the creative journey
weekly story work exercise
If you’re new here, Story Work is the name of my current book-in-progress. It describes a process of reflecting, reclaiming, and reimagining the stories of our lives. It involves looking at your life experiences as creative material that you have the power to shape.
The weekly story work topics cover universal life themes with references from literature, philosophy, science, and spirituality; offering perspectives that spark ideas for personal growth and creative expression.
Paid subscribers receive Story Work exercises every Sunday night at 8 pm et.
Hi friends,
We just wrapped up friendship matters, our latest story work series. The story work series started back in late 2022, and I’ve been posting new exercises every week since then. By the way, did you know that on the second Saturday of each month, I gather with members of the Inner Story Writing Circle on Zoom, and they have the opportunity to share pieces that they wrote from the weekly story work exercises and get supportive feedback? Members also have the option to share any other piece of writing they are working on and get feedback on that.
As far as the feedback goes, the emphasis is on storytelling and emotional impact, not literary critiquing. Sharing is optional and members are invited to attend these sessions even if they don’t plan on sharing. It’s an opportunity to set a writing goal, hold yourself accountable, practice creative courage, and receive feedback. It’s also a beautiful way to recharge in creative community with other writers.
If you are someone who works on these exercises alone and you’re craving creative community, you can learn more about the Inner Story Writing Circle here.
So anyway, as many of you know, I’m working on the last three chapters of a book project with a November deadline quickly approaching. To give myself some breathing room for the next few weeks, I will be resharing and remixing previously posted story work exercises, focusing on ones that support your writing identity.
Our next theme is the creative journey. I will be sharing a series of posts that will awaken, affirm, and reinforce your creative identity.
I know you wear all kinds of hats in your life. Some of them may make you feel like your creative identity is stifled and compartmentalized. But you’re here on Substack, specifically reading this particular newsletter, because you have creative callings and you value creative courage. I’m here to support that part of you and offer ideas and exercises that empower your inner artist.
Whether these exercises are review for you or brand new, I encourage you to revisit them often when you need to remember who your inner artist is and why committing to your creative callings is worth the effort.
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identity and influences
“And, so, knowing why you create—figuring out your impulses and drives and motivations—and also becoming aware of your creativity-killing fears and attitudes can make all the difference between giving up and doing the imaginative work you want to do in the world." — Meta Wagner, What’s Your Creative Type?
Is it hard for you to own your creative identity as a writer, maker, artist, storyteller, etc.? Whether you are published or not, whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned professional, your creative callings are valid and hold gifts for you.
(For the purposes of this exercise, I will be focusing on writing, but feel free to replace that with any calling that resonates most for you!)
Your creative journey doesn’t have to follow a specific course for you to believe that your adventure is valid. Have you allowed yourself to imagine all the places that writing could take you? Writing is a journey of self-discovery, after all.
We need to understand our reasons for taking this journey, so we can be consciously aware of why it's worth the effort. This is so important because our lives are already full of roles and responsibilities that seem more urgent than our creative callings and are often more validated by others.
Humans are driven by need. So we can learn a lot about our intrinsic and extrinsic motivations by being honest with ourselves about what needs we expect writing to fulfill for us. One way to take stock is through the lens of authentic and artificial needs.
An artificial need is something you desire to satisfy your ego. If it has anything to do with acceptance, validation, reward or external power of any kind, it is an artificial need. A desire to prove yourself or your worth or your talent. Artificial needs for writing might be to win awards, to get attention, to feel important, to prove something or to elevate your feeling of significance in the world.
An authentic need is something you desire to feed your soul. Think values. Think callings. When we satisfy our authentic needs, we put ourselves in alignment with our inner power which expands our creative possibilities. Authentic needs for writing may include deepening your connection to the divine, healing wounds and traumas, or dreaming up stories that you feel called to share with the world.
When you are honest with yourself about your needs and motivations, this awareness forms the foundation of your writing practice. When discipline fails, your authentic reasons don't go away. They persist.
Owning your identity as a writer may cause some dissonance or imposter syndrome based on your experiences earlier in life. I can help with that. At the end of this post, there is a powerful exercise that will provide evidence of your identity as a writer, reconnect you to your inner artist, and give you a renewed outlook on your creative possibilities.
But first, let’s make one thing clear. Your identity as a writer does not need to be validated by social proof. Your writer identity is validated by the steps you take to align with it. Writers write their way through life. Writers write to know what they’re thinking, to communicate what they care about, to express their inner visions. And yes, all writers struggle at one point or another to find their voices and get words on the page.
Many of us have our creative confidence battered and bruised by our families, schools, jobs, relationships, cultures, and society-at-large. Maybe you were told that you’re not creative, that making art is not a real career, or that creative writing is an indulgence or waste of time. When you are aware of the beliefs, attitudes, and influences that have shaped your creative journey, you can see how these factors influence the energy you are bringing into your current endeavors.
For the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing tools for creative courage and resilience, addressing the inner work that we must do to be resilient through the ups and downs of the journey. Think about it. We are baring our souls, revealing the deepest parts of ourselves, subjecting ourselves to rejections, and perhaps little to no external reward at times. Without self-care and a clear understanding of your intrinsic motivation, you will burn out or become disillusioned quickly. Without a genuine desire to get something more out of it than external recognition, your work will not be as satisfying and it won’t be sustainable.
To affirm your creative identity and reconnect with your inner artist, below I am offering a timeline exercise that I share with all my clients and participants. You will capture meaningful moments, seasons, and milestones from your creative journey that stand out in your memory. Be as detailed or as general as you like. Make a note of the narratives and mindsets that were influencing you through each season.
This exercise will help you look back and see how your interests, outlets, and motivations have evolved. When you’re done and you see how writing has woven its way through your life, you will have all the evidence you need to affirm your identity as a writer and open yourself to new possibilities for the next season of your journey.
If you’ve done the timeline exercise before, I have some reflection questions for you. See below.
Exercise:
If you’ve never done the timeline exercise, work on Part One. If you’ve done the timeline exercise before, you can work on Part Two. Reminder: Adapt this exercise to your liking. For example, you may want to capture multiple outlets of your creative expression in this timeline like writing, photography, and drawing. Trust your intuition and make it work for you.
Part One
To affirm your writer identity and reconnect with your inner artist, reflect on the timeline of your journey as a writer, from childhood until now. Create a timeline including significant memories, touchpoints, and pivots along the way. Feel free to format your timeline however you like. You can use a bulleted list, or draw a timeline on a piece of paper and map out key seasons and moments. You can view how I did this exercise here.
When you’re done, consider the following questions for reflection: What are the high points and low points? What scenes come to mind for each one? What can you learn from each of these touchpoints and pivots? What assumptions did you make at each point? What were the external influencing factors? There are more questions in my example.
Part Two
Look back at the timeline you created from this exercise, and add on how your journey has evolved since then. What rules or expectations are stifling your writing journey that you need to give yourself permission to break away from?
What do you tell yourself needs to change either internally or externally before you can fully own your creative callings and identity? In what ways can you stretch, experiment, and grow in your craft?
Ooh! Can’t wait to write - feels like it will inspire release and affirmation.