Tell me your homework (thesis? novel? script? etc)
Here are all the possibilities that came up:
we can work quickly, we don't have to carve out ALL the time
listen to our bodies and our mood
the admin/tick box/leadership work is ALSO creative
beware the risk of martyrdom, risk of disappearing feeling unloved (eg. Joan Littlewood)
just looking at 'it' (whatever the work is)
being honest about what something is and what form it wants to take (eg. maybe your film wants to be a book)
re plays: 'cold have just read that and had a better time'
how to write a book: 500 words/day, any 5 days a week, you'll have a first draft in 40 weeks, THEN make it better (like how we don't start our first days in rehearsal knowing how to do the whole piece - theatremakers know how to rehearse and risk being shit - apply that skill to writing!, let it be shit...) give yourself something you can make better later, it's a rehearsal draft
writing is devising sitting down (or standing up if you write that way)
mentors can help with clear goals, meeting deadlines if spite of the mess/chaos/life mess, perfectionism is not needed until the end
it's (writing) like a difficult tech
don't get in your own way
being the storyteller not the story
reminding yourself of what you love, getting out of facilitation mode
2 weeks in a lifetime of writing dedicated to 'only' writing - not necessarily the most productive, keeping on anyway often more helpful, even in 20 min bursts
sometimes we have to make the work before we go to market - so we can make what our heart wants to make
getting through the door (including our own doors!)
many many obligations can lead us to not doing the fun thing!
putting off the creative work until all the other stuff is done often means the creative work doesn't get done
esp if we are treating creative work as a 'treat'
40 blogs to finish by the end of the month (how vital is the deadline? how malleable is it?)
don't burn yourself out for a cause - it will survive you or it won't (causes and projects can die and compost and help grow the next thing)
why so many women? (are we not trusting ourselves?)
research into non-heirarchical systems (does Improbable have a good university/British Library access?)
authority and authenticity have the same root
being stuck when facilitating for young(er) people: can you open space so that they can co-create?; make it personal (family stories?); grandmother's footsteps as a useful game for story/tone finding
PhD thesis for 7 years, most of first draft, stuck NOW & 7 months to finish - form has changed; what made you want to make it in the first place? is there anything in the energy of that that can drive the next 7 months? body as a site of memory, land as a site of memory
what's my authority to do this? why me? Because no one else is! if you don't do it, no one else will - so is it ok if the PhD is 'good enough'?
we all need to know we are good enough for our piece of work
maybe think like a 'white middle class' man?
how do we let ourselves? how do we stop asking 'am I allowed to?' we have to step up and take it for ourselves!
It's not your last piece of work and it's not your life's work
you just have to start
really struggled to start but realised topic was too 'live' for me - can be too close, sometimes you need to go round the houses to get there
the body and the heart know
scared to hand writing over to someone else - how do I get from 'I have this thing' to handing it over to someone else?
take the risk
D&D is the place to find someone to read and reflect with - give parameters on feedback wanted (maybe don't share with your mate!) The Literary Consultancy is a trustworthy reading org
Proteus's offer!!
community artists have always done a whole raft of work, just weren't always called 'artists'