Making the work is just the start…
Image Description: A train traveling through a grassy valley with mountains in the distance. Photo by Josh Nezon on Unsplash
Whether you are a longtime reader of the Creative Resilience blog or you just stumbled upon it recently, I started it as a companion to a book by the same name. I am happy to say that the book is FINALLY coming out as both an e-book and a paperback on December 5 (you can even pre-order the Amazon Kindle version now).
I am including an excerpt here from the book’s introduction to give you a better sense of what to expect:
If creativity is about making something new from scratch or reinterpreting existing things to make something new, creative resilience is about doing the same for ourselves as artists. Resilience is about being elastic, open to change and growth. It is not about denying the problems of making things, but about embracing and solving those problems as part of the process.
In the pages that follow, I will explore how the language we use has the power to weigh us down or lift us up. It may challenge you to navigate the realities of hesitation, insecurity, and stasis. I will share tools to help you confront the self-doubt and inconsistent motivation that can exacerbate commonly held beliefs about what defines success. Each chapter is intended to generate an internal conversation with yourself, or a conversation with others in your community, and to reframe your creative challenges. You can read the book start to finish or skip around to chapters of interest. For those of you who like reflective exercises, I have even included a series of Creative Check-Ins at the end of each chapter. Naming your own challenges and opportunities can be powerful.
You will see a lot of quotes in this book, both from people you know and those you will get to know through these pages. I felt it important to include the perspectives of creatives from all sorts of disciplines so that you know you are not alone in the struggle. I am grateful to the artists I interviewed for letting me into their lives and creative processes.
While the book is largely intended for artists, I use a broad definition of what “artist” means. The term can be as relevant to entrepreneurs, inventors, and engineers as it is to painters, writers, and musicians. I also recognize that you may have different reasons for picking up this book depending on where you are in your creative development. Whether you are a student, an emerging artist, an established artist, someone who is pivoting between art forms, a side hustler, a dilettante—or you are not even sure what you are—you may find something that resonates. Even if you don’t yet feel comfortable calling yourself an artist, lean into that discomfort as you read this book.
We can spend a lot of time grappling with the realities of creative work, world, and worth. Regardless of how you identify as an artist, the goal of this book is to help you unlock your full creative potential and to approach your art and your life fully as an artist. Buckle up.
I’ve also got to buckle up. I am not writing this blog entry merely as a bit of shameless self promotion. I am writing it as an reminder that there is so much more to making art than actually making the art. The book has been a long time coming. I had the notion of writing a book for more than a decade but it always ended up on the backburner while I juggled work, volunteer commitments, films and home life on the front burners. While I got so far as to write a table of contents and jot down various ideas, I didn’t spend time in earnest on it until the COVID pandemic forced us into our homes and pods. I was lucky enough to connect with a filmmaking friend Richard Chisolm who was also writing a book (Documentary Vision which also came out earlier this year) and we served as accountability partners, sharing rough chapters and segments every week for about six months.
After completing the first draft, I continued to keep myself accountable by integrating deadlines for pitches, grant deadlines, virtual writing retreats, agent submissions and beta readers. There were stops and starts, joys and setbacks, and eventually a connection to Bold Story Press who provided the know-how of an editor, graphic designer, and publishing. I am thrilled to see an idea come to fruition.
But, as many fellow creatives know, just when you think the hard work of making something is over, some of the hardest work is yet to come. While there is nothing wrong with creating for ourselves or for the sake of creating, many of us also want our work to resonate with others, to make a difference, and to bring some modicum of success (however we may define what success means). And this means getting comfortable with putting ourselves and our work out there.
This is where I admittedly have faced challenges. Remember the folktale The Little Engine that Could that tells the story of a little train engine that volunteers to try to pull a long train up and over a hill, repeating “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can" as its motivating mantra? I have always loved that message and even have kept a copy of the children’s book on my desk as a reminder to keep chugging along, even when challenges seem insurmountable. While I can often keep moving through the planning and making of the work, with my films, I often ran out of steam as I approached those final hills of marketing and distribution. I am always in awe of filmmakers who are still able to keep their energy up through the long and winding process of distribution (as just one example, take a listen to my friend Lance Kramer talk on The D-Word about the several year journey of getting The First Step out to the public).
Image Description: Erica’s red desk that includes a vintage copy of the book “The Little Engine That Could” and a card that says “I used to just crastinate. Then I decided to go pro.” Photo by author.
When I started to learn more about the world of books and publishing, it seemed even more daunting than that of film distribution and outreach. So I am looking out to you, my readers, colleagues, and friends to help keep the wheels moving as this new phase begins. Yes there are some specific things you can do to help move the engine forward aside from reading the book yourself:
Promote it to your networks. Word-of-mouth can be tremendously powerful whether it is by email, social media, or face-to-face with a friend or a book club.
Provide a review on Amazon or Goodreads once it’s out. This can be as simple as just providing a rating or as generous as actually writing a few lines about the book, if it resonates with you. And please only do this once you’ve actually read the book.
Come to an event. I’ll be announcing soon a launch event for the book in the Washington DC area and am planning some more events in the coming months that may be a mix of readings, signings, and in-person and virtual panels with some of those interviewed for the book.
Help organize an event and/or media coverage. If you would like to have an event around the book in your neck of the woods, let me know what you are thinking and we can try to make it happen. This is especially helpful in places where I don’t necessarily know the local book stores, literary festivals, or arts spaces that might welcome an author on tour. I would be especially appreciative of connections in New York, Chicago, and Miami where some of the folks I interviewed are based, but I am open to other places (big and small) where there would be an arts community interested in the book. In fact, I am scheduled to be in Los Angeles briefly as part of a vacation around February 11-12, 2024 and would love to make something happen there. I am also open to being interviewed by traditional media, podcasters or serving as a speaker or panelist on topics related to the creative process.
Now that I’ve been a bit shameless in my ask for help in promoting the book, I would also ask two equally important things of you:
Keep me accountable. Just as I needed the accountability during the writing of the book, now I need it with the outreach. If you have experience getting a book out there, I’d love to learn from your wisdom and experience and gain tips on what works and what might not be worth the effort. I’d also love to know your own experiences with keeping the motivation up when you are getting your own creative projects out there. Even an out-of-the-blue check-in to see how things are going with the book could help push me when I invariably reach those points of wondering whether it is all worth the effort. Recently my publisher posted a “coming soon” notice on social media which I reposted to my own social media accounts. The response I got from friends and colleagues who have been eagerly awaiting the book was really such a mental boost. Never underestimate the power of a few kind words.
Make art. My ultimate goal with Creative Resilience is to provide a form of inspiration, support, and accountability to fellow artists and other creatives. Whether or not you can be of assistance to me with the outreach for the book, my biggest request is that you make time, space, and joy to create your own things.
I know we can. I know we can. I know we can.
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