Creative Life Midwife

Inspiring Artistic Rebirth

How One Small Shift Lead to a Powerful, Continual Result

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One of the most recent changes to my daily writing practice is to include writing by hand the ten-year-vision statement I created for my ideal life in the future.  

I think of my vision statement as a ten-year-plan that is similar to a written vision board.

Here’s another thought: I think it would be a great idea for you to try it, too.

Before you turn away, please hear me out. There are numerous reasons I thought making this vision plan sounded crazy. I collected even more reasons it was irrelevant and a stupid way to invest my precious time.

  1. Ten years sounds like an extremely long time to someone who is my age. Seriously – I know how old I will be in ten years.
  2. Ten years seems slightly outlandish considering I almost died a few months ago. Since then, I have been living much more day-to-day. I rarely commit to invitations more than a week in the future, much less a month or a season or a year away.
  3. I’ve spent the last ten years focused very intensely on educational advocacy, especially for my son, and caretaking for other people. I am way out of practice in “creating my dream” or “manifesting my heart’s desires” so doing an exercise like quickly got stamped in my head as ridiculous.

I did it anyway.

This simple yet visionary exercise has made a huge difference in my attitude and my confidence. I am feeling a shift into getting more done right now, today, in more than one aspect of my life. All because I took the time to think about what my life would be like, ideally, in ten years.

I realized as I wrote out my ten-year-vision, I was reconnecting to many of my past hopes and dreams, the ones I buried while I was focused on educational advocacy and serving others not in an intentional way but mostly because needs appeared and I leaped in.

It felt good to take out my old intentions, like rediscovering an old pair of jeans a size smaller than your usual size and they fit and you even look surprisingly good in them!

Here’s a suggestion for you, right now, to connect more with yourself in the here and now if the ten-year-vision feels like too much.

Consider a month from now. Just a month from now.

Consider what you have going on in your life, on your calendar.

Consider what you would most love to see on your calendar if you were living your ideal life.

One example of how this works is when I made a list of my ideal life and I wrote, “lunch with a friend at least once a month.” At the time it seemed like a huge stretch and then it became a lunch and a couple dinners and some coffee with all different friends.

I manifested that ideal and more.

So it doesn’t have to be huge at first.

If you had this as part of your ideal it would be one meal, shared this month. And when you go to that meal, be intentional with your friend.

Talk about subjects that matter to you. (If you would like guidance with that, check out the writing prompts on my blog or the Transformational Questions on my Instagram account and use them to launch into conversational topics).

Maybe the person you would most like to take time with this month is yourself. You may do the same with yourself as I suggested with your friend. “Converse” through writing in your journal or writing a blog post or making a quick video. For the bold among us, I challenge you to make a 5 minute video and share it on facebook, Instagram or youtube or perhaps even go live.

One month from now, what do you want to look back and say, “I did that?” and “I felt that!” and “I am so grateful I did that and I felt that way.”

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

Julie JordanScott is a multi-creative who lives in Bakersfield with her daughter, Emma, in an eighty-year-old house with two palm trees in her yard. She loves writing and reading poetry, sitting by the Kern River and learning new quirky facts about literary grannies and what makes people tick. Her current project is finding ways to end the secret epidemic facing the US – with 60% of Americans affected by it. This love poetry project is another way she is working to eradicate loneliness – more information may be found on how you may be involved in the cause at EradicateLoneliness.com

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Transformational Question to Live Today: What if….. I forget to be afraid

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ballet dancers from 1924 remind us to forget to be afraid... what if you forget to be afraid, today?

I remember when I was leading a daily coaching group and we used the prompt, “When I forget to be afraid, I…”


We used what I call a “popcorn” method where people spoke “into the center” of the results that flow when we, as individuals and collectively, stop being imprisoned by fear and all the feelings associated with it.

Responses went like this:

When I forget to be afraid, I…

  • can do what I most want to do (without caring what people think)
  • notice the words flow, effortlessly
  • find answers to the questions that haunt me
  • laugh, a lot, about nothing and everything
  • go beyond planning into action

When I forget to be afraid, I…

and as we continued to go deeper, more conscious bravery begins to take form.

