Your Creativity Spark: Passion to Write

by Kerry-Ann McDade · Published June 26, 2023 · Updated June 26, 2023

Your Creativity Spark: Passion to Write – How To Write the Future, podcast episode 51

“Write with all your senses and let your mind wander far and deep and into the past. Or far into the future for inspiration. The universe is the limit.”

“What is the next riskiest thing you can do with your writing? Do it.”

“Instead of talking about how stuck you are and analyzing the causes, turn and face yours. And know that you are not alone.”

In “Your Creativity Spark: Passion to Write” host Beth Barany, creativity coach, and science fiction and fantasy novelist discusses finding the passion that compels you to write and how to identify your passions plus shares one way you can deal with writer’s block: Invite The Writing Block Monster to Lunch.

RESOURCES

The Writers Block: Motivation To Write #1

https://writersfunzone.com/blog/2012/08/11/the-writers-block-motivation-to-write/

Overcome Writer’s Block e-book, Available for sale here:

https://books2read.com/overcomewritersblock

Free World Building Workbook for Fiction Writers:

https://writersfunzone.com/blog/world-building-resources/

Get support for your fiction writing by a novelist and writing teacher and coach. Schedule an exploratory call here and see if Beth can support you today: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/discovery-call/

ABOUT THE HOW TO WRITE THE FUTURE PODCAST

The How To Write The Future podcast is for science fiction and fantasy writers who want to write positive futures and successfully bring those stories out into the marketplace. Hosted by Beth Barany, science fiction novelist and creativity coach for writers.

Tips for fiction writers! This podcast is for you if you have questions like:

How do I create a believable world for my science fiction story?
How do I figure out what’s not working if my story feels flat?
How do I make my story more interesting and alive?

This podcast is for readers too if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.

Transcript for Your Creativity Spark: Passion to Write

Are you looking for a way to dig into your world building for your story?

Then I recommend that you check out my World Building Workbook for Fiction Writers. Now available.

It’s at How To Write The Future.com.

Just head on over there. Click, sign up. Put your name and email, and there you go.

That workbook will be delivered to your inbox straightaway.

***

Hey everyone Beth Barany here,

Welcome back to another episode of How To Write The future.

In today’s episode, I want to share with you about Spark One from my book Overcome Writer’s Block. I call it Motivation to Write. And passion, the Passion for Writing.

I’m going to read it to you, and then I’m going to talk about it.

I have been writing fiction seriously with intent for. 25 years. And I have to continuously reconnect to my spark for writing, my passion, and my purpose. It’s not a one and done.

So for all of you out there struggling yet again to reconnect with your writing because maybe you dropped it for some time. Life has intervened, now you’re coming back and maybe you feel horrible that you have let so much time pass and maybe you feel there’s something wrong with you, or you’re never going to get it.

But actually part of being a creative is learning how to come back to the work again and again. And not make yourself wrong for the other things that you’ve put your attention on.

And so this spark grew out of my realization that I had to reconnect and reconnect again, and sometimes multiple times a day or week or in a month. And it’s certainly within a year, I have to reconnect to my passion.

And that act it’s like, you’re, you’re practicing that muscle of forgetting and then remembering or having to set it aside and then coming back. Actually, the more you do that, the better you get. So then it becomes quicker, and quicker and quicker, the ability to reconnect to your passion and purpose for writing, so that you can get to it.

So here’s the spark. I hope you enjoy it.

Spark One: Passion, the Passion for Writing.

What is this powerful, mysterious force that compels us to start to write, let alone, continue day after day?

At heart, it is passion. If you don’t know how to get started or you’re bored with your writing, it may be because you have lost touch with your passion.

Identify the fire that electrifies your desire to write. Spark your passion and quicken it.

How?

Read on.

Step one: identify your passions.

What gets you up in the morning?

What keeps you going during the day?

List everything including writing.

Finish these phrases:

I love….

or, I can’t absolutely live without….

Or what excites me the most is….

now specify what kind of writing genre and form you love. How does it drive you wild? Is that what you’re writing today? If so, and you’re writing what you’re absolutely passionate about.

Bravo. Why do you love it? Count the ways. Be specific in your reply. Be revealing.

And tell yourself something you’ve never been knowledged before.

If not, why not? Let’s stall your reasons: practical, silly, emotional, bizarre.

Either way, read on to find ways to rouse your zest for what you’re writing. Or to find a way to write what you really want to be writing.

Step Two: spark Your Passion.

Notice I only said passion. Singular not plural. Narrow your choices down to one.

I know that’s hard, but you can do it.

How do you spark your passion?

Well, by writing. I imagine.

But instead of doing what you’ve always been doing, spice up your writing by changing your routine.

