Announcing #CreateOScope: A Week Of Periscope Chats With Yours Truly

Here's how things usually work around here: you read this blog, and in doing so, you get these little peeks into my life (or, more accurately, my psyche). Sometimes we talk about silly things like how many pickles I stress-eat while writing (answer: roughly fifteen, on a good day). Other times, we dig into more important topics like how to feel good about yourself even when the world knocks you down and steps all over your pretty, little face. 

Either way, the basic idea is simple: I write words on a page, you read 'em, and sometimes you even provide sweet commentary. It's nice. We've got a good thing going here. 

But this week, we're going to add another layer to this relationship. For the next seven days, you will not only be able to read words written on this here blog, but you'll be able to see the shining face and hear the expectedly baritone voice of the weirdo who writes them. That weirdo is me. 

I'm going to be hopping on Periscope this week for the first time EVER to bring you live-streamed mini-lessons all about creativity and joy interspersed with some peeks into my daily life. I'm calling it #CreateOScope because #christytalksaboutcreativityandlifeandtellsyouallofherdeepestdarkestsecrets was too long.

I've been wanting to explore this platform for a while now, and I figured committing to seven days straight would be a great way to get started. As far as I'm concerned, it's just one more place to connect with the sexy people who read this blog. So sexy people, here's what you can expect in the week ahead:

THURSDAY, October 22 - 8 PM ET 

How to write "morning pages" 

(and why you really really really really should)

Let's start this week off with something hella useful! I first read about "morning pages" in a book by Julia Cameron called The Artist's Way, and it has been one of my biggest creativity game-changers. Morning pages are basically a way of journaling and processing life that will revolutionize the way you approach your creative work. And I'm not someone who throws around the word "revolutionize" so you know this is a BIG deal. If you're struggling to feel inspired or you're losing confidence in your ability to create anything worthwhile, show up for this one and dialogue with me about how to rise from the ashes of a creative block like a goddamn phoenix. 

FRIDAY, October 23 - 12 PM ET

A tour of mi casa: the good, the bad, and the good-god-what-were-the-previous-tenants-thinking?!?!

I've made some recent changes to the landscape in my Brooklyn apartment, and I've also neglected making some changes, but whatever, I'm inviting you over anyway! During this time, I'm going to walk you around my space, talk about what I'm working on, what I will be working on, and if you're lucky, I may even give my cat, Frasier, some airtime. I'll also be focusing a lot on my home office and my thought process behind developing a workspace that's right for you. 

SATURDAY, October 24 - 6 PM ET 

A mystery surprizzzeee

Do I really have a surprise in store or am I just saying I do because I'd like to leave this day open-ended for now? You'll just have to wait and see! 

SUNDAY, October 24 - 12 PM ET 

Q&A Day!

Go ahead! Ask me anything (within reason, ya creeps)! Specifically, I'd love to hear your questions about creative life, but I'm an open book, so whateva. 

MONDAY, October 25 - 12 PM ET

A New York City Field Trip

Hey, I live in the most inspiring city in the world (sorry Des Moines, but you know it's true)! Come on an adventure with me to a fun surprise NYC hotspot. I promise it won't be the food court at Penn Station.

TUESDAY, October 26 - 12 PM ET

How "false starts" are crippling your creative progress (and how to move past them)

Do you ever find yourself saying things like, "Tomorrow is the day that I will finally..." but then tomorrow comes, and instead you decide to delay everything just one more day? This is what I like to call a "false start" and when you build up enough of these, it can be downright debilitating when it comes to actually making progress on your goals. False starts chip away at your confidence, making tough actions all the more difficult and keeping you from the awesomeness to which you aspire. In this chat, we're going to talk about how to cut false starts out of your life completely and how to replace them with really cool actions instead. 

WEDNESDAY, October 27 - 8 PM ET

Announcements! Big ones! Really!

After a week of creeping on my life and working together towards becoming better creative people, this week of Periscope is going to conclude with some exciting news! I'm working on some brand new projects that, trust me, you are going to want to know about. And if that doesn't entice you, just know that I will also be getting SUPER real in this chat. Like, I might even cry. 

If you want to follow along with me this week, you can do so by following me on Periscope (just search for @christyoshoney) or, of course, you can also follow me on Twitter. Even if you don't have a Periscope account, you can still watch the broadcasts, but if you want to interact in real-time and give me a bunch of hearts (and, oh my gosh, of course you do!), then go ahead and download Periscope on your mobile device. The first one will get going tomorrow night at 8 PM (ET).