What if we forget to be afraid, both individually and collectively?

Walls and barriers fall when we don’t hesitate, when we stand up and speak up with courage and fullness and confidence.

Consider what it will take to get you there.

Do you need more practice in courage?

Today, do something small that makes you slightly shaky. It doesn’t have to be big and no one needs to know. YOU will know. Tomorrow, repeat – either with the same action or something else.

I guarantee if you do something every day for the next seven days that makes you feel nervous, you will find your courage stretched and your confidence is either soaring or about to lift off.

What if you forget to be afraid?

Write it, speak it, put it into practice.

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Listen: Books & Their Writers & Mystery May Be Calling You…

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Visual definition of synchronicity: bird, feathers, and ice

Have you ever had an experience where you heard about something new and all of sudden that “something new” was everywhere you looked? Maybe you had simply amplified your awareness or maybe there were other reasons, but nonetheless, let’s take a look at these happenings.

It happened to me this weekend.

I discovered a book on my dining room table, left there by me who knows when. The dining room has become something of an archeological site. We don’t use it much these days.

The book almost got tossed because it reminded me of books using pottery as a metaphor that was outdated in my experience. I almost donated it, but the title called to me.

“Centering” I thought. It felt simultaneously comforting and expansive.

Today, in my email was Maria Popova’s “Brainpickings.” This is one of my favorite ezines, filled with writers whose work I enjoy and every time I read it, I gain new insights into life. Oftentimes I find new work from familiar voices. Today, I heard synchronicity, which Carl Jung named as a concept developed by psychologist Carl Jung to describe a perceived meaningful coincidence. Some might sneer at there being any meaning in such coincidence, but I think differently.

Here’s what I read:

“Centering is a verb. It is an ongoing process.” Words from Mary Catherine Richardson, the author of the book I almost threw out. Synchronicity. Another way of the divine remaining anonymous with an insistent knock.

close up of women's face, with art in front of it, illustrates the mystical tone of centering.

“Centering, a verb – like healing – an ongoing process,” I thought.

Richardson continued: “Centering is not a model, but a way of balancing, a spiritual resource in times of conflict, an imagination. It seems in certain lights to be an alchemical vessel, a retort, which bears an integration of purposes, an integration of levels of consciousness. It can be called to, like a divine ear.”

I lifted my eyes, I had read enough. I don’t need to know more now. That time will be here before I know it. “I don’t need to overfill my mind immediately,” I thought, “I need to honor my learning process and take time to weave it together.”

Yesterday at book club one of the members mentioned the book by Rachel Hollis, “Girl, Stop Apologizing.” I almost poo-pooed it the book right away, except I knew Hollis was successful and even though I am much older than her, I still aim for similar success.I even have the audacity to be optimistic: I may reach much higher levels of success than I now experience.

Stacks of books on a curved shelf from the library

Today when I checked my Libby library app hoping my short term “Dare to Lead” audio book by Brene Brown was still there. It wasn’t. Who do you think was smiling at me from the face of my Libby library app?

There she was, Rachel Hollis, on the cover of her best selling book “Girl, Stop Apologizing” which was available in ebook form.

Synchronicity, again: I checked it out. When I first started reading I thought, “Oh, this writing style is grating and I am clearly not her target audience I don’t know how….” and then a phrase leaped out at me.

A basket with the 1962 publication "Centering" and an ebook of "Girl, Stop Apologizing" together.

And another. And I thought, “What if I read “Girl, Stop Apologizing” and “Centering” side by side? they both have optimistic, forward thinking, empowering messages – they are simply told by writers decades apart. I am right in the middle of that spread so why not try it? What if it made both experiences better?”

What will it hurt to try? What if I enjoy it and gain more than I imagined that I may pass on to my readers?

“Centering” and “Girl, Stop Apologizing”: a side-by-side, mindful exploration of what the content is speaking at the core of two women writing to the core of one woman reading.