Change your environment. If you always write at home, go to a friend’s house or to a cafe to write. If you live in the city, go to the country overnight or vice versa.

Nothing helps reset a body clock like sleeping over in nature. But the city can be just as vivifying to. Or rearrange or clean your writing space.

Bring in a new item that isn’t about writing.

Write with all your senses and let your mind wander far and deep and into the past. Or far into the future for inspiration. The universe is the limit. Gather items to enliven and spark excitement.

For example an orange, cinnamon, felt, wool, silk, a stone, lavender, nutmeg, a chanting bell.

Take risks.

What is the next riskiest thing you can do with your writing? Do it.

For example. write stronger or make your characters bolder.

Now, what is the next riskiest thing? Do that too.

Until voila, you’ve moved beyond your comfort zone into a totally fired up place where you feel amazing because you did it.

You wrote the very thing you thought you couldn’t.

Step three: Invite The Writing Block Monster to Lunch.

Every writer on the planet has probably experienced moments of complete block. Writing blocks, these monsters, these Hydra, that attack from behind, how do we deal with them?

Instead of talking about how stuck you are and analyzing the causes, turn and face yours. And know that you are not alone.

Now it’s time to trick the monster.

To get to know this creature better invite him or her or it to a meal. Not to be eaten. But to eat with in a civilized manner, be it lunch or high tea at home or a picnic, or at the seaside. Assemble all your favorite delectable delights. Be sure to ask your monster its favorites too.

Be courteous by providing a few. Your invitation must be specific and kind. Your writer’s block monster wants to feel welcomed after all. Set a definite time and place.

When your monster arrives, greet it kindly. Once it is settled, engage it in polite conversation. Around the time of the after-meal digestif, settle into more serious matters.

Share with the monster, what you write and the reasons why. And ask it why it comes around at certain times.

What is the monsters agenda with you?

What has been its purpose in your life up to now?

What does it want from you?

Be sure not to scream this last question. It might cry.

Once you understand each other’s motivations and goals, then perhaps over the last bits of cake, you could come to an agreement.

Arrange for your writer’s block monster to come over by invitation only, instead of crashing your precious writing sanctuary. After all, these monsters once served a purpose.

And now can serve a new one that you decide.

By understanding why and how our internal monsters inhibit our passion, we can then galvanize our writing in new ways.

Let us remain respectful of the creative drive and feed it plenty of fuel.

If we do, our passion will remain faithful for as long as we choose to be the creative beings we all are.

Happy writing.

This is still one of my favorite sparks.

This notion of taking your writing block monster to lunch still stays with me. And I do versions of dialogue with my writing block monster, which is more turned into the critical editor voice, in my case.

So your monster might not be about writer’s block. It might be about the critical inner voice.

I invite you to dialogue with that part of you. To imagine that part of you as sitting across from you. Maybe at a cafe, if having a picnic is too cozy. So if you’re sitting with them with table between you. Where you can ask that version, that part of you, what it wants, and why.

So I hope that this spark is useful for you.

Let me know how it played out, what it was like for you. I’m curious. I also want to hear your success stories.

The reason why I am putting my sparks here on the How To Write the Future podcast is that it is foundational material to support you in your writing. And I wanted to share them with you.

I’m first and foremost a creativity coach for writers and a teacher. And I’m here to guide writers to reach for the stars.

All right everyone have a fabulous fabulous week. I look forward to connecting with you next time in our next How To Write The Future episode.

Thanks for Playing!

***

Thank you so much, everyone for listening to my podcast. Your interest and feedback is so inspiring to me and helps me know that I’m helping you in some small way.

So write long and prosper.

Are you stuck and overwhelmed by world building? Then…

Are you stuck and overwhelmed by world building?

Then check out my new World Building Workbook for Fiction Writers.

Head over to HowToWriteTheFuture.com and sign up for yours today.

Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2012061

ABOUT BETH BARANY

Beth Barany teaches science fiction and fantasy novelists how to write, edit, and publish their books as a coach, teacher, consultant, and developmental editor. She’s an award-winning fantasy and science fiction novelist and runs the podcast, “How To Write The Future.”

Learn more about Beth Barany at these sites:

Author site / Coaching site / School of Fiction / Writer’s Fun Zone blog

CONNECT

Contact Beth: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/podcast/#tve-jump-185b4422580

Email: beth@bethbarany.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethbarany/

CREDITS

EDITED WITH DESCRIPT: https://www.descript.com?lmref=_w1WCA

MUSIC: Uppbeat.io

DISTRIBUTED BY BUZZSPROUT: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1994465

SHOW PRODUCTION BY Beth Barany

SHOW NOTES by Kerry-Ann McDade

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