For links to the replays and updates about this upcoming schedule, be sure to subscribe below (guys, I have an email list now! Join it!). I'll be sending out daily reminders and giving you access to the previous day's chat. Also, as you share these scopes with your followers, be sure to use the hashtag #CreateOScope. And in fact, I've already crafted a little tweet you can send out to your followers right now!

Lastly, remember: these will be live-streamed videos, which means you won't be getting the manicured, meticulously edited version of me that you often find in my writing. Instead you'll get the gritty, sometimes sweaty, real-deal version of me who never uses words like "meticulously" and who will indeed panic openly if there is any sort of technical glitch. It's going to be a blast.

Have you been using Periscope? What's your experience been like?

How To Write Well And Write Often (Part 1)

Writing has always been my go-to activity. For instance, when my husband first laid eyes on me, I was sitting in a corner, feverishly scribbling notes into a journal. We were both fifteen-years-old, surrounded by socializing teenagers, and yet there I sat, writing like my life depended on it.

While this image slightly embarrasses me, for the record, not much has changed. I write every single day. I just do. It would feel weird not to. Also, it's my profession, so there's that.

And in writing as often as I do, I've discovered some techniques along the way that have really helped my process. These are ideas that I've either come across from other writers or just by pure accident in my own experimentation. Hopefully you will find value in them, and if you don't, uh, I guess just keep that noise to yourself.

Write morning pages.

This concept comes from The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, and it's been somewhat of a game changer for me this year. Morning pages are comprised of three HANDWRITTEN pages of stream-of-consciousness writing first thing in the morning. And by stream-of-consciousness, I mean that these pages should look like the ramblings of a crazy person. By spewing thoughts all over three pages, it's far simpler to battle those voices in your head that say, "Are you kidding me? Do you really think you're going to write something worthwhile today? Pssh." Writing my morning pages gets my juices flowing, and believe it or not, some of my favorite ideas have come from this process. Whatever comes to mind, write it down, and make a daily habit of it.

Recognize your creativity spikes.

If you put a pen in my hand and tell me to write something at six o'clock in the morning, I might be able to scrawl my own name, but that's about it. By 9 AM, I've got some proper nouns flowing, and by 3 PM, I've got some verbs, but my brain really kicks into gear between 4:30 PM and 1 AM. I'll be the first to admit that this isn't the most practical time to be creative, and believe me, I've tried to switch up my schedule, but it seems this is just how my brain works. Still, because I can recognize this daily spike in my creativity levels, I try to get as much out of this time as I can. I get tedious things like emails and phone calls out of the way in the morning so that come 4:30, I'm ready to bust it, writing style. Think about when you feel most inspired in your day (maybe you're one of those early morning freaks). Are you really using that time to your advantage?

Write shitty first drafts.

I've already written about this idea in a previous post, and I probably will do so about a hundred times after this because it's seriously that important. "Shitty first drafts" comes from the book Bird By Bird by Anne Lammott, which as far as I'm concerned is the best book on writing that exists. Basically, once you've written your morning pages and you've picked a stellar time in your day to work, Lammott argues that you should simply start your project and let it be awful. Use words that aren't glamorous, let your characters say stupid things, make a whole mess of everything. Then go back and pick out the one or two things that you actually like. I think bloggers especially have lost the art of drafting, and it's so very important. Write like crazy, then refine.

Write about your lunch.

Also from Bird By Bird. Folks, when you are struggling for material, write about lunch. Seriously. In particular, write about the lunch that was served in your school cafeteria as a kid. Trust me. Lunch is a goldmine for ideas, and it never gets old no matter how many times you write about it. Never.

Read your writing out loud.

Every post you've read on this blog, I've read out loud to myself. If that sounds excessive, I don't really care. Even if I'm sitting in a coffee shop writing, I'll quietly mutter my words under my breath like a madwoman because that's how important I think this practice is. Reading your writing aloud is the best way to make sure everything sounds like an actual human wrote it. It forces you to think about the way you would communicate your message to a friend, and I'm a firm believer in making friends of your readers. Rule of thumb: If you feel like a robot while reading your stuff out loud, it's time to add some of your own flavor.

Remember that humor is in the details.

