The weather has just turned cooler where I live and with it I notice the light in the afternoon has a different quality. In the summer heat it’s difficult to imagine these brisk, golden days will ever arrive and when they finally do I greet them with joy and a renewed sense of purpose.
I recently saw the film Florence Foster Jenkins, starring Meryl Streep in the title role. It’s about the New York heiress and socialite who loved music with a passion and supported musical productions with her patronage. She herself also sang—badly. Surrounded by a coterie of friends who complimented her singing and encouraged her, she performed private recitals and developed a devoted cult following.
In my last post I talked about how you should take every opportunity to talk about your work when you get the chance, to see what others have to say and to learn from the questions people ask. Sometimes they catch you off-guard in a way that makes you have to say something from the gut, and it forces a writer to be in the moment, and to be authentic.
How are your writing resolutions going so far? Have you been meeting your writing goals? I’ve been working at it and succeeding to a certain extent but according to astrologers the planet Mercury has been retrograde since early January, scrambling communication, causing glitches in technology, delays for travelers and generally making it an uphill battle to get into an organized, efficient routine for making good on all those New Year’s resolutions.
In my last post I talked about setting creative goals for the year and working toward them by taking action steps, no matter how small, every day. Being consistent, diligent and dedicated are important but there’s another component of creativity that’s out of one’s control: the muse.
If you could give yourself a present for the holidays that would improve your life, your art and your relationships with others, what would it be? For me it would the gift of confidence! Having confidence in yourself as a writer and as an artist is crucial to your success and to your very survival in what can often seem to be an indifferent world. To have confidence in yourself is to appreciate and treasure your uniqueness and singular point of view that no one else in the world has.
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