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Stepping Off Now: Lessons in the Art and Craft of Creativity
Kendra Patterson
171 episodes
3 weeks ago
Managing a large creative project that must be done in stages and with attention to what seems like a million intertwined details is a skill that must be learned through trial and error. Most projects are in the "ugly" stage until they are very near completion, and this can be frustrating and confusing when you have a grand vision of what you are trying to accomplish. In this episode I talk about what writing a novel taught me about how to keep going when you feel overwhelmed by the complexit...
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Self-Improvement
Education,
Society & Culture,
Health & Fitness,
Mental Health
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Managing a large creative project that must be done in stages and with attention to what seems like a million intertwined details is a skill that must be learned through trial and error. Most projects are in the "ugly" stage until they are very near completion, and this can be frustrating and confusing when you have a grand vision of what you are trying to accomplish. In this episode I talk about what writing a novel taught me about how to keep going when you feel overwhelmed by the complexit...
Show more...
Self-Improvement
Education,
Society & Culture,
Health & Fitness,
Mental Health
Episodes (20/171)
Stepping Off Now: Lessons in the Art and Craft of Creativity
E168. Not Letting the Big Picture Sabotage Your Creativity
Managing a large creative project that must be done in stages and with attention to what seems like a million intertwined details is a skill that must be learned through trial and error. Most projects are in the "ugly" stage until they are very near completion, and this can be frustrating and confusing when you have a grand vision of what you are trying to accomplish. In this episode I talk about what writing a novel taught me about how to keep going when you feel overwhelmed by the complexit...
Show more...
6 months ago
30 minutes

Stepping Off Now: Lessons in the Art and Craft of Creativity
E167. Interview Episode! Featuring Kristin Kisska, Author of The Hint of Light
Note: my microphone wasn't working properly for the interview portion of this episode; I apologize for the less-than-ideal sound quality of my parts. At last the long-awaited first installment of my author interview series! KRISTIN KISSKA used to be a finance geek, complete with her MBA and Wall Street pedigree, but now she is a self-proclaimed #SuspenseGirl. She has contributed over a dozen short suspense stories to crime and mystery anthologies. Her debut novel, The Hint of Light, was...
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6 months ago
1 hour 8 minutes

Stepping Off Now: Lessons in the Art and Craft of Creativity
E166. Maintaining Motivation for Creative Work in Challenging Seasons
Here in Florida our challenging season is summer--it's both broiling hot and rainy. My backyard turns into a literal swamp. It can be hard to maintain motivation for our creative work when the weather and climate are so uncomfortable. Maybe in your area it's winter that's the challenging season. If you struggle to keep up your momentum during these times, I have some suggestions on how to handle your creative work in ways that can create motivation. Info on Lisa Ross's literary editing services
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7 months ago
22 minutes

Stepping Off Now: Lessons in the Art and Craft of Creativity
E165. How Doing Art Constitutes Resistance
As I contemplate ways I can resist against the forces of chaos and cruelty holding sway in society, I am sometimes dismayed by my own limits. But I am not utterly powerless. In this episode I discuss the many ways in which doing art can be a form of resistance. Dina Brodsky's Instagram Athena Scalzi's blog post
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7 months ago
27 minutes

Stepping Off Now: Lessons in the Art and Craft of Creativity
E164. Is the Ability to Make Choices More Important to Art than Creativity?
Beyond passion, skill, and commitment, there is another quality that defines what it is to be an artist: the ability to make choices in your art and follow through on them. In this episode I contemplate how being stuck in art (and life) is often more the result of a fear of making wrong choices than a lack of inspiration. It can help to shift our mindset to see artistic choices as neutral, and to understand that we have the power to make a choice a good one by continuing to work with it until...
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8 months ago
20 minutes

Stepping Off Now: Lessons in the Art and Craft of Creativity
E163. A New Theory of Talent
I've long thought that talent is the least important ingredient in artistic success (however you define that). The further I get in my writing career, the less it seems to matter whether I have any "natural" talent. What matters is consistent and sustained effort over time. In this episode I contemplate whether talent is what we think it is, and provide an alternative framework for conceptualizing it that can help free us from the pressure of not feeling talented enough.
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8 months ago
28 minutes

Stepping Off Now: Lessons in the Art and Craft of Creativity
E162. Creative Practice and the Artist's Illusion
In which I share my thoughts on how creative practice helps us handle the often difficult conditions of the artist's life: how long and hard we have to work to establish ourselves, the mental health struggles many of us face, and the competition inherent in a glutted market.
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9 months ago
33 minutes

Stepping Off Now: Lessons in the Art and Craft of Creativity
E161. What Taking on a Second Creative Practice Has Taught Me (+ Some Thoughts on Disruption)
I recently added a second creative practice to my roster of creative activities: watercolor painting. While I definitely felt ready for this big step, it has nonetheless served as a disruption in my life and to my understanding of the role of creativity in my life. In this episode I contemplate the value of disruption and how both planned and unplanned disturbances to our status quo can help us grow creatively and develop a deeper understanding of our work.
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9 months ago
26 minutes

Stepping Off Now: Lessons in the Art and Craft of Creativity
E160. Learning to Use Conceptual Tools as an Intuitive Creative: Is It Possible?
Creatives and artists can be roughly divided into two types: intuitive and conceptual. Many do successfully combine both styles, but I have never been able to. I am a strongly intuitive writer and have historically failed at incorporating conceptual tools, like outlining and plotting, into my practice. As part of my journey toward being a published author, though, I've been forced to consider using conceptual tools to streamline my writing process. In this episode I tell you how it's going an...
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9 months ago
34 minutes