I’m doing it.

What book(s) are you reading or thinking of reading? Do you have a reading goal this year?

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Self-Care Sunday is Not Always What You Think!

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I am doing something radical today: I am celebrating the entire day as Self-Love Sunday.

Maybe it is because the earthquakes got me rattled and everyone else seems to be running around buying supplies, but I need a day to focus on what makes me feel better.

So what I have been doing?

Well, I started with a chore I don’t like to do necessarily but the end result I love. Then I did some writing: a blog post and I finished writing a sales page I’ve been procrastinating about for far too long. That felt great – and this feeling of satisfaction is marvelous.

Next I washed and put away dishes, did some more writing and organization and then I made lunch.

There is no massage or pedicure or nap that feels as good as seeing the grateful smile on Samuel’s face as I bring him a yummy lunch made with all his favorite components.

Now here is where I got really crazy. I sat down with my lunch – a bowl of special K and a cup of coffee – and watched my favorite classic TV show. It was filmed in 1964 and was already old when I watched it!

I decided to make a bit of it into an Instagram Story and this alone made me laugh harder than I’ve laughed in days. Yes, even social media posts can be a form of self-care!

Next up is journaling and art-journaling and perhaps some attention to my content calendar for the week. You may think, “How is any of this self-care?”

All of it is self-care. Self-care isn’t a “one size fits all.” On some days, I may decide to get a facial and go out to an overblown lunch with a gaggle of girlfriends. Today, the inside-take-care-of-business feels great. Self-care, my dear ones, is about self, not others.

woman journaling to relieve stress and show self care

I can’t think of a better way to spend my Sunday. I can’t think of anything that could be more refreshing!

How about you? What are you doing on this Self-Care Sunday?

If you want a chuckle, head over to my Instagram and check out my Instagram Story. Fill in the blank… I’m sure you are a creative, too, like me!

Thanks for the visit! I’m grateful you were here!

Julie JordanScott is a Life and Creativity Coach who is thrilled to have an almost-empty-nest, a long-time creative practice, and has just launched her most recent program, “Summer Loving Instagram! Demystifying Social Media for Creative Entrepreneurs, Writers and Artists: She is proud to say she has won awards for storytelling, acting and activism. You may follow her on Instagram, YouTube and join her free Facebook Groups, “Word-Love Writing Community” and (along with Paula Puffer) Bridge to the New Year.

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Take 5 Minutes: Reawaken Your Love for the Writing Process

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Yesterday I attempted to write. I set my timer for five minutes – giving myself the gift of five minutes – and two quotes as my inspiration.

“When love awakens in your life, it is like a rebirth, a new beginning.”

John O’Donohue

“My sun sets to rise again.”

Robert Browning

I am sharing my writing now as an inspiration to you.

Now, for the journey my writing chugged through….

There are so many distractions as I sit here and attempt to write for five minutes about awakening love for my writing process. I see a broom and want to sweep, I look at the clock and I want to assemble lunch for my children and get out into the money making flow “hurry it up hurry it up hurry it up!” I hear in my inner ear. Oh, Lord I can’t do it all – my anxiety reaches for my throat to shut my voice – my writing voice – down.

Five minutes. That’s all.

My fingers continue to move, on the keyboard focused.

Reawaken love for the process.

Let go of end result. Welcome bad or mediocre or luke warm results. (Youch!) Yes, even lukewarm.

Awaken to the process being enough. This is so un-pilgrim-esque there must be results. There must be a something in order to continue I can’t just continue for a nothing that makes no sense.

Writing this is not a nothing, like when Cameron says “No one this or that and no one the other and…” he stares straight at me as he says this. “So I am a nothing and a no one, since I…”

Oh, yeah, that.

Process is worth all of the wonder and exhilaration of being on a best seller list or having twenty five people pay a thousand dollars to hear me speak.

Kathleen is pushing me and I am welcoming it.

My community is rising up to greet me and say “Bring your work forward with and for us” it is almost surreal, beloveds, almost surreal.”

