AND I question writers who are only willing to use this format become stifled by the format itself.

What if the writer instead allowed the magic of the process to carry them and their characters into unexpected places?

As a creative, we may stretch ourselves right into a creative downpour when we veer off-course, like the surprising sites when we take the two lane highway rather than the slightly faster interstate highway.

Today, let’s allow ourselves that special flavor of delight. Let’s invite mystery and wonder into our writing.

Whether you are writing fiction or are journaling or playing with dialogue in your screenplay or journaling: choose this prompt as a way to bring the mystery into the scene. Allow your character work to fill it with breath and light and surprise.

Prompt 1: The fear of being lost is real to me. I remember when I was lost in the…… (share the place where you or your character got lost. Take 5 – 10 minutes to tell the story of being lost – taking care to note each of your senses.)

Prompt 2: The moment it all became clear to me felt like nothing short of a miracle. After all, who would have thought….. (write for 5 -10 minutes about what happened next in your life or in your character’s life. Make it colorful and vivid.

astonished: an everyday guide to a more satisfying life

March 2, 2020 by jjscreativelifemidwife

Astonishment:to strike with sudden and usually great wonder or surprise.

I didn’t get to make a list of moments of astonishment like I suggested in the writing prompt for day 1 of the women’s history month writing prompt series because a perfect moment of astonishment seemed to be brought to life simply because I noted the need to be astonished.

Here is what happened: at the same time as I was busily making a graphic for the prompt, my friend Faith sent me a message saying she had a book she wanted to give me. “The Bone People” by Keri Hume. It was published in 1986 when I was an optimistic newlywed and never believed my life would become overly bothersome or filled with grief.

My friend said she had intended to read the book, described on Amazon as “a mystery, a love story, and an ambitious exploration of the zone where indigenous and European New Zealand meet, clash, and sometimes merge.” As she held it in her hands, though, she had an unexplainable urge to give it to me.

When Faith arrived shortly later with not only “The Bone People” in her hands but several others tied with a purple and white ribbon, I assured her of my gratitude and my understanding that sometimes intuition rises fiercely and we are, at all times, to listen closely and follow it’s call as odd as it may seem to others.

I am one who doesn’t expect gifts.

Having her deliver an absolutely perfect gift to me was phenomenal, slightly confusing and absolutely wonderful. I am finishing my next fiction book and then, I will read this one, which she also doesn’t want back. “Use it to make black out poetry, or whatever you want with it. It is yours, not mine,” Faith said.

What would the world be like if it wasn’t so astonishing to receive an unexpected gift that was a perfect reflection of who you are, even to someone you are not particularly close to?

What would the world be like if this was completely ordinary – not to the point where we feel entitled to surprise gifts from friends, but it was like the expectation of seeing the crossing guard at intersections around an elementary school or the ubiquitous question of whether we would wear a sweater when the weather started to get cold?

This morning I had a humorous interaction that in the past might have upset me. Today, it simply made me laugh.

Not being hurt by someone else brushing me off like a piece of lint was a surprise, even more to retell the story and be compelled to laugh instead of being offended. Yes, this is definitely astonishing.

Over the next several days I will remain open to more astonishment.

I will continue to be grateful for the moments of awe and wonder – even at simple things – and invite surprising synchronicities to greet me as they will.

What has astonished you recently?

I encourage you to check out the prompt and use it to create. If you do, please come back and comment here so I may see what this astonishment inspired in you.

Women’s History Month Writing Quotes & Prompts for Your Inspiration

March 1, 2020 by jjscreativelifemidwife

How does a person become astonished in our snarky, competitive, disconnected world?

I’m reminded of the days when my peers wore plastic, slightly stretchy bracelets with the letters WWJD as a reminder to ask themselves, “What would Jesus do?” In the case of astonishment, I would vote for “What would Mary do?”

What would Mary Oliver to sustain a life of astonishment?

We know she work up early and highly valued the “early riser life.”

We know she loved to tromp around the woods sometimes with her dogs, almost always seeming to commune with nature. She was a forest bather before forest bathing was a thing.

Come to think of it, I find Mary Oliver’s life astonishing.

People compare her writing to Thoreau’s. Wouldn’t it be an honor to have your work compared to Thoreau, he who closed his seminal work with the following words? “The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.”

It would be astonishing to be compared to Thoreau or Mary Oliver or indeed any of the writers I will be featuring here during women’s history month.

Some of the best ways to climb into discovery is through lists – so for today, I will ask you to compile a list of astonishing moments.

Our tendency is to limit “astonishing” to mountain top experiences: trips to Paris or childbirth or overcoming nearly unbelievable obstacles. I invite you to look instead at “everyday astonishing” – and know I will be looking for the same and sharing this time of unearthing of words.

After you have compiled a list of seven astonishing incidences – big, medium sized and tiny, start with one and use it as an inspiration to write about it for five minutes. Write in a free flow, stream of consciousness style, not worried about where your words are going – simply move your pencil.

Choose another and write for five minutes. Go for a third and again, writing for five minutes.

In doing so, you will get to know astonishment like you know your inhales and your exhales: as natural as living your everyday life.

And then, as Mary advises “tell about it” in words, on video, in a painting or journal of any kind.

You, my beloved, are worth your astonishing experience. The world has been hoping and wishing and waiting for you to tell about it. The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.”