Our First Guest Chick

The 4 Chicks are delighted to welcome their first Guest Chick!  Shelby is a talented photographer in the Orlando area.  Here, she discusses with the Chicks how she ended up on this creative path and what she loves about it.  To see some of Shelby’s amazing work, visit http://www.simplyshelbyphoto.com.

Expand Your Creative Identity

The 4 Chicks Chat about Chapter 2: Discovering a Sense of Proportion (PART 1)

This [chapter] inaugurates an ongoing process of self-definition.  As you redraw the boundaries and limits within which you have lived, you draw yourself to a fuller size. Coming into ourselves, we sometimes encounter resistance from those in our immediate environment.  The readings and tasks of this week aim at bolstering the sense of a realistic self in the face of difficulty and even discounting.

– Julia Cameron, Walking in this World: The Practical Art of Creativity

If you’re burning to find me–the Muse–YOU can be a part of  the Chick Chat, too.  Here’s how to play at home:

1. The 4 Chicks read a chapter.
2. The Chicks meet and discuss the chapter.
3. Over the next month or so, the Chicks do the tasks in the chapter and blog about it along the way.
4. You’re invited to do the same and/or comment on the blog, sharing your own experiences and Chick Stories.
5. You may even consider starting your own 4 Chicks group to simultaneously work through either this book or its prequel, Cameron’s ground-breaking The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity.

I’m waiting for you to find me…

Cure for the afflicted?

It’s a problem that affects thousands of people each day. It’s something that isn’t frequently talked about in “proper” circles, nor is it something that can be easily cured with a doctor’s visit. It is a constant, throbbing reminder to us that we may fail and never recover. Relief from this affliction is so near that it’s almost within our grasp, yet it slips away each time we stretch out our minds for it.

It is…Writer’s Block.

I sadly find myself suffering from this condition in of all things – this blog. I sat down a few nights ago to write my next blog entry, thinking that just by sitting at the computer and opening up Word, my fingers would magically type out a fantastic post. Obviously this should happen, since I am way overdue on submitting a post but have been writing practically every night on a new novel with no roadblocks.  So it shouldn’t be too hard to come up with something to blog about.

Wrong.

Of all the things I am working on right now, blogging seems to be the most challenging.  I enjoy reading my fellow Chicks’ posts; however, each one is a reminder to me that I need to submit an article as profound as Eva’s, as poignant as Peggy’s, and as inventive as Tracey’s.

Ain’t happenin’ tonight, though, so I thought I would post about what is keeping me from posting. Maybe by posting this article, I will finally find some relief from this affliction.

Any fellow blocked artists care to share your experience on how you got “unblocked?” Only in the mental sense, of course!

Writing advice

Hey chicks, I wanted to share with you what Michael Sprout, Senior Concept Writer & Developer, said in the book “The Imagineering Workout” by the Walt Disney Imagineers:

“I’m a writer.  And you want to know what the most difficult part of my job is? Writing.”  

This is someone really successful in his trade.  We are not alone in struggling to make it happen.  No matter your history of accomplishment, it is work.  He went on to prescribe a seven step process that I love:

Step 1.  Say ‘sure’ (in other words, don’t say ‘no’ because you are afraid)

Step 2. Panic (ha ha, no problem there!)

Step 3. Go to the library (not literally…okay, maybe literally, too; more importantly, use all resources at hand to learn what you need to know)

Step 4. Goof around (Vivi, you’re good at this one 🙂 )

Step 5. Go to sleep (no comment)

Step 6. Let it happen

Step 7.  Keep writing implements handy at all times

Good advice, huh?   We’ve said “sure” to each other, and now we’re in it together on a wonderful journey.  Who knows where it will lead?