If it was a job.

Is it still less than five minutes?

I heard the coffee pot call me, the coffee pot that has been creating really tasty coffee lately.

I think of the squirrel and planning and play. And me. And love. And movement.

And applause. All that in five minutes.

I like this!

Julie JordanScott, the Creative Life Midwife, is a writer, a poet performer, a Creativity Coach, and a Mother of three. One of her
greatest joys include loving people into their greatness they just aren’t quite able to realize yet. To set up a complimentary exploratory session, please visit here. Be sure to follow her on Social Media platforms so you may participate in one of her upcoming events. You won’t want to miss a thing – your future self will thank you!

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Bridge to the New Year: with Infinite Time and Money…

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Asking this question is similar to opening up a genie’s bottle and rubbing it: the more earnestly I rub, the deeper I go with past ideas of what would be really cool to do and it’s like I’m on a gentle roller coaster, we pick up more memorable past ideas and I end up giddy with laughter and grateful for the adventure.

So here are a top 4 tonight… I’ll start with a tiny taste and then I’ll go a little more deeply and maybe continue this game away from the keyboard and back and forth I’ll go!

  1. Own a multi-generational creativity camp and artist/writer’s retreat. This would be an off the beaten path place where families with children (single Moms, too) could bring their children and everyone would be able to work on their projects and plans and focus on bringing their projects to life. Children would have different activities. Grandparents could also bring grandchildren, single people… and there would be some group events as well as only adult groups and only children groups.

There would also be writers and artists in residence who would be able to teach/lead/facilitate to practice and hone their skills and to pay for their residency in service.

  • Word-Love Party Bus Tours of Literary, National Parks & Monuments & Women’s History Sites. This is a writing workshop on wheels. We would go from place to place writing, visiting and exploring. People could come and go and we would go and go and go! This sounds fun even writing about it here I get fired up. There would be a quarterly calendar. I imagine setting up HQ’s in Air BnBs or in host’s homes and hitting locations during the day… writing prompts and group work balanced with individual work (work being ultimately playful.) We would eat meals in community, have writing buddies to bounce ideas off of and have as fellow writing adventurers.
  • Help my friend Michelle start a Care Home (or more) for the Elderly and Mentally Ill. I would actually love to start a Board and Care specifically for Mentally Ill women and their children. Do you realize how many mentally ill women get their children taken from them at birth due to their mental illness? It is horrid and hurtful with lasting scars… which is why I have long wished we could change that, somehow. Anyway the mentally ill moms is my idea – Michelle really wants to care for the elderly and I would happily love to fund this for her. She is phenomenal human.
  • Start a publishing company specializing in spirituality, personal growth and poetry with the occasional novel and memoir thrown into the mix. ** I realize I could actually do this without a lot of money using POD. It wouldn’t be hard if I could hire out the formatting aspect and get an editor involved, too. This might be something I could do as early as end of 2019/2020.

That opens me up. I will definitely keep this one on my radar.

And I will write part two tomorrow. This is a winner. Love this prompt – and am grateful I returned to it!

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    Bridge to the New Year Day 1 – Introduction: A Potpourri of Me

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    In December of 2018 and 2019 we reviewed the prior year and created a vision for the next year. 2020 threw us a curve ball that has left many of us nostalgic and…. longing for anything different.

    Below is a throw-back post from Bridge to the New Year that invites you to know who I am at my core – and at the bottom you will see a place to sign up for our Mid-2020 Shift: #Refresh2020…. an initiative to return to Passion and Purpose, even amidst this chaotic. confusing, revolutionary year.

    Use this prompt across social media – link up at JuicyJournaling.comhttp://juicyjournaling.com


    My first thought was:


    How am I going to get 10 – 30 things about me that are in anyway interesting that won’t bore everyone because we all know, well, some of us have been educated – there is nothing more horrid as an artist than being boring.


    So. I took some time to brainstorm some things about me you may not know. I haven’t done much proofing so I apologize for any grammatical or spelling errors in advance. Take it as freedom to be imperfect.