Remember how me and Anne Lammott told you to write about lunch? Really think about your childhood cafeteria. Who served your food? What shape was your pizza? Where did you sit? Was there anything that made your lunchroom special? These details are everything. They take a sentence from, "I asked for some milk," to "I sheepishly asked Roberta, the head lunch lady and the star of all of my nightmares, for some milk." Details are glitter. They make your writing sparkle and create a more authentic picture for your readers.

(By the by, in my school cafeteria our milk came in bags. Plastic, beanbag shaped bags that we would have to spear with a pointed straw. They nearly always exploded, and thinking about them still fills me with an inexplicable rage.)

Write for yourself.

If you are a blogger, you probably spend a lot of time thinking about who your audience is and what they might like to read. That's fine, but it's also sort of limiting. My belief is this: if you build it, they will come. Your readers want you, the real you, not some reduced-fat version of you. It can be tempting while writing to think, "Oh GOD, what if my mom reads this?" or "Yikes, this is making me sound like a terrible person." If a thought like that creeps into your mind, shut it down. You can edit out all of your weirdness later, but while you're writing, write only what is true. 

Frickin' LIVE.

You can't write if you don't experience the world around you. Plain and simple. Go live, girl.

Frickin' READ.

You can't write if you don't read. Plain and simple. Go read, girl.


Lookout for the second part of this series next week, but in the meantime...

What is your best piece of writing advice?

Reclaiming the joy of art class

Remember art class? That sacred time of day during your elementary school existence wherein you got to hang out with your coolest teacher. Remember her/him? My art teacher was named Miss Blum, and she was always wearing a vest. Yours probably was too. And remember how this very cool teacher would lead you and all of your peers in an art project? And she/he would walk around the room inspecting everyone's work, and there was literally nothing you could do wrong. You could paper mache your text book to your face, and your art teacher would say, "What ingenuity!" You could draw the most lifelike, defiant penis on the face of the earth, and she would remark, "Oh, what a strangely beautiful mushroom!"

It was the most affirming time of your life. Admit it.

Recently I've been getting nostalgic for the joy of art class. Rare is the time in my life when I engross myself in an art project because I am not, by trade, an artist. That is, I am not a painter, a sculptor, a calligrapher, an Etsy store owner, or anything of that sort. Sometimes life calls upon me to make certain things -- a card for a friend, a pie chart of my expenses, a tent for my cat to retreat within -- but when there is no reason to create a work of art, I feel pretty silly doing so.

But tonight, in a fit of boredom, I decided to buck that negative feeling and just afford myself some creativity time. I channeled Miss Blum and just started creating for the sake of creating. My husband, Daniel, joined in too. I played with a set of pastels that I've been meaning to try out while he doodled in a notebook. Here he is showing off his drawing of a dog:

Nailed it, Daniel! 

This is what I ended up creating using the pastels. I had the wrong tools, and I couldn't remember what carrot leaves looked like, so no judgements!

That's grapes, a carrot, a banana, and a lime, respectively

Midway through, we decided it would be a good idea to make art specifically for each other. Daniel made this for me because, you know, he's a creative GENIUS:

And I made him this because, you know, it's true:

We will probably make a weekly thing out of this, so get excited. Miss Blum would be so proud.

What crafts/art projects have you been making lately? 

Tell me so I can steal all of your ideas!

My Message to Bloggers (and writers, and basically anyone, I guess)

I was always the one with my hand in the air when the teacher asked for a volunteer to read aloud in class, especially if it involved reading my own writing. I would lean over my desk with my arm raised high and make piercing, almost threatening eye contact. The teacher would look around the room and say, "Anyone else?" When no one would respond, she would release a small sigh, gesture to me and say something like, "Fine, go ahead" and I would clear my throat, sit up straight, and proceed to take my class on yet another one of my seven-page journeys.

I have only recently realized how irritating this practice must have been for my teachers and peers. Sorry, teachers and peers.

This is pretty much what I looked like, only not as cute. (via)

Needless to say, I loved writing. I loved it from the moment I could do it, and I remember elementary school classrooms being a place where this passion was very well-nurtured. At that age, I was daily encouraged, as we all were, to imagine, to dream up realities and find a way to convey them to the rest of the world.

