Yes, I’m getting ruthless! Which has everything to do with my important announcement.
This episode is an expansion of this post, which started out as an email to my calligraphy subscribers.
The show notes are minimal today, which will all become clear when you listen to the episode…
It’s another listener question episode today!
I love answering listener questions, and my favorite ways to get them is as voicemail messages at livecreativenow.com/questions, and in 5-star iTunes reviews.
I learned recently, though, that iTunes only shows me reviews from US-based iTunes users.
So if you live in any other country, I won’t ever see your review — or the question inside of it — unless you let me know you left it, and let me know what country you’re in!
The best way to do that is to leave your review, including your question, and then go to livecreativenow.com/questions and also record your question in a free voicemail, letting me know which country you’re calling from.
If for some reason you don’t want your voice on the podcast, then of course you can always email me instead.
Okay, now that that’s out of the way, let’s get on with today’s question from Maria, who left the following in a 5-star iTunes review. It starts with her review:
Melissa is my favorite because she is very not lecturey, and her podcasts are so easy and fun to listen to!
I thought I was creative, but after listening to Melissa, I felt like she was the honest voice in my heart, the voice that talks about all the things I’ve been afraid to face.
I didn’t even know there were other people out there “caring too much” to create! WOW!
I’m excited to hear more! I LOVE MELISSA!!!
[Thank you, Maria! That made my day! 🙂 ]
Melissa, if you’re reading this, could you please talk about: How to get permission to make crap when my parents/people are constantly watching to see if I can make a living as an artist?
I feel like I’m not allowed to make crap because crap won’t sell, and I’ll get lots of “I told you so!” ?
So right now I feel frozen and can’t make anything, any advice?
It’s a listener question episode today!
One of the things I love doing most with this podcast is answering listener questions.
In fact, in case you weren’t aware, there’s actually a button on my site — at livecreativenow.com/questions, plus in the sidebar and footer of just about every page — which allows you to leave me a voice message with your question or issue.
Surprisingly enough, almost nobody ever takes advantage of this.
Seriously, a grand total of maybe three people have used that voicemail option at all, and I don’t think anyone has ever actually left me a question for the podcast with it. [Read more…]
Today I’m sharing some thoughts that were inspired by a fellow artist and blogger, Eli Trier, who invited me to participate in her 31-day project, Demystifying the Artist.
Eli invited 31 different artists to answer the question, “What does being an artist mean to you?” If you join her Demystifying the Artist mailing list (and I’ll include a link in the show notes), every day in May she’ll send you a new essay from a different artist. It’s been really interesting to read what other artists have been writing!
As I was working on my answer, I realized it would make a great podcast episode, so that’s what I’m sharing with you today!
Two years ago I did a crazy experiment in tiny and daily writing.
I’d been wanting to develop a consistent, sustainable writing practice for a long time. I also wanted to learn to write poetry like my poet heroes.
I was already a believer in the benefits of a tiny and daily creative practice (namely, daily keeps your toe in the creative stream, and when you keep your commitment tiny makes you a thousand times more likely to actually make it happen, plus it helps you get back on the wagon when you stumble), but so far I’d [Read more…]
