Kevin and John discuss finding community as a creator, or “finding your tribe” as it’s often referred to. Stressing the value of finding people who do creative work similar to the work you do.
Everyone benefits from being able to bounce ideas off other creators, both in your own discipline and in other disciplines. The guys talk about how both online and face-to-face interactions can really help develop your craft, find connections, and generally feel you are part of a community.
Resources
Kevin introduces two books by Natalie Goldberg that were invaluable to him when he was getting started as a writer: Writing Down the Bones, and Wild Mind. He found both books very helpful in getting started and feeling less self-conscious about writing and sharing his work.
John brought up Oblique Strategiesby Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt. Oblique Strategies are a set of physical or virtual cards with prompts for creatives to think a little differently when stuck for ideas.
Kevin and John talk about getting into a creative practice requires making choices in how we spend our time. But before doing that, they discuss how to build up your creative energy to motivate yourself to get started, enabling you to prioritize your creative endeavors over things that might bring you less value and enjoyment. Finally, they discuss some strategies you can implement to find more time and focus more on your creative work.
Resources
John has been reading The Creative Habit: Learn it and Use it for Life by choreographer Twyla Tharp. There’s a lot of tough love in this book, but she lays out the kinds of things you need to do to make creativity a habit, not just an occasional activity. This book is particularly à propos for this episode as she goes into a lot of the same topics we talked about today.
Kevin has been reading Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind by Scott Barry Kaufman. It’s a fascinating, deep dive into how creativity works in our brains.Kevin also mentioned the Netflix series Shadow and Boneand talked about how, as a writer, he was inspired by the setting, costumes, and world building.
