How do you write your book when you’re *also* trying to follow the creative flow?
Do they work together?
Or once you’ve got the inspiration, does it need a bit of the old discipline to get it done?
I’ve been talking to a few people behind the scenes this week, and we’ve been mainly talking inspiration, creative flow, following the ‘nudges’ from The Management and how to do all that AND make sure your creative work gets done.
You might be someone who’s good at following their inspiration. Maybe you can just get creative and get writing and get on with it and ignore the self-doubt.
But what if you’re not?
What if you’re like so many of the authors I work with and question absolutely everything to do with your book, your thinking, your creative process, all the time?
Work with your creativity to develop trust
Here’s the thing about creativity: you need to develop trust in yourself and your process.
Without trust, you can’t take the next step that your intuition tells you to.
Your mind will ask questions like:
- “But what will happen then?”,
- “Where will that take me?” and
- “What if someone sees me do this?”
And those questions are a shortcut to creative overwhelm and stuckness.
The practice of following your intuitive nudges cultivates your trust in yourself and your intuition.
Following your intuition will rarely lead you astray on your creative path. Will you always get a stellar result? No. No, you will not be guaranteed a stellar result. But you will be guaranteed an adventure.
Your adventure might be made up of small steps, one breadcrumb leading to the next as you peck your way forwards to a destination that stays mysterious until you get there.
Or your adventure might turn a corner and suddenly open out into a vista where you can see exactly where you’re heading and all the wonders on the way.
Of course, it could be somewhere between the two as well. But what you need to keep in mind is that the forward motion is what matters. The magic happens when you move. That’s when you get the connections, the conversations, the interesting moments that shift something and take you to the next stop on your creative journey.
Sometimes you won’t finish a project and it’ll peter out.
Sometimes you’ll finish it but it might not ‘make it’ out there in the world.
Or you might send it out to do its thing, connect with people, help people, inspire or heal or help in its turn.
But what about discipline? How do you get your book finished?
Yeah, this is the big one.
Generally, when I work with authors on their books, discipline can be seen in one of two ways:
- A must-do, or
- A tool in the toolbox
Discipline as a must-do
Sometimes authors can get very excited about their creativity: the ideas are there, the word flowing, and in an attempt to hold onto the flow, they might say things like:
“I’m going to write xx words per day, from here on in!”
“I’m not going to go to bed until I’ve written for 3 hours every day.” Or,
“I’m going to get my book written in 6 weeks!”
And that’s great! It’s terrific to set goals and strive to reach them. It results in a lot of forward movement.
However.
If discipline becomes a stick to beat yourself with rather than a tool to use, it is worse than useless, it’s an active deterrent.
Discipline as a tool in the toolbox
Using creative discipline as a tool is where the magic happens.
If you’ve followed your inspiration and the creativity is flowing and your words are too, then just do what you need to do to keep up with that.
If that’s 500 or 1000 or whatever number you choose words per day, then go with it.
If that’s setting aside a weekend to just immerse yourself in your pursuit, then go for it.
Just remember to check in with yourself regularly to make sure that it’s not become a chore or stale or otherwise a must-do/stick to beat yourself with. Because that’s when you lose the magic.
Whatever you do with your inspiration for your book or your creative endeavour, I can tell you this: you will learn a lot.
You’ll learn both about yourself and also about how your own creativity works.
And that’s the gold.
That’s the way that you get to feel like your creative self has a place in the world.
We’re human and so we create.
Don’t wait, don’t ignore the nudge.
Your adventure is waiting.
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