Second grade, for whatever reason, especially stands out to me as a time where I grew significantly in these abilities. Before class every day, my teacher (shout out to Ms. Lopez!) would write a prompt on the board, and when we arrived, we would pull out our journals, write, and then have some sharing time (otherwise known as The Christy Show). These prompts would sometimes be as simple as, "What is your favorite food, and why?" but others would require deeper, more critical thinking. I especially loved the ones along the lines of, "Write a letter to the President and tell him what you think he needs to be focusing on right now." I was all over a prompt where I got to tell someone what to do.

There were some days where Ms. Lopez would forego a prompt and instead just tell us to do some "free-writing" where we could write about basically anything. I remember hating this. I'd look around the room at everyone's quick-moving pencils, their minds clearly racing with ideas while mine was despicably empty. I'd watch Ms. Lopez at her desk, bleary-eyed and obviously in no condition to come up with a decent prompt, and I would resent her for it. I wanted a prompt, damnit, not some willy nilly free-for-all.

While writing is something I love, something I'm good at, generating ideas is really challenging for me. I consider myself to be creative, but I am the type of creative who innovates preexisting concepts. I need just a little something-something to get me started. I guarantee you that in my lifetime I will never be an inventor of anything.

This is an interesting challenge for me as a blogger. Since so much of what I now write goes directly out to the world, I always feel a pressure to produce really solid, unique content on a regular basis. Sometimes blogging feels a lot like free-writing in Ms. Lopez's class. It's simply too much freedom. I could write anything: a list of all of my favorite fruits and vegetables, a review of a movie or book or salad dressing, a post with pictures of my eyebrows before and after tweezing. I need direction. I need limitations or my brain just breaks and I sit there entranced by the flashing cursor on an empty screen. It happens a lot.

Knowing this about me, Daniel bought me a really great gift recently.

This, friends, is a book full of prompts, and if you're anything like me, I suggest you go get one for yourself right now.

Like Ms. Lopez's prompts, some are simple...

Except, what the hell? Beat(nik) soup?

Others require a bit more critical thinking...

Also, some of them are flat weird. 

But I love this big, fat book. It's gotten me through some tough days, both as a writer and as a person, and it has served as a reminder of what makes writing really great -- ideas and imagination. That's it.

I'm a fan of stuff like this because somewhere along the path of my education, prompts stopped being as much of a thing. Suddenly, in high school I was practicing writing for standardized tests instead of creating worlds and impossible realities. I was drafting college essays and cover letters, things that have a discernible weight of anxiety attached to them, instead of writing fake letters to the president. Writing stopped being a place to imagine and it turned into a place to accomplish. I feel that tension in my writing to this day.

The thing is, while I'm no longer begging a teacher for attention with my arm raised in the air, I'm still that annoying kid who just wants to have my words heard. That's what this whole blogging thing is about on some level. Every blogger was that weird kid in elementary school class who always wanted to read aloud. There, the secret's out.

And most of us want to be successful, which is not inherently a bad thing. I would caution bloggers, however, as I would caution myself, that in the pursuit of finding some variation of achievement, we cannot lose that heightened sense of creativity that we experienced during 2nd grade journal time. I am not saying that we should set our blog posts in mythical realms or spend time inventing new bands of superheroes (though if you are doing that, please tell me because I want to read your blog right now). What I mean is that we should be thoughtful enough to this process of writing to really say something with our platforms, even if that something is "I made a sweater" or "Here's why I love french bulldogs." Whatever you're saying, it should be authentically you and it should be executed creatively.

What I feel like we often do instead is frantically look around at our neighbors to see what they are doing. Just like me on free-writing day in 2nd grade, we panic in finding what to write about while the rest of the world seems to be on the right track. We start to look at the success of fellow bloggers, and we try to imitate their same formula. 

I'm going to get real here, and it might sound catty, but please trust my intentions. There are some majorly popular, majorly boring blogs out there. Yeah, I said it. I've seen blogs, and I'm sure you have too, with thousands of followers, but that lack a real sense of purpose or ingenuity. Maybe a recipe here, maybe an embedded YouTube video there, but at the end of the day, it's nothing to write home about.

And I think these blogs are dangerous because A) they expect no inkling of intelligence from their readership and B) they make the rest of us feel like we need to alter everything we are doing. When I start to discover the recipe for this kind of blogging success, it is so tempting to want to follow a similar path. I am constantly checking myself -- is this really what I want to write, or is this what I think people want to read?

