the deeper why

week two: life as a creative process

If you’re new here, paid subscribers receive Story Work exercises every Sunday night at 8 pm et. Story Work is the name of my new book which is forthcoming from Broadleaf in November 2025. The term describes my signature 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. For the next eight weeks, our story work series will be focused on life as a creative process.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Before we get into this week’s story work exercise, I want to remind you about some sessions we have coming up for the remainder of January for free and paid subscribers.

Open to paid subscribers:

January 22. Substack 101: Q+A session w/ Ashleigh Vaughn // 6 - 7 pm et
($10 for drop-ins: if you are not a paid subscriber and would like to join us, you can send payment to Ashleigh with a message that says ’Substack Q&A’ and you will be sent the link to access the Zoom.)

January 25. Connective Threads: A Core Values Workshop // 12 pm - 2 pm et (no drop-ins)

Open to all subscribers:

January 29. Author Visit w/ Lindsey Van Wagner // 6 - 7 pm et

Photo by Mark Fletcher-Brown on Unsplash

exploring the deeper why:

Hi friends,

We are in the second week of our story work series on life as a creative process. If you are just joining us, this series is a light version of the creative courage framework that I teach in my twice-yearly group writing intensive and that I customize to individual and organizational clients.

If you are a writer, artist, creative, thinker, feeler, seeker, maker — or you are not ready to call yourself any of these things but you have creative urges demanding your attention — this series is a self-study in connecting with your inner artist and staying connected through the different seasons and experiences that shape your life.

Each Sunday night for the next few weeks I will be inviting you to explore the layers of your creative callings to source inspiration for designing your life. This series will help you:

• Unravel creative blocks and understand what keeps you from acting on your callings.

• Develop clarity around the mindsets and habits that fuel your creativity and the mindsets and habits that drain it.

• Experience how creative energy flows abundantly when it is not compartmentalized away from the rest of your life.

We will lay the foundation for you to stay committed to your creative well-being throughout the year, no matter what form that takes.

If you are with me in starting this year gently, join us! Follow along with this series and let the questions simmer. Journal your thoughts and feed the ideas you’re thinking about with the books you read, the videos you watch, the content you consume. Notice how your ideas develop. All of this is to start recognizing the creative process at play in your life.

Did you set soulful intentions for yourself after reading last week’s post?

(You can share them with us in the chat!) As a reminder, instead of fixating on specific outcomes, soulful intentions focus on how we want to feel and the values we want to embody.

MahoganyLit

shared some of hers in the chat:

This year is about welcoming glimmers of joy and celebrating all of them, regardless of how small. It’s about embracing slow & gentle living. Being intentional. And choosing me on purpose. Showing myself the same compassion and love I give to others. Embracing who I am, as I learn who lies behind the layers. Being curious about and exploring my creativity. This year feels like loving me fully and being unapologetic about it. Period.

Here are the soulful intentions I set for myself:

to feel grounded, centered, rested, and prepared for my book launch at the end of the year

to pour into myself and my crafts (writing and coaching) through training and learning experiences

to feel free, playful, organic, consistent, and shameless about how I show up online

After setting intentions, your urge might be to immediately start listing actionable ways to bring them to life. But before we do that, let’s explore the deeper why so we can understand the layers. There are always layers, y’all.