    1. I have never seen any Harry Potter films nor have I read any Harry Potter books. I know you may be saying “How shocking! That’s appalling! I would LOVE Hermione! How could I not read these fantastic books?! Two parts to that response. 1. I take offense when woman authors don’t proudly stand up and say “I am a woman!” granted, I didn’t know JK Rowlings’ story at the time or I might not have been so strident and 2. When I say something, I usually stick with it.

    2. I am a melanoma survivor. I have a large heart scar on my face as a remnant and a reminder. I often cover it with hair styles.

    3. I gave up acting for thirty years between the ages of eleven-years-old and forty-one-years-old. Although I am not as active in performance as I once was, I have done more than thirty stage productions, seven films, a documentary and a handful of commercials. Weirdly, I have an IMDB page. How did this happen?

    4. Writing and poetry has been in my blood stream since before I was literate. I still love being read aloud to – it is one of my most favorite activities on the planet.

    5. One of my highest values is showing up, so if I say I will be somewhere I try really hard to get there and if I am not there, I am either near dead, helping out in a child-emergency, or beating myself up for not planning better or whatever it is that got in my way.

    6. I have a brown spot in my left eye. This is one of those boring trivia items just because I tell it all the time and it is no longer interesting.

    7. When I was in high school, I entertained my friends during lunch by doing accents. Now I entertain my friends on live stream… doing accents.

    8. My uncle Jim used to call me “A dandy baby” primarily because I smiled all the time and was very charming. I used this throughout my childhood and into young adulthood. I remember when we were traveling I would focus on business men with my coquette-ish flirting. I remember receiving at least one gift. In my first job after college at a rental car company, my co-workers were in awe of how many customers brought me gifts.

    9. I am an ordained minister, like Joey in Friends. I am also an actual ordained deacon in the Presbyterian Church, USA. I can officiate weddings and funerals and any other sacred ceremonies people might want performed. I have the honor of doing weddings from time-to-time though I really loved facilitating/leading/officiating my brother’s celebration of life after he died and would enjoy doing more of those.

    10. I have been blogging since 2003. I had a rather successful website from which I made a sustainable living from 1999 to 2007. I originally blogged to have an “unplugged” place online where I didn’t have to be my “professional persona” all the time. Everything has evolved but I have a block around websites. I have a new one half-assedly in the works and the designer of CreativeLifeMidwife and I never really hit it off in a way that made completion a thing. So. There’s that.

    11. I am an art journaler and mixed media artist. (I said that aloud here for some of my artist friends who have been waiting to hear me confess that.) As far as visual arts go, I have mostly sold photos but I have also sold several mixed media pieces. Not a lot, but… perhaps someday.

    12. I love to travel and aim to be a digital nomad once my children are up and out of the house. After today, with Emma’s health issues I wonder if that will be any time soon at all, which is a fair thought neither to her nor my vision for the world and the future. These thoughts are exactly why Bridge to 2019 is so important! To work through what happened and gain clarity so that intentions may be set and re-visioning may take place.

    13. I have been writing since before I could write. I would dictate to my mother and she would write out what I said and I would copy it in crayon. This is part of my ‘writer’s story” which I feel I overtell.

    14. Before I was 45 I lost 5 close friends to various sorts of cancers. I have never explored the impact of this, but I don’t know anyone else who has lost so many close friends. I just connected how close their deaths came to John’s death and the many losses of 2006/7.

    15. Speaking of 2007, when John died, I had an out of body experience. How I describe it is this: my soul leaped from the shell that hosts it and chased after John. God (insert whatever word you use here) literally shoved me back into my body and wordlessly told me “No you don’t! Your work isn’t done here.” I might not have believed this really happened except my children who were in the car with me when it happened (yes, the car was parked) saw my body rise up, flop down and miraculously not crash my head against the steering wheel on the descent.