Stepping Off Now: Lessons in the Art and Craft of Creativity
E159. What Role Do Artists Play in Society? It May Not Be What You Think
As the wheel of history lurches forward I've been thinking about what role I play in society as an artist. What do I contribute? How can I make a positive difference? Typically this kind of discussion focuses on the artist's art, but I've taken a different view. I want to know what role artists themselves play, separate from their art. In this episode I contemplate this question and offer some thoughts. Hewes House
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10 months ago
26 minutes

Stepping Off Now: Lessons in the Art and Craft of Creativity
E158. Interview Episode! What Health Looks Like Through the Lens of Creative Practice
In a twist on a classic interview episode, in this one friend of the pod Ann Wainscott returns to interview someone herself! Links from this episode: Switched on Pop's Madonna episode No.1, No.2, and No.3 Daniel Mason's novel North Woods
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11 months ago
1 hour 1 minute

Stepping Off Now: Lessons in the Art and Craft of Creativity
E157. Finding Psychological Safety in a Tumultuous World as a Sensitive Creative
When you are a highly sensitive gentle soul, the chaos and cruelty of the world can feel unbearable at times. How are we to protect ourselves while still engaging? In this episode I discuss this in light of my own thoughts on the recent US election results. My sister's Instagram account (jillpattersoncycling) The poem Desiderata
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11 months ago
30 minutes

Stepping Off Now: Lessons in the Art and Craft of Creativity
E156. How I Learned to Take Myself Less Seriously...and More Seriously
Have you ever been told you take yourself too seriously? I heard this all the time growing up. And it was both right...and wrong. In this episode I discuss how I held myself back from reaching for my creative dreams both by taking myself too seriously and not seriously enough. Sound confusing? Well, give it a listen! Here is the Instagram reel that sparked this episode.
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1 year ago
25 minutes

Stepping Off Now: Lessons in the Art and Craft of Creativity
E155. Why You Really Really REALLY Shouldn't Listen to Advice (*With Some Exceptions)
I wasted years of my life following other people's advice about how I should be writing novels and developing my creative practice, and it mostly failed me. So finally I decided to chuck it all out the window, go against the grain, and listen to myself. In this episode I discuss why we mostly shouldn't listen to anyone else and instead expend time and energy figuring out what works for US individually. But we also shouldn't dismiss advice and expertise wholesale! So I balance my rebellious FU...
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1 year ago
49 minutes

Stepping Off Now: Lessons in the Art and Craft of Creativity
E154. Does Structure Constrain or Free Us?
I am using my current project, novel #2, to master plot, my weakest area as a writer. In the past, I've been ambivalent and even felt antipathy toward applying commercial and Western-style plot structures to my novels, because I felt they constrained my art. So what's changed? In this episode I discuss my evolving views on structure in life and art, and why I'm now leaning into the concept that structure can free us...if we do it right. For some background on my thoughts on plot, and particu...
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1 year ago
30 minutes

Stepping Off Now: Lessons in the Art and Craft of Creativity
E153. Preliminary Thoughts on Being a Neurodivergent Creative
In this episode I discuss my recent diagnosis of being neurodivergent, including why I pursued a formal diagnosis, what it entails, and its relationship to creativity and my art.
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1 year ago
33 minutes

Stepping Off Now: Lessons in the Art and Craft of Creativity
E152. Are the Things We Suck At Actually Special Talents in Disguise?
With novel #1 winding its way toward publication (hopefully), I have officially begun work on novel #2...and I've realized I will have to approach writing it in an entirely different way. Not only that, I'm going to have to use a technique I have utterly failed at in the past: preplanning the plot. Simply put, I suck at plot. It was the last thing to fall into place in novel #1. In this episode I contemplate why the things we suck at could actually be special talents in disguise, and how we c...
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1 year ago
24 minutes

Stepping Off Now: Lessons in the Art and Craft of Creativity
E151. When All You Have Is a Drum... Play
I'm not really sure how to summarize this episode, y'all...but you'll want to listen! Contact me
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1 year ago
20 minutes

Stepping Off Now: Lessons in the Art and Craft of Creativity
E150. The OG Society Thought Experiment: Why and How We Share Our Art
Sometimes it can be difficult to see how our own societies and cultures influence us. I have this trick I use to help reveal some of those hidden influences that I call the OG Society Thought Experiment. I imagine how a small pre-capitalist "original society" would have functioned and compare that to my modern capitalist society. Today I use this thought experiment to explore different ways to frame how and why we share our art with the world. Contact me
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1 year ago
26 minutes

Stepping Off Now: Lessons in the Art and Craft of Creativity
E149. Are Big Dreams Bad for Us? Learning to Not Miss the Stars
In this episode I take stock of where I am in my creative journey as I contemplate what lies beyond the dreams we hold for ourselves. Are dreams holding us back? Do they ultimately make our lives less happy and satisfying? W.H. Auden's poem, The More Loving One Contact me
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1 year ago
22 minutes

Stepping Off Now: Lessons in the Art and Craft of Creativity
Managing a large creative project that must be done in stages and with attention to what seems like a million intertwined details is a skill that must be learned through trial and error. Most projects are in the "ugly" stage until they are very near completion, and this can be frustrating and confusing when you have a grand vision of what you are trying to accomplish. In this episode I talk about what writing a novel taught me about how to keep going when you feel overwhelmed by the complexit...