7 Benefits of Joining a Creative Writing Membership Memberships have become more and more of a common model and part of everyday life for so many of us. Whether it’s video streaming services, gym memberships, monthly food or hygiene delivery, or activity boxes for kids, there are memberships for pretty much everything you can think of. Creative Writing learning is no exception. From finding community of likeminded creatives to expert support to specific journey steps to guide you along your individual path for growth, there are myriad benefits of membership for those wanting to develop their creative writing lives and author careers. Here are 7 reasons for you to consider:FriendshipDoing any activity with friends is more fun. Learning with friends creates a shared experience which deepens your relationship. Some of the greatest writers we hear of were part of a circle of equally prolific friends. Writing and learning from friends promotes healthy peer pressure and friendly competition to help each other mutually improve. It’s not just any kind of friendship, though — it’s genuine relationships with writers who get it. ColleaguesCreative writing life and an author career can be a really lonely path. It’s an odd sense of autonomy and independence. In some cases there are extended times of isolation. The separation from likeminded others can be demoralizing because those with whom you share daily life may not understand. A writing membership allows the opportunity for a community of professionals who understand the highs and lows, the motivations and the pains of the writing life, so they don’t need you to explain: they already all understand.InspirationBeing in community with creative individuals will fuel your inspiration. When there is a collection of individuals meeting together, each creative perspective bounces off the other and compounds the creative joy. Staring out the window brings a certain amount of creativity, but being able to speak aloud your ideas in the presence of someone else who will ask you questions to provoke the further development of creativity can be super helpful, too.MomentumThere is a certain motivation that comes from belonging to a community with a monthly calendar. With a range of curated content such as accountability check ins, expert panelists, live Q&A sessions, or hot seat coaching sessions there is a rhythm to it. The rhythm of content inspires and perpetuates momentum. Done well, the membership content will be curated in a helpful pattern so as to help members take one step after the other, thus creating momentum, by keeping the learning and implementation in motion.CurationThe best memberships are created with a focused progression of activities, learning, and insights to help members move forward. Usually three to five stages allow members to self-identify where in the process they are and at which stage. This self-identification aspect is really helpful to reduce overwhelm. Often an argument against memberships in learning environments is that all of the information is out there on the internet for free, so why would we pay for it? It’s true: there is a lot of good information out there, but it can be really overwhelming and time-consuming to sift through it all. A membership’s materials are in order and the most important pieces are selected for members to focus on and curated in the best order possible, minimizing overwhelm.SupportPanels of experts are a tool to support your journey. For creative writing this can be one of the most significant parts of the membership journey because of the laser focus available. Memberships are often run by experts, but they are usually only experts in one or two fields. This is where panel interviews come in. The best memberships will listen to its members and schedule experts to address some of the widespread questions that will have a positive impact on the majority of the group. Members may encounter expert interviews on topics from daily habits to plot development, selecting an agent to cover design.AnswersWhen you are writing at a new level of growth with uncertainty at to what lies ahead, chances are you have a lot of questions. Many creative writing memberships have an opportunity to get answers to your questions. Some may have an easy to access search function to see if someone else had your same question and others may have a monthly live Q&A session. You may be given the opportunity to ask questions ahead of time to allow the panelists or membership organizers time to prepare or it could all happen live. But, most importantly is that memberships can provide answers that you need precisely when you need them, tailored to your current stage of the writing and authoring journey.There you have it. Those were seven real benefits for you today of how you could really put a stake in the ground in your creative writing life and author career. There is no reason that you should ever feel alone. We are made for community and creativity, so a creative writing community is a no brainer. I have always loved the groups I’ve been part of as they’ve propelled me forward and my confidence grew. If you are serious about finishing your manuscript, finally getting your brilliant idea from brain to page, let’s get you the help you need. Hey! I’m Molly Ovenden! Creative Writing Coach, Author, Visual Artist, at your service!BECOME the Writer paid membership exists to create and nurture a creative writing community for those who want to move forward in their writing lives and author careers. Get started and sign up today: click here.