    16. I am a PTA Mom. This didn’t happen until Samuel was in High School. I believe in parental involvement, but usually kept my business on the district level. I am grateful my time as a PTA Mom is almost over. My specialty within the group beyond being the secretary is doing all the public speaking and selling stuff.

    17. I have been known to say my children are my greatest creative project of all. I believe this to be true. My biggest fear in life is failing my children. I don’t think this fear will ever go away.

    Emma, Samuel and I at my childhood home in Glen Ridge, NJ in 2017

    18. I believe the world is filled with loving people, primarily wanting to have a positive place in the world. I recently saw this unfold when a totally diverse group of strangers and friends rallied around a young refugee woman from Cameroon I befriended while she was in detention at an ICE facility here in Bakersfield. These people didn’t ask about political parties, religion, socioeconomics, anything. They heard there was a need they could fill and they did, immediately and in the moment. This was one of the most humbling, incredible experiences of my life. I’m sure it will come up during the Bridge.

    19. I have four brothers and one sister. I have had one brother die. I basically don’t speak to two of my siblings and sometimes I wonder how they will feel when I die. I think I have grieved the loss of our connection for a long time, so I have no idea how I will grieve. My brother I am in closest touch with texted me tonight and confirmed we will all have Christmas together, something Mom had mentioned but I was afraid to follow up on. This means – during the Bridge, I will have a closer answer.

    20. I realize I have many more than 30 I could share actually, but I will stop here. I separated out the birth stories. I have always been fascinated with birth stories (there is a reason I am the creative life midwife!) and Katherine is named after a midwife – who happened to be one of my close friends who died very young – but I figured not everyone is as enamored. Oh, wait. Make it 21.

    One of my favorite photos of my daughters and me, circa 2012 ish.


    21. I am a relatively open book and will answer most questions I am asked directly without hesitation. Feel free to ask.

    Birth Stories:
    22. I have been pregnant 5 times. I have three living children and 2 other daughters-of-the-heart who refer to me as Mom or My Mom.
    23. When I gave birth to Samuel, I was speechless when I saw I had managed the impossible – giving birth to a boy. (If you are willing to have some TMI, I also had an orgasm when I had Samuel. How strange is that! I will never tell him that though… just too weird.)
    24. When I gave birth to Emma, my first loving words to her were, “She has a cone head.”
    25. When I gave birth to Katherine, it took me a while to look at her. I was scared. After all, the first thing I said after Marlena was born was, “Our baby is dead.” I think I’ll edit that out. In the end,  I chose not to. Edit it out.

    Julie JordanScott is The Creative Life Midwife and one of the Founders of Bridge to the New Year. Join us now in 2020 in #Refresh2020 to reflect, connect, intend and taking passionate action to create a truly remarkable rest of 2020. Click the graphic below to find out more and register to receive emails.

    Join the conversation in our closed  Bridge to the New Year Facebook Group

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    What Was Your Greatest Gift? Journal, Write, Remember & Invite Your Next Fresh Start

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    Writing Prompt: I remember when I received the gift of…..



    This week in our #5for5BrainDump writing experience, we are exploring fresh starts and new beginnings.    

    I was surprised when I myself felt blocked by the topic, even though I did oodles of research on a variety of approaches, I found myself stuck, stuck, stuck and then I thought….


    Remember how it is when we receive incredible gifts and we are so thrilled and that wobbly, awkward discomfort is still there yet we often choose differently because of the excitement, because of the thrill – like I did when I got the gift of a guitar in 7th grade or the gift of my children or the gift of an afternoon off or at times the gift of a drink of water from a stranger when walking in the desert.


    Today we’re telling the stories of gifts, received.


    Tell us a memory of receiving a gift. Later on today, write about this memory for five minutes for deeper insights – start with a comment here plus let me know if you would appreciate me building in a 5 minute writing session on a separate video.

    Please be sure you are following the JJS Writing Camp page on Facebook – we will go live there at 4 pm Pacific Daylight Time



    Exclusive content may be found in our facebook community. Please join us! You are most welcome in our Word Love Writing Community Facebook group

    There is more writing fun to come through optional fun activities like a livestreaming “train” or “Word-Love Party Bus Ride” FB Live Word-Love Party Bus Extravaganza on Tuesday evening and on Periscope (we have one planned on Wednesday) .

