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.
How Your Senses Can Unlock Creativity Photo by Vie Studio from Pexels Sign up to receive a mini guide in your email: free inspiration to help you unlock creativity and empower your everyday life. Using our five senses is often something that we can take for granted. It isn’t until we have to go without one of them that we notice how crucial they actually are to us. Maybe you’ve had a sinus infection that caused you to lose your sense of smell or your burned your tongue so you couldn’t taste anything. Perhaps you had surgery that required the doctors to numb part of your body–or, you sat in a funny position that meant you lost feeling in your foot. Have you ever had water stay in your ear after swimming so your hearing became distorted? Or, maybe you or someone close to you has limited vision, is legally blind or color blind. When we lose a sense, the rest of our senses become heightened to compensate for the loss. When we notice that our lives are stuck or un-inspired or we feel bored, engaging with our senses, like, actually noticing them by doing things to be present in ourselves in the present moment, we can often unlock creativity. Photo by Nicholas Githiri from Pexels Smell: Our sense of smell can trigger memories. While we take time to inhale a pleasing aroma or foul odor, something is activated in our brains which make a connection to something that happened and often where it happened. Being present to “stop and smell the roses” can actually increase your overall awareness as well as connect your mind and body to the here and now. You have the opportunity for gratitude (if it is a pleasant smell) or the opportunity to decide whether your thoughts will be positive or negative (if the smell is rotten). This could mean you fill your life with fragrances that prompt your imagination so you think of certain people or places. Photo by Nicholas Githiri from Pexels 2. Taste: Did your grandmother make you special cookies for your birthday? Did you have a favorite meal from growing up? Similar to the sense of smell, taste can draw up feelings of nostalgia. Maybe you have travelled to a country or culture that is different from your own and you discovered a combination of flavors that inspired you. Maybe you need to go on a culinary adventure to change up your eating experience. When we become aware of what we are eating, noticing the sweet, salty, umami, bitter, spicy or sour sensations on our tongue and how the different tastes interact in the food we eat, something creative can unlock in us. You might begin to notice new flavor combinations which you hadn’t before. This could mean you try new recipes and begin a journey of exploration in the kitchen. Photo by Ashutosh Sonwani from Pexels 3. Touch: Often our sense of touch can be a passive one that tends to alert us to danger. When something is too hot, we know from experience to stay away. When something is too cold, we might get goosebumps. If something is too rough or sharp, we might be alerted to take caution, too, because it might cut our skin. I would like to have the sense of touch be more interesting than cautionary and preventative only. Plush blankets can feel cozy in the winter or cold glassware on a hot summer day can be refreshing. Feeling the contrasting textures that surround us might actually alert our senses simply to be aware of our surroundings instead of being passive until danger is at foot. Sign up to receive a mini guide in your email: free inspiration to help you unlock creativity and empower your everyday life. Photo by Ashutosh Sonwani from Pexels 4. Sound: Close your eyes and listen to what is happening all around you. Listening, actually hearing and taking in the frequency of vibrations can be powerful. Some music performed in an opera with a full orchestra can move its audience of listeners to tears because of the power of the sense of hearing. Being quiet, still, in silence, can sometimes be disconcerting. Many of us in this modern era can jam our sense of sound because we are afraid to let our minds wander or come aware around us. But, when we really listen, we can hear the hum of a kitchen appliance, the chirp of a distant bird, our own breathing. “If a tree falls in the forest, but nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound?” I think it does! Hearing is taking in the frequency of sound waves while listening in engaging our minds with what we hear and stay in the present. This means we can actually notice things that intrigue us that we might have missed in the past. 5. See: The human eye can perceive the color green with the most varieties in shade. This is why military developers of technology made night vision in green. Sight is a sense that nearly everyone engages with and perhaps, takes for granted most days. The sense of sight allows us to notice beauty in color, shape, form, line, texture, value and space: these are the seven elements of art and design. Our eyes also allow us to perceive the time of day based on daylight, finding a way to walk or drive, notice minute facial expressions on the people around us. So much of the sense of sight is for the “doing business” of mundane life to keep us safe, yet I wonder what might happen if we let go of getting things done and instead really looked closely at what is in front of us. We might grow to appreciate subtle details of beauty with our eyes that we have missed in the past. Use all of your senses! Sign up to receive a mini guide in your email: free inspiration to help you unlock creativity and empower your everyday life. How do you enjoy using all of your senses? Leave me a comment.