Is Your Inner Critic Affecting Your Creativity in Your Writing? I am going to take a not-so-wild guess and say that your answer is “Yes!” The Inner Critic can be a loud jerk shouting mean words at us or it could be low frequency whisper that raise doubt and suspicion about our ability to write or, in extreme cases, our right to take up space. The Inner Critic is a shame-mongering champion cage fighter. I know this firsthand and deal with it as I write this blog post. I’ve read other writers’ accounts of their Inner Critic battles. I also have heard from writing students over the years how they struggle with it. One student asked me for help, “I get criticism from family for prioritizing writing over household chores. It has gotten to the point that I often hear my Inner Editor saying that I should be doing chores instead of writing.”I was so glad that this student reached out for help to get their writing going. These are really important issues that they have raised. Our Inner Critic can often become an imagined monster of a real human who has been in our lives who said something to us that hurt. I can list several negative voices that have fueled my Inner Critic:1. My kindergarten teacher told me I chose wrong during free choice time and that it was not my turn to paint, after all.2. My dad told me to pursue any career that would make lots of money and he told me out of the blue one day that I would be a starving artist.3. A mentor told me that I must be doing it all wrong because there’s no way that I’m selling as many paintings as I said that I am. Photo by Daisy Anderson from Pexels This all begs me to answer the questions, “Who is in your life?” and “What are you listening to?” Check out the post I wrote about asking yourself five questions to unlock creativity in your life. Read it here.Some suggestions that I can give to encourage your writing habits:1. Keep writing affirmations about your identity as a writer. You are at a fragile stage now when you need to continually remind yourself that writing is a great use of time and that it is a gift. Writing can also be a form of therapy for some people and crucial to one’s well-being. It can be as important for some as eating, going for a walk to exercise with fresh air, or meeting with a friend to chat so you remember that you’re loved and that you belong. Writing can be crucial in maintaining a healthy form of escapism as you create a world to live in for a break in your imagination. It can also be a way that you can journal and find out your beliefs–or that you discover how you feel about something based on how one of your characters reacts!2. Do it afraid. Your Inner Critic and Editor is there all the time. I think it takes more than just ignoring it. I think it’s actually important to acknowledge that it’s there, but let it know that you’re choosing to write anyway and choosing to believe that you’re a writer. Perhaps redefining certain times and types of writing, too, could help. Maybe you designate morning times of writing for your playful freewriter to come out and have fun, and then in the afternoon or evening it’s the editor’s turn to comb through what you wrote that morning or last week.3. Do your writing in secret, if you have to, for a season. Often when we make changes to our own lives it upsets the homeostasis of our environment and others around us can feel threatened by our change because change is hard for people. They may fear losing you, they may fear losing control over you as you gain freedom and identity and self-confidence in your writing, they may fear that they will be forced to change when they don’t want to. Your safety is important. Please make sure that you are safe in your home or that you seek help if you need it. But, if it means that you loudly and visibly do your chores and then later you quietly retreat with your door closed (to a local coffee shop or bookstore) and ‘clean your room’ or ‘do some errands’ or ‘have quiet, alone time,’ then do that. Get up early, ‘go to bed’ early, write during meals (or instead of eating and then eat while you do something else).4. Join a writing group. When we are in isolation the negative voices can be louder than ever because we don’t have other options to listen to or to drown it out. On healthy and strong days this might not be a problem, but on weak and tired and lonely days (I’ve had lots of those over the years), negativity can be a spitting tyrant refusing to be silenced. This is when the kind words, the community, compassion, connection with a writing group can be really beneficial. Take courage and join a group. There are many writing groups on Facebook or elsewhere online and there are likely groups in your local area, either in-person or meeting virtually. Some might have a membership fee and others might be free. Check your local library, community education catalog, or community center. Whatever the case, being in the company of other writers who “get it” truly is priceless.Photo by Startup Stock Photos from Pexels In the end, our Inner Critic will always be present. Whether or not we give weight to its words is a different story. Sometimes acknowledging the fear that is present in the Inner Critic’s words can be the key to growth and getting words on a page. Other times, you might be able to have a conversation with your family member or friend who has instigated the negative voices and given your Inner Critic the demoralizing script to read from–it won’t necessarily be easy, but it could be helpful to explain what writing means to you and why you want to prioritize it. Even other times it might simply be your best bet to take action and do what needs to get done and not worry about what other people think. I know this is not always the easiest and in fact, it can be quite challenging, but I think that it is worth it to get creative freedom!What are some tricks you use to combat the incessant ramblings of the Inner Critic? Leave me a comment, please! đ
Braving the Wilderness as a 5-year-old Project Perseverance: Journal Entry #2Written on: Monday 5 February 2018Braving the Wilderness by Brene Brown p.13â…I just started sobbing. I didnât break down because I hadnât made the drill team, I wept for the girl that I couldnât comfort back then. The girl who didnât understand what was happening or whyâŠâPhoto by Alexander Dummer from Pexels As I read this, I can totally relate. I am processing many moments of pain, regret, disappointment, wounding, misunderstandings, mismatched expectations–many of which have been suppressed for years. I have often been experiencing just what Brene Brown describes here looking back at the devastation to her teenage heart and all the pain and meaning made from not being accepted to the drill team and how all this meaning involved not belonging and the despair of never belonging or fitting in anywhere. I know this feeling well. I cry now for sweet, five-year-old Molly who was beginning to paint a picture during free choice time in kindergarten and the teacher ripped down her painting (just one blue horizontal stroke, so far) and put it on the floor by the window. âItâs not your turn to paint, Molly.â Another child had asked permission to paint at the easel. Because I had not asked (because it was free choice time and we were told we could choose to do anything we wanted), I was humiliated. I never painted again except in art class when we were required to. I remember really wanting to be in art club in high school, but âknewâ that I wasnât good enough and probably wouldnât be allowed to anyway. And so now, 25 years later, I have learned to say to sweet, five-year-old Molly: âItâs always my turn to paint.â Brown says, âThese are the moments that, when left unspoken and unresolved, send us into our adult lives searching desperately for belonging and settling for fitting in.âThese five questions have helped me and some of my friends to reflect and notice when something is holding us back or keeping us stuck. They could help you, too. Sign up here.Leave me a comment.What are some of the voices that have echoed in your ears for many years?What do you do when you are “searching desperate for belonging”?What would you like to try today that you lost out on when you were younger?https://mollyovenden.com/what-is-project-perseverance/