    There will be more about this after tomorrow’s first #5for5BrainDump session.


    I am thrilled to take this adventure in JOURNEYING with you!
    With Passionate Gratitude and oodles of love,
    Julie Jordan Scott

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    Daily Making Diaries: Four Months Until Katherine’s Birthday & Christmas!

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    • This post was written #5for5BrainDump style which means – it was written using stream of consciousness writing for 5 minutes. No editing or forethought of content. Images were added later. #5for5BrainDump writing is meant to be an exploration of personal growths and a mini a-ha incubator… a collector of insights and awarenesses written on purpose… for no purpose.

    It was a divine call today, I hadn’t even thought of stopping at the park on my drive home. I thought I would stop at a parking garage and take some panorama shots of metro Bakersfield. It was an ugly-sky-morning and I thought that was what I was meant to capture.

    I am focusing on daily making, a practice of daily creativity because I know in doing this – a determined crafting of something – it will positively impact my entrepreneurship. It activates different parts of my mind that have been lying, dormant, waiting for me to shake myself back into life.

    I decided I would purposefully capture images not at my ultimate destination of the moment, instead to capture scenery along the way. Interesting how yesterday’s imagery informed today’s choices.

    I felt led to a park instead of a parking garage.

    I did a fair share of stretching and bending and posing which felt almost yogic which felt great and was a response to my slight whining while I was getting ready for bed, “I need to stretch my hips more, this is ridiculous” and even though this morning I didn’t have “stretch your hips” on the list, there I was, stretching my hips as I squatted to get this, and other photos, so that I might tell the story the imagery was calling me to tell.

    Even writing this feels awfully intimate and not entirely safe.

    Two seconds and my five minute writing session will be over.

    The bells ring. I’m awake. I’ve been uncomfortable enough and thrilled enough this morning.

     

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    Instant Writing Improvement: Have Fun With Writing

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    Here are two reasons to be more specific with your writing. The first reason includes all your writing and communication. The second reason to be specific with your writing is about creating and living life as a content creator or maker.

    I will be sharing in my stories and vides about these topics as we gear up for next week’s #5for5BrainDump. Check the link in my profile to register for that free program.

    In order to make your writing better, be as specific as possible.

    1. Julie drives a blue car.
    2. Julie drives a midnight blue Mazda.
    3. Julie drives a midnight blue Mazda CX5 that is parked in a driveway in Bakersfield, California.

    In order to create a life as delightful as possible, speak and write of how you want to feel using as many different descriptive words as possible.

    1. I am excited to be as productive as possible.
    2. I am delighted to see what content I may create that will change other peoples’ lives, and the world, for the better.
    3. My enthusiasm is contagious when I share on multiple platforms and realize how easy this is to be consistent and continue to move forward, with love, always.

    Suggestion: Draw a circle in the middle of a blank sheet of paper.

    Write the name of the object in the circle and then free associate all the ways you could describe the object. Allow yourself to notice the tiniest little bit of description. Witness the object with multiple senses.

    See how it looks, hear how it sounds, feel the weight or density when you touch it.

    To go more deeply with your description, compare it to other objects.

    The last step in this first stage is to associate your memories either with the specific object or an object similar to it. With the car example, I might write about memories in another car I owned. Lately I’ve been thinking about my high school friend, Susan, so perhaps I’ll write about my Ford Cortina or the Volvo Station wagon she used to drive. For now… I am going to play with writing more specifically.

    I’ll be back tomorrow with more writing improvement tips for you. 

    Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world.  She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed media whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people’s creative lives.

    Her life changing, free #5for5BrainDump programs are available to you this Summer by visiting this link.

    To contact Julie to schedule a Writing or Creative Life Coaching Session, call or text her at 661.444.2735.

    Be sure to check out  her social media channels in the links above, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

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