Indie Author Weekly

172: Improving one's relationship with the creative process

• Sagan Morrow • Episode 173

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This episode is a follow-up to the previous episode, and shares recommendations and thoughts about how to improve your relationship with the creative process (what to do BEFORE you even sit down at the computer and start writing, plus a beautiful question to hold onto and guide you through the creative process).

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Hello and welcome to the indie author weekly podcast where I take you on the behind the scenes journey of my adventures as an indie author. I'm your host Sagan Morrow, and I'm an eighth time polyamorous romcom. Author. Plus, I've also written several business books for solopreneurs. In our previous episode I shared about how my 2024 Word of the Year is elevate, and that I'm focusing that specifically as an author in terms of elevating my relationship with the creative process. So today, I wanted to follow up on that and talk about what it looks like to improve one's relationship with writing.
This really begins with defining what a healthy relationship looks like. It isn't about what we get from the experience, but what we become together, what we give freely, what we delight in the other end and who we are in that process.
So when we apply this to writing it isn't so much about what do I want as a writer from this writing experience? And it's not it's also not so much about what will other people think of me and my writing when they read the finished draft? But rather, what is the truest way that I can express the story? What can I give to these characters? What storytelling experience gets to come from the creative process, really thinking about this as being in a relationship with creativity, being in a relationship with writing, it's not about what can I get from this writing experience? But what can I give to the writing experience? What can we become together as the author and as the story, what can unfold as a result of this relationship?
What feels good about this relationship and about this entire process?
Somewhat ironically, removing ourselves from it by focusing on the relationship itself, the writing itself, the story itself, and not taking into consideration our place as the author in the writing of it. This is often what helps the writing and the story and the characters to come through more easily and more vividly. By removing ourselves from it and what we want from it. By removing that from the equation, the story can actually be better as a result, and the entire relationship becomes healthier, the process feels more enjoyable and more natural.
A strong relationship also doesn't involve pressure, it is not performative. The enjoyment of a great relationship is in the presence of it, the being of it. When it comes to writing, this also means that it is the act of writing, the act of telling the story, free of expectation, that matters.
With this in mind, there is value in grounding oneself, before the writing process even starts. So we can do this by reconnecting with the purpose the love of being a writer and of writing something.
There's also value in separating out what is not relevant to the joy of writing and a relationship with writing. So again, what people think or how many books sales are made, or how many dollars earned, those types of things. Those are not relevant to the writing process. Those things have nothing to do with your relationship to the writing process. What types of tropes are popular, what will make a book marketable or sellable? None of those things actually matter when it comes to the creative relationship.
What I recommend doing is before you even get into the creative process, before you even begin sitting down at a computer and starting to write, when you want to improve this relationship that we have with the writing process, then it's going to be helpful to connect with the desired feeling that you want to experience the thoughts that you want to think the emotions you want to feel during the writing process, and to view that as the goal of the writing session, rather than completing a particular word count, for example, the goal of writing when you're thinking about it through the relationship with the creative process the goal then becomes that emotion, that feeling that we want to have that presents the being in the moment, the enjoyment of it.
The free giving of ourselves to the relationship of writing of the creative process, free of expectation.
This is not to say that it is a bad thing to map out timelines or to set goals for yourself or anything like that. There is tons of value in that. I love setting workcamp goals and all of those types of things and setting out timelines. All of that is wonderful and there's a lot of value in it. But the value in doing that is so that you can achieve particular concrete milestones of finishing and publishing your book. They aren't really relevant to the creative process that you're doing to the relationship that you have with writing. As a result, relationship building, improving the relationship with the creative process is a different process than when you are strategically mapping out timelines and aiming for word count goals. Now these two things can happen simultaneously, the relationship building side and the timelines and word count sort of side of things. They can happen simultaneously, but they are different the value and the purpose and each are different. This also means that the approach needs to have nuance, the way that you approach workout milestones is entirely different from the way that you approach building your relationship with the creative process. They can overlap. They can happen simultaneously, but how you go about one versus the other is going to have a different look and feel. So that is something that is really good to keep in mind, especially if you want to be doing both of these types of things both wanting to hit particular word counts and improve your relationship with the creative process. You'll really want to ensure that you are looking at each of them through the lens that will be most helpful for them and connecting those dots together so that you can actively do both simultaneously. And by the way, if you want help with this, I am a personal fulfillment coach as well as an anti hustle productivity strategist so I can absolutely help you with both sides of the coin. Visit Sagan morrow.com/work with me for details. The link is in the show notes that they things that we talked about today are really good for preparing you for the creative process, right? So really grounding yourself in out what is what what is the truest way that I can express this story and what can I give to these characters, really ensuring that you're not applying a ton of pressure to that sort of situation and connecting strongly with the purpose of doing this connecting with those desired feelings. All of these things are so good for preparing you for the creative process before you even sit down and start writing anything.
And during the creative process itself. Here is one question that you can try holding on to as the lens with which you view your writing experience. The question is this. What is the most interesting and true thing that can happen? In this moment?
In other words, what is true to the character? What interesting situations or predicaments? Can I place them in? What makes this character their thoughts, their actions and reactions, their relationship dynamics, the circumstances they find themselves in and their place and all of that, so interesting, what is the truest and the most realistic way that they can be at this moment.
Use that as your guiding light throughout the creative process as you are actively creating. That's going to help keep you grounded and centered as the story unfolds itself. And the characters reveal themselves to you. That will help you to stay true to the story. And that will help you to maintain a steady trust in your writing relationship.
There you have it. Those are some thoughts on building one's relationship with the creative process. If you have any questions about this or anything else you'd like me to address here on the indie author weekly podcast. I would love to hear it. Please submit your topic ideas at Sagan morrow.com/question That my friend is a wrap for today's episode of indie author weekly access the show notes for this episode episode including all links and additional resources at Sagan morrow.com/podcast and share your thoughts about this episode on Twitter or Instagram. My handle is at Sagan lips. Please take two minutes to rate and review in the other weekly on Apple podcasts. Thank you so much for tuning in. And I will see you next time for another episode of indie author weekly

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Sagan Morrow

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