I’m a big believer of keeping a ‘creative accomplishments list’ nearby. I’ve blogged about the importance of why you should start one and what kinds of things you can count. So, do you have such a list? If not, see this post.
Most creative work takes a long time to bring into fruition. And, our creative labor and devotion is often invisible to others. It is easy to forget or minimize the ways in which the creative life is sustained. If we don’t have tangible reminders about our accomplishments, it’s also easy for pesky inner critics to raise doubts about the value of what we do. A list is evidence of our deep intentions that we can turn toward during moments of skepticism about our progress.
The great thing about a creative accomplishments list is that it celebrates both process and product. You decide what counts and I encourage you to be as inclusive as possible. You can list process oriented activities that often aren’t celebrated (e.g. getting up at 6am for the last two weeks to work on your poems, or renewing a subscription to Poets and Writers, or that you made yourself go to an art opening, even though you didn’t feel like going, introduced yourself to the owner and talked intelligently about your work).
In this vein, I am sharing some latest accomplishments that are on my list:
-been writing at least 250 words a day since June 4th. I keep track using ‘The Magic Spreadsheet’. Haven’t heard about the remarkable Magic Spreadsheet? Check it out here.
-sent several emails to my writing group about places where they could submit their work
-reached out to an author I didn’t know personally to see if they would be interested in an author Q&A
On the product side, I’m so delighted to share that my two poems ‘Ode to Shari Belafonte in her Calvin Klein Jeans’ and ‘Jackie’s Feathers of 1982’ have been published in Glint Literary Journal, a publication of the Department of English at Fayetteville State University.
They have done a beautiful job with the online version.
I also have to give a quick shout out to Mariah Wheeler, owner of the wonderful art gallery The Joyful Jewel, who hosts an annual ‘Voice and Vision’ event. Before the event, writers are encouraged to come to the gallery and write about one of the art objects. At the event, the writer reads his or her piece and is joined by the artist who talks about making the art. It’s a fabulous cross-pollinating type of experience and over the years I’ve had two wonderful pieces emerge from it. One is ‘Jackie’s Feathers of 1982’. When I saw Marty Broda’s series of feather earrings, it took me back to my early adolescence and that got me writing.
I also wrote a piece called ‘The Poison Our Grandmothers and Mothers Drank’ which was eventually published, too.
Check out Glint Literary Journal, tell your friends and if you are a writer, think of submitting–they are opening calls for submissions on Oct 15: http://glintjournal.wordpress.com/
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