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The Power of Vulnerability in Your Writing (Part 1) |
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July 28, 2015
Hi Friend,
In this newsletter: - Personal Note from Beth
- The Power of Vulnerability in Your Writing (article)
- "Fearless Work" (recommended resource)
Personal Note from Beth
I've loved playing in New York this last week! The Romance Writer's of America National conference is officially over, though we were still schmoozing in the hotel lounge, where I wrote the first draft this newsletter. I'm sorry I missed some of you for coffee dates. I forgot how jam packed this conference can be.
I'm home now, happy to be so, and so are my cats!
Ezra and I enjoyed playing tourist -- him more than me. (He went to Coney Island and Ground Zero and wrote sitting in from of Lincoln Center.) I did see the gorgeous New York Main library, had coffee with my aunt at Grand Central terminal, and lunched with my creative entrepreneur ladies in Central Park.
I'd have to say my favorite New York adventure was navigating the metro and darkened streets to Nam Son for dinner, a delicious and super affordable Vietnamese restaurant near Canal Street, Chinatown, and Little Italy. To get to the restaurant, I passed through a grungy neighborhood that reminded me of Oakland, crossed the cute Mulberry Street, then entered a quiet and mostly deserted and asleep Chinatown. A block later I was relieved to see the flashing neon lights of Nam Son.
If you're curious, I had a large bowl of Pho soup for $10, and that was with the tip.
On another note, I had been planning to do daily short videos using the new tool Periscope, but only managed one. Best laid plans! Honestly, I don't know if I'll be using this tool in the future, but I will be doing more videos soon.
On to our article on the power of vulnerability in your writing, part 1.
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| | The Power of Vulnerability in Your Writing (Part 1)
When you're feeling low, depressed, or blue, it's hard to write. I know. I've been there.
Triggered by a lecture Michael Hauge gave Saturday at the conference on "Identity and Essence," I realized that lately I've been running from an unnamed fear and staying away from my writing, both my YA fantasy and my magical contemporary romance (new name for what kind of romance I write).
Deep down I've been afraid of showing my heart, my sad feelings, my rage and anger. So unladylike and unprofessional, my mind whispers.
But in conversation with my dear friend and fellow author and coach, Paula Chafee Scardamalia, and pulling tarot with her, I realized I've been afraid to feel my deep feelings and face them in my stories.
It's not that I can't feel them, it's just that feeling them, and channeling them into my stories, will require that I feel them. You know what I mean?
I've always been someone who feels deeply, but learned at an early age to mask my feelings into either a facade of busyness or into one of stoic silence.
Now has come the time to incorporate my feelings into my work and not run away from my feelings and the creative work. To do so, I need to create a safe space. I need to develop more conscious rituals and habits, so that I can feel what I feel and channel that into my fiction regularly. I want to do that with compassion toward myself and in full responsibility.
I have decided. My tool and habits will be free writing daily -- one of my forms of meditation, and conscious get-into-the body-to-feel exercises, especially capoeira and other high intensity cardio.
What can you do to feel the full range of your emotions and then channel them into your fiction?
This article is part one in a three-part series, so that I can share with you my journey, tools, strategies, and habits I'm using and the results of my actions and my learnings.
As always, I'm happy to hear from you.
Best, Beth
PS. The people and their resources mentioned in this article:
♥
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| | | Fearless Work
My colleague and fellow creative, Dan Blank, offered a wonderful course recently on making room for our creative work. Even though registration is closed, I'm sharing it with you because 1) I got to finally meet Dan in person at the RWA conference; and 2) Dan walks his talk and really knows how to support creatives in getting it done -- whatever your creative work is. I look forward to reading his weekly newsletters and always glean nuggets of useful wisdom and encouragement from them.
You can learn more about this class for the next time he offers it:
(I am not an affiliate for this. I just like recommending good resources.) |
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Have a Happy and Creative Week!
And thanks for playing!
All our best,
Beth & Ezra
beth@bethbarany.com
PS. If you found this newsletter useful, please forward it to your friends, writing buddies, and people who you know want to write a novel, but gosh darn it, haven't, yet.
PPS. This photo of Ezra and I was taken last week in New York's glorious Central Park by my friend and talented painter and artist, Karen Friedland (http://karenfriedland.com/)
♥
ABOUT US
Beth and Ezra Barany are award-winning, best-selling novelists, and teachers who have worked with over 100 authors to help them get their books written and published.
♥ Happily married for over 15 years, we’re passionate about writing, storytelling, and guiding authors to achieve their dreams.
♥ We offer coaching, change work sessions, book marketing coaching (Beth) and cover design (Ezra), for novelists. More at bethbarany.com.
ABOUT BETH BARANY
An award-winning novelist, certified creativity coach and Master NLP Practitioner, Beth runs Writer's Fun Zone, a blog for and by writers, and her recently launched school for novelists, the Barany School of Fiction.
In her downtime, Beth takes walks, paints, watches movies with Ezra, travels, and has coffee with friends and family. And plays with her two cats, gardens, and does capoeira. And sleeps. She loves sleep.
Photo Credit: by c. 2015 Karen Friedland |
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