The blog tour begins today!
My coach, Cynthia Morris, kicks off the blog tour for I’d Rather Be in the Studio! on her Original Impulse Blog. For the next two months, I’ll appear on two blogs each week, where I respond to questions from the bloggers.
Cynthia asked me about the process of writing the book and also about what makes an artist go from a place where they are full of excuses to a place where they are excuse-less. (Great question!)
Cynthia’s recorded interview with me is no longer available, but find a transcript of our interview below.
Tell me about the process of writing the book.
Find the support you need to make it happen. For me, there was an internal drive to write a book and people asking me to write a book. Having a support system in place is essential: join organizations focused on writing, form a camaraderie with other authors, have a writing buddy, hire a writing coach. I did not initially plan to self-publish, but what I learned from CIPA (Colorado Independent Publishers Association) gave more options. Great things happen when people collaborate; it generates great energy too!
For the times you are stuck and can’t see the end result of your project—talk with colleagues or experts in the field and ask for their feedback; this can help validate your ideas about your project.
What makes an artist go from a place where they are full of excuses to a place where they are excuse-less?
Artists have to want it bad enough to get past excuses. They have to want to succeed as an artist. This will be different for each artist; everyone can be an artist, but not everyone can make a living at it. If you leave excuses behind, you are fully aware of what you are getting into. Successful artists are not motivated by success, they are motivated by their art. It has to be more about the art than your fears, and you have to accept 100% responsibility for your actions.
2 thoughts on “Win a Free Copy of My Book”
I love your blog tour idea – what a fun way to get the word out about your book! Since you mentioned artists going from being full of excuses to being excuse-less, I wanted to share my favorite quote ever, which I read pretty much every time I need to make a big decision: “What we have is based upon moment-to-moment choices of what we do. In each of those moments, we choose. We either take a risk and move toward what we want, or we play it safe and choose comfort. Most of the people, most of the time, choose comfort. In the end, people either have excuses or experiences; reasons or results; buts or brilliance. They either have what they wanted or they have a detailed list of all the rational reasons why not.” ~ Anonymous
Alyson – what a great interview! My favorite that I brought away are: “falling out of love with your art and how it can be just a part of the journey to greater success” and (most favorite because it’s where I am right now): Find your tribe. I’ve cast a very wide net for that and spent a lot of money recenlty only to find that I’m looking in all the wrong places. I have a small tribe that I can enlarge right where I am (physcially) and as Cynthia notes in one of her blogs – there’s the internet too! (and oh! do I have a tribe there). I’m so excited and can’t wait until our interview!