There’s a moment somewhere in the creative process that needs to be its own reward.
Only you can know what that moment is. Is it generating ideas? Is it this idea that you have a secret that nobody else knows?
With so much out of our control, it’s all the more important to seek out these moments of juice, moments to hold and hug that nobody can take away from you.
I could tell you mine (I have several, but there’s an Alpha juice moment for me), but that might rob you of yours.
When you find your juice, remember it and double down on your juice.
Beth Compson Bradford, better known as Beth Roars, comes on the podcast because she embodies the new way creatives need to be creative to make a living.
She’s a vocal coach and performer, but she’s best know for her YouTube channel where she reacts to various vocal performances. Like this one:
Be sure to keep the conversation going on Instagram, all @creativenonfictionpodcast.
Things Beth and I talk about:
Self-doubt
Taking tiny steps
Giving up on her dreams
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Whether it’s David Foster Wallace talking about fun or Chase Jarvis telling you to create without judgement, there’s often a sense that writing, and even art, must be earnest and painful.
Speaking from experience, the more loose I am, the lighter I approach the work, the better it is. And that’s something echoed in the work of Christopher McDougall too.
“I sort of learned a lesson in life that if anything is unpleasant, you’re going to postpone it, you’re just not going to do it. And so it’s like for exercise for dieting, any time you don’t want to do, you will find a reason not to do it. And so I think even though you know, all those aspects, with nutrition and exercise and everything, you gotta negotiate a happy compromise. So you got to figure out what’s the thing that makes it fun, and then do that thing. And so what I realized is that as long as the sun is up, I am not getting shit done. I’m not going to be at my desk. And so I get up in the morning and just blast out the door and just busy myself with stuff all during sunlight hours and then around five or six, I’m physically tired. I’m winding down. I eat some good food and then I’m ready to sit down like seven o’clock at night and just busted out till midnight, one o’clock in the morning.
You caught that, right? What the thing that makes it fun? Sure, some topics are heavy and not always fun. I’m thinking Eli Saslow writing Rising Out of Hatred. Not fun.
But there must be moments of joy, otherwise, why do it? And you can hear it in Chris’ voice that the work is fun and that’s the key to unlocking your potential. Play and fun.
As always, thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts and leave a kind rating on Apple Podcasts. Newsletter and show notes are at brendanomeara.com and please keep the conversation going on Twitter @CNFPod.
I can’t recommend it enough. Do yourself and a friend a favor and buy this book. You might want to listen and subscribe to his great podcast too, Chase Jarvis Live Show. He’s been doing this for ten+ years. Amazing stuff.
He made his bones as a photographer and might be most known for (these days) for founding Creative Live, the great online learning platform. I’ve purchased several classes that have helped me immensely.
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And if you’re feeling froggy, leave a kind review on Apple Podcast. We’re knocking on the door of 100. It’s a long knock, but we’re getting there. Let’s do this!
You’re going to love how Chase went about writing this book as we break open the pinata of what makes this book — and Chase — so special.
It’s so easy to get swamped and say that the book project is too big, or I have too much weight to lose, and then you end up sitting around doing nothing and feeling lousy.
The scope is too big.
But what if you broke down what it would mean to have a successful 60 minutes? What if you attacked each hour of the day with focus and rigor?
You know the old sports cliches of take it one game at a time. Well, what if you took it one hour at a time? Do the tasks that will give you great satisfaction in this hour.
Regroup. Reload. And get after the next hour. You win that hour. You start stacking up those hours. And those hours become a day. And those days become weeks.
Breaking Bad had a niche audience through four seasons. It was a hyper-serialized show, perfect for binge watching…except binge watching wasn’t exactly a thing back in 2010, even 2011.
The show was critically acclaimed and doing its thing.
Then all four seasons were dumped on Netflix, which was starting to stream entire seasons of shows.
The Breaking Bad was “discovered,” and it blew up. It had one of the great final seasons and an audience hungry for what would happen.
The creators of the show could not have known that binge watching would be a thing. Breaking Bad happened to be perfectly suited for it when Netflix started streaming.
As good as Breaking Bad was, it needed luck to blast it out of the stratosphere.
But they weren’t waiting to make a good show as Netflix came along. They did the work, great work, and were ready for when the Netflix lightning strike came.
Point being, you need to be doing your thing and maybe, maybe, maybe, you’ll get lucky. But don’t expect it. Use obscurity to get great at your craft and when you’re good, maybe luck will be on your side and you’ll be ready for it.
The greatest lesson I learned from my MFA program was when a mentor told me that my book was basically unpublishable and that it’s time to move on.
That stung.
So I did move on.
And published the next book.
It might be that once you’ve given it everything, that everything isn’t enough, so you must move along.
That book you keep failing to sell might be an anchor keeping you in harbor. Just because you pull up anchor doesn’t mean the anchor is gone. But until you pull up, you’ll never move.
Quitting isn’t forever, but only you can tell when you’ve exhausted your efforts. Quitting isn’t for losers. It’s for those who realize there’s far more to do.
