April Bosshard 7/31/24 April Bosshard 7/31/24

Community, Productivity, Renewal

I believe in community spaces and community time. And I believe that when you devote time and space to communities, especially creative ones, several things are possible: individual and group productivity; individual and group healing; individual and group change.

April Bosshard 6/30/24 April Bosshard 6/30/24

Gushing Fountain or Steady Stream? ⛲🖋️💦

We all create differently. At times, the muse inflames us and we rush to our laptops or notebooks and let the inspiration pour forth. Other times, we show up regularly, routinely, and work methodically.

6/29/22 6/29/22

Is it Time for a Break?

I'm fond of saying writers always have homework, but I also get tired of feeling that there's always more to do, always something incomplete needing attention. It's both a blessing and curse of being creative; one always has "multiple projects in various states of development."That line is paraphrased from Dov Simmons, a film producer I met when I was 19 and just getting my feet wet in the film industry. To us new, young creators, without much of anything in production yet, Dov's line could make us sound more legitimate when inevitably asked, “So what are you working on?” “Oh, me? Well, I have multiple projects in various states of development.”But what happens when you do have various projects in multiple states of development?

4/28/22 4/28/22

Do You Have a Routine?

Do you follow some kind of routine when you write? Most creative people I know (including myself) dislike routines but can’t get much done without them. Though we do try!

11/30/21 11/30/21

How it Feels to Finish a Project

You have a ton of tasks to tend to when it comes to crafting your stories, and writing scenes is one of them. What is a scene?

6/30/19 6/30/19

When Inspiration Stalls

A client wrote to me not long ago to stay that her inspiration had stalled. It was both a statement and a lament. Writers tend to be preoccupied with the notion of inspiration--its presence or absence, its ease or struggle.

6/25/18 6/25/18

Staying the Course

Earlier this month I had the good fortune to be a guest on a friend’s sailboat for ten days. Up until then I’d only ever spent a day or half day on a sailboat and hadn't needed to do much but sit back and enjoy the ride.

4/11/18 4/11/18

Abundance, Gratitude, and Writing

Have you ever noticed how abundance can build up momentum in your life so that good things seem to create more good things? Then all of a sudden abundance takes a step back, seems to drain away or run into hiding? In both cases gratitude is the key.

1/30/18 1/30/18

Chaos and Order

By the end of January most of us are either hitting a stride when it comes to moving toward goals or else we’ve abandoned them completely. The latter can leave some of us disillusioned and disoriented, and simply trying to keep our heads above water as the river of life carries us relentlessly forward. Often, we give in to the external momentum of demands and distractions (especially after a month of trials and failures) and our once hope-filled creative goals get washed away.

10/29/17 10/29/17

Write For Your Future Self

When I was coaching a client last month, I brought up the notion of “the future self” as a way to provide a different sort of motivation for writing. Our future self is the one waiting for us next month or next year or 10 years from now. It’s who we will eventually be, in time.

5/30/17 5/30/17

Dickens, Dreams, and Drafts

I was recently in London and spent a few nights in Bloomsbury not far from a house Charles Dickens lived in from 1837 to 1839. It was here where he completed The Pickwick Papers and wrote the complete manuscripts for Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickelby. His subsequent success allowed him to move on to grander homes in London, but this is the only one still standing and it’s now a museum.

7/22/16 7/22/16

Getting to the Work

It’s the biggest challenge we face: opening the notebook or computer document and getting started. There are a hundred different demands and responsibilities vying for our attention and so often our writing ‘has to wait’. But the longer it’s neglected, the more our essential creative nature withers. How can you help yourself get to the work? Try these three simple suggestions:

8/12/15 8/12/15

Becoming a Resilient Writer

The writing life is more like a continuous marathon than a slap dash sprint. More than talent, luck, or discipline, a resilient writer needs to develop persistence and endurance. The following 5 traits can help build your resilience.

character • character development • conflict • courage • creativity • drafting • goals • gratitude • inspiration • motivation • outlining • productivity • readers • resistance • revision • scenes • story • structure • success • talent • time • travel • uncertainty • writing process