Creativity – Page 2 – Home of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast

The Evolution of Hard Work

I’m obsessed with what means to work hard. It’s a big reason why I ask so many people about how they define it, and another big reason I use athletics as the perfect was to illustrate and measure hard work.

For example, if you’re a competent high school baseball player, maybe doing 100 swings a day on a tee in your basement is hard work. That will separate you from most other high school players and you will likely succeed if you have some talent too.

But what happens when you start playing college ball? Well, now you’re in a mix of all the best high school players who put in those 100 swings a day. So now you might have to do 200 a day to create separation. You need to level up to keep pace and succeed.

And should you be lucky enough to graduate to the next level? Guess what? You need to put in more reps. It gets that much harder and the fine line between good and great gets that much narrower, so you need to keep putting in more reps.

So what might have been hard work a few years ago, might not cut it anymore.

I’ll leave it up to you to measure what hard work means, but the fact is if you want to level up, you have to put in more reps.

This is how we create separation and rise to the top. Because you have to work harder now even with a better set of skills, doesn’t mean you’ve somehow regressed. It means you’re leveling up. It means you get to keep playing the game. What worked five years ago worked five years ago. You need to step up now. You know you can do it. Don’t be scared. Put in the reps.

Improve in Public

Bill Watterson’s brilliant and iconic comic, Calvin and Hobbes, is one of the most beautifully drawn and painted comics of all time.

But if you look to the very, very beginning of the comic Watterson’s drawings are raw, they’re minor league compared to where he ends up.

So by showing up, day after day after day, drawing that boy and that tiger and all the other characters that appear in comic over its entire run, they get sharper, cleaner, better.

You see this over and over again. The Far Side, Garfield, Doonesbury, Get Fuzzy. These artists are not fully formed, yet they still did the work and improved in real time in plain sight.

The work will never be perfect and you will never be ready and never be fully formed.

So work, work in plain sight and then notice how you improve. Don’t be stifled by perfection. Work and improve in public.

The To-Do List as Butterfly Net

By Brendan O’Meara

If you’re anything like me, you have a tendency to get easily overwhelmed.

Tasks pop into your head as fast as they leave. This is where the time-tested to-do list can act out another great function: a butterfly net.

Ideas can be like butterflies, all flittering around in aimless directions. You always say that you’ll remember that idea that popped into your head. Or you think you can keep it all straight.

Odds are you can’t.

So with your to-do list next to you at all times, use it like a butterfly net. When an idea or task pops into your head, immediately write it down on the list. This has a weirdly cathartic effect, like you actually captured the idea or task.

I find this relieves a lot of anxiety, especially since I work from home these days. My mind bounces from having to make new hummingbird water, to preparing for a podcast, to doing the dishes, to writing a column on deadline and so on.

Snatching ideas and tasks into my to-do list notebook secures them so I can act on them when I can.

The Aliveness of Silence

By Brendan O’Meara

After watching the brilliant documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor, I was especially struck by how silence is anything but quiet.

Silence is an ally.

As an interviewer, it helps coax more from people.

As a human, it makes you a better listener.

And a minute—60 seconds—is a long time. It is. And it can be a gift. I can recalibrate your mind. Temper anxiety.

I’m going to give you one minute of silence. You may use it however you want. You can breathe deeply for one minute, or maybe think about somebody special to you.

Here: Have a minute on me.

Yeah, But What’s In It for THEM?

By Brendan O’Meara

I’m a newsletter junkie and the best ones are the ones that have the reader in mind. And even something as simple as phrasing goes a long way.

What works for me, and I hope you keep this in mind for your readers, is when the author frames his or her suggestions in terms of what she thinks the end user will most benefit from. Austin Kleon does this perfectly.

Others, and I won’t single anyone out because I’m not about that noise anymore, will say things like: Song I’m listening to. Quote I’m pondering. Article I’m reading.

I. Don’t. Care.

That’s implicit in the recommendation and saying you’re pondering a quote is superfluous and downright egotistical.

I guest this is a rant of sorts, but when I see that I see someone who thinks he’s Moses coming down with the tablets.

But there is a lesson here that if we get by the stifling nature of always thinking about the audience, that keeping that in mind is a way to be of greater service, because all art must be in service of an audience. That audience, of course, is up to you.

Episode 149: Anika Fajardo—Writing is About Communicating

Anika Fajardo, author of Magical Realism for Nonbelievers, stopped by CNF.

“Part of me thinks nobody should write a memoir.” —Anika Fajardo (@anikawriter on Twitter)

“Writing is about communicating, so that’s why we have to send things out. There needs to be a point where it goes out in the world and we communicate with a reader.” —Anika Fajardo (@anikawriter on IG)

By Brendan O’Meara

Here we are again friend. I’m in the midst of rebranding so you’re listening to CNF, the show where I talk to badass writers, filmmakers, producers, and podcasters about the art and craft of creative nonfiction.

Today’s guest is Anika Fajardo, the author of Magical Realism for Nonbelievers: A Memoir of Finding Family (University of Minnesota Press, 2019).

It’s in the same class as Jean Guerrero’s Crux, in my opinion. You can check out Jean’s episode here.

In any case, I hope decide to subscribe to CNF wherever you get your podcasts. And if you’d be so kind, I’d appreciate a rating or review over on Apple Podcasts. They help validate the show.

Also, keep the conversation going on Twitter by joining me @BrendanOMeara and @CNFPod. Tag the show and I’ll jump in the fire. It’s all good.

I think you’ll get a lot of tasty nuggets out of this episode. I hope you enjoy it and you share it widely with your CNFin’ friends!

Creative Inertia

By Brendan O’Meara

Lately I’ve been overwhelmed. Right now I’m overwhelmed. It’s taking everything out of me to write and record this little piece.

I almost didn’t do it.

But I made a deal with myself that I’d show up.

So I wrote one word and then the other words didn’t feel so heavy.

And suddenly the fly wheel is moving and it doesn’t want to stop.

And I don’t feel so overwhelmed anymore because movement is power. Movement creates inertia and creative inertia is intoxicating.

So pick the smallest possible thing and start.

You vs. You

By Brendan O’Meara

I’ve got news for you: You’re not in competition with other writers, artists, etc.

You’re only competition is you.

Who you were a ten years ago, five years, one year ago, yesterday.

Are you better or worse than that person?

That is the only metric that matters.

You Anoint You

By Brendan O’Meara

When I was talking to the great poet Jericho Brown, a mentor told him he would be a poet.

Just like that.

And he thought, and I’m paraphrasing. It’s that simple. I’m a poet because I declare that I am a poet.

Nobody will make that choice for you. Nobody will anoint you. You anoint you.

You are a writer when you decide to write.

You are a painter when you decide to paint.

But you must do the thing. The only person who needs to give you permission is yourself.

It Can Never Be About Outcome

By Brendan O’Meara

It can never be about outcome otherwise you will grow bitter and resentful.

As trite as it sounds, it has to be about the journey.

If you want to be a great golfer, you have to fall in love with the driving range.

If you want to be a great baseball player, you have to fall in love with the batting cage.

If you want to be a great writer, you have to fall in love with doing immense amounts of crappy writing in isolation.

If you want to be a bodybuilder, you must fall in love with the gym.

We see the outcomes of these tasks—replace them with whatever resonates with you—but fail to see the titanic effort and work that goes largely unseen to reach the stage.

Fact is, anybody who’s ever made it, finds a way to fall in love with the grind. Sure, there are goals and golden coins along the way, but what you find is that when you fall in love with the practice the outcomes will take care of themselves.

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