It's a battle, and I am not always winning it, but when I'm absolutely not sure, I go to my prompts. I pretend I'm seven again. I write from the heart, and I see what comes out. I think blogging can be this simple, and I would challenge all of us to take the pressure off of ourselves, and do what we do best -- write. Screw those other guys. They probably have, like, I don't know, a fungus or something. We don't want to be like them anyway.

I wrote this more for myself than for anyone else in particular, but if this is ringing true for you, I would love to hear some of your thoughts. How do you stay honest in your writing?

Sleep Confidence

Do you ever have an overwhelming sensation of creative desire? It's where you feel like your pores are just oozing creative juice and you need to find some sort of outlet before it all goes away, so you think of all of the different creative channels you could potentially use.

I could do a dance! No, that's weird. I will paint a portrait! Nope, my artistic abilities have not improved since 2nd grade. Okay...then I will burst forth into the sky as a radiant beam of light, and I will explode like a supernova as I cover the earth with a blanket of glitter and magic!!!!!! Good God...no...that's not even possible.

Is that just me?

I tried to find a picture to describe this sensation, and after 20 minutes, this is the best I could do.

Well, anyway, I feel like that a lot, and it's super frustrating. Despite my great capacity for heightened creative energy, I have severely limited artistic ability (as is evidenced in the following picture I drew of a shark in Draw Something).

And believe it or not, this is one of my better depictions.

When I start to feel creative, I usually decide to write. The problem is that my creative sugar-high usually precedes ideas of what I should actually write about. I know that this energy is only momentary, so I need to take advantage of it while I can. From here on, I start to panic. It's a feeling similar to holding a city's water supply in your hands while frantically searching for a bucket. It's a high-pressure situation, which (like most stressful situations) usually results in an undeserved nap. 

No one in this picture deserves a nap, and neither do I.

I have remedied this anxiety by keeping notes on potential writing topics. Even when my creative juice levels are not spiked, I often think of ideas of what I want to eventually write about. For most of my life an idea would come to me and I would think about how I will write about that later, and then I would think about how later I want to make baked potatoes for dinner, and then I would think about how potatoes are good in so many forms, and then I would think about how good is relative, and then I would think about how I needed to call my relatives, and then I would think about kneading bread, and then I would think about how Jesus said that man should not live by bread alone, and then I would think about how that's written in the Bible, and then I would think about how I had an idea of something to write...and then, by that time, I would have forgotten the thought that spawned these subsequent useless thoughts.

Now that I have an iPhone, though, I have been keeping these ideas in my Notes app. It's quite handy. I've been able to hold onto solid ideas that I would otherwise discard into the recesses of my mind by just typing out what I call "trigger phrases"

Trigger phrases remind me in a shorthand manner of larger concepts that I want to later write about. Usually they work well...when I'm conscious, that is.

The problem comes when I write these trigger phrases in my sleep. Naturally, I keep my phone by my bed in case anything awesome comes to mind, and most nights I end up writing total nonsense. Here are some gems straight from my Notes app:

Grizzly man foxes

Adults talking to babies...remember that time that lady talked to you on the train?

You were an idiot 10 years ago 

And my personal favorite...Ponies - God preparing women for a horse war

Obviously, these phrases are absolutely meaningless. I know this now that I am awake, but at night I suffer from a serious, fatal, and highly-made up condition called Sleep Confidence.

Sleep Confidence allows me to believe that I am the best person ever and that I'm awake enough to be using an iPhone. I somehow find meaning in the words "grizzly man foxes" and I am convinced that I will wake to find coherent statements of genius. 

This video is exactly how I feel with Sleep Confidence.

I wish I could have a discussion with Sleep Confident Christy. Maybe she does have all of the answers. Maybe she is a genius. Maybe "grizzly man foxes" is the answer to world hunger. 

And maybe this kind of confidence is something I should learn to incorporate into my conscious life. To be honest, I spend so much time worrying if my ideas are good enough that I often don't execute them. Sleep Confident Christy can go from a dream where she is giving a tattoo to Amelia Earhart to writing without giving it a second thought. Conscious Christy has this bummer called "reality" constantly holding her back.  

Maybe Sleep Confident Christy will make some kind of Freaky Friday switch with me (as long as I don't have to be Jamie Lee Curtis...or Lindsay Lohan...can I be Shelley Long?).