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Archive for the ‘Creativity’ Category
Monday, September 6th, 2010
 Patience means the capacity to endure waiting, delay, or provocation without becoming angry or upset (Roget’s New Millennium Thesaurus).
Patience is required at many different levels on the Writer’s Journey both with yourself and with others.
Why is patience such an important quality for writers?
First of all, writing a book for publication is a long term business.
Despite the fact that there are always exceptions to the rule, there are very few books that are written and picked up by an agent or publisher straight away. The norm is for the process to take time.
The stage where patience is most required, and one of the most important for all writers seeking commercial publication, is finding the right people to work with – agent and/or publisher.
The reason that it takes so long for publishing professionals to respond to your approach is that they genuinely do have an extremely long list of other tasks on their ‘To Do’ list. And this is before they even get to assessing new projects from new authors!
Add this to fact that they are almost always in meetings and inundated with material to read, and you’ll begin to get the picture.
Ironically, once a decision is finally made, from that point onwards everything suddenly switches to tight deadlines where everything needs to be completed ‘yesterday’.
With self-publishing, the long term nature of successful publishing takes into account the whole life cycle of the book. In this situation you need patience to nurture your book to success long beyond the launch.
It requires patience to cultivate mutually rewarding working relationships with people who will help to sell, market and promote your book. It also takes patience to build up a strong relationship with your readers that is likely to be rewarded by them buying your next book too.
Life has a way of taking the time required for projects to come to fruition – whatever that may be – rather than an arbitrary timeframe you may have decided you want to impose.
Usually, there is a bigger picture at work – if only you could see it then and there.
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Tags: agent, author, book, marketing, publication, publisher, readers, writer, Writing
Posted in Creativity, Publishing, Writing | No Comments »
Monday, August 16th, 2010
 It is a core principle of the Writer’s Journey to nurture your creative spirit on an on-going basis. Yet if it’s been a while since you gave your inspiration a boost how, and where, do you start? Here’s a possible way forwards for you.
Walking in nature can be deeply inspiring and is a good place to start. You may well find that ideas and creative thoughts come to you along the way. So take a notebook and a pen and when you feel the flickers of inspiration stirring, find a place to sit down for a while to write.
Invite the fires of inspiration to burn brightly within you and brainstorm ideas of other possible situations or activities that could offer you the opportunity to access your feelings of inspiration.
Don’t think too hard about it. Just write as many ideas down as you can – or draw quick images – and aim to capture as muc h as possible. Keep your pen moving on the page as a way of overriding the censorship of the inner critic who may show up and try to steal the show!
Your ideas could include different settings when you are outside in nature such as by the sea, walking along cliff tops or in a forest, as well as different times of the day such as watching a beautiful sunset.
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Tags: creative spirit, inspiration, writer, Writing
Posted in Creative Reflections, Creativity, Writing | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010
I hope you’re having a good week so far as we head into the new month of August.
This is just a quick courtesy reminder that today, Tuesday 3 August is the registration deadline for the Writer’s Journey Raise the Bar Individual Coaching Program.
If you haven’t yet had a chance to check it out, you can read all about it, watch a short video and access the audio recording of the Preview Call by clicking here …
This individual coaching program has been created for writers at any stage of the writing journey to benefit from professional feedback, guidance, structure and support.
My commitment to you is that I will meet you exactly where you are on your writer’s journey and guide you to raise the bar to the next level – whatever that is for you – so that you make solid progress and experience tangible results.
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Tags: agent, author, book, book proposal, creative process, mindset, platform, publication, publish, readers, writer, Writing
Posted in Announcements, Book Proposals, Creativity, Publishing, Writing, marketing | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010
Raising the Bar on the Writer’s Journey means knowing what you already have in place, understanding precisely what you need to do next, and applying yourself consciously and creatively to consistent action! Raising the bar is an integral part of the journey to successful published authorship and needs to be applied at every stage along the way.
Join me on Tuesday 27 July at 8pm (BST/3pm EST) for a FREE Preview Call* to present the Raise the Bar Individual Coaching Program and learn the secrets of successfully raising the bar on your writer’s journey.
Click here to register …
I’ll also be sharing with you the details of the * 4 month * Raise the Bar Individual Coaching Program for just * 10 writers * starting in September (registration closes Tues 3 August). The Raise the Bar Individual Coaching Program has been created for writers at any stage of the writing journey to benefit from professional feedback, guidance, structure and support.
Read about the Raise the Bar Individual Coaching Program here …
If you’re ready to learn more about raising the bar on your writer’s journey, why not join me for an inspiring and interactive Preview call on Tuesday 27 July at 8pm (BST/3pm EST).
Click here to register …
If you can’t make the live call, no problem. Register anyway and we’ll send you access to the audio recording so that you can listen any time.
Enjoy the journey!
Julia
(*Usual telephone call charges apply)
Tags: action, agent, author, book proposal, creative process, inspiration, mindset, platform, publish, publisher, readers, success, support, true voice, writer, Writing
Posted in Announcements, Authenticity, Book Proposals, Creativity, Publishing, Writing, marketing | No Comments »
Monday, July 19th, 2010
 When was the last time you immersed yourself fully in music and dance?
Your sense of self dissolves as you become one with music and movement. Energy flows for you to express yourself freely, time is of no significance and your experience is effortless and engaging.
What has this to do with writing you may well ask?
The parallels of being in the zone, including all the benefits of that experience, are clear. Yet there is more to it than that.
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Tags: creative process, creative spirit, imagination, Writing
Posted in Creative Reflections, Creativity, Writing | 2 Comments »
Thursday, July 8th, 2010
 It’s summer and we’ve created a fun Summer Special IACCW Membership Contest which starts TODAY, Thursday 8 July and runs for two weeks until Thursday 22 July.
Check out the details by clicking here …
This is a playful contest which has serious intent because the task we are inviting you to engage with to enter the Contest is one which needs to be done anyway! So it is entirely relevant to everyone who is writing a book – or who wants to write one – and there are a range of fabulous Prizes on offer including two Bonuses which all participants receive!
We would love to invite you to join the fun, participate in the Contest yourself (it’s quick and easy to enter), and invite all of your writing friends too!
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Tags: author, book, compelling key sentence, writer, Writing
Posted in Announcements, Creativity, Events, Writing | No Comments »
Friday, June 25th, 2010
Julia McCutchen interviews Barry Cunningham 
Thursday 1st July at
16:00 BST / 11:00 EST
Of course there are techniques and helpful ways of approaching writing successfully for children. But while it’s fun and important to talk about these – the real substance of what makes an authentic voice for children is what you can do to recover, relive and then recreate from your own experience.
So whether you can reach back and find the still angry teenager, the fierce seven year old that knows that being unfair is still wrong, or the dreamy child who can see palaces in the clouds and the soul in her dog’s eyes – those are the voices that publisher Barry Cunningham, and millions of readers, want to find.
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Tags: author, barry cunningham, books for children, childrens books, publication, publish, publisher, Publishing, writing for children
Posted in Book Proposals, Creativity, Writing | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010
 It is with great pleasure that I introduce here our first guest blog post from author and publisher Jo Parfitt:
They say you should write about what you know, and so, in 1998 I wrote and published a book called A Career in Your Suitcase, based on what I had learned about creating and maintaining a portable career overseas.
You see, what I ‘knew’ was how to create a career, based on what I most loved to do and then move that career from country to country. In my case this meant from England to Dubai, then Oman and onto Norway. In a really old chestnut of a cliché, ‘I had been there, done that and got the teeshirt’ and I believed that my experience qualified me to write the book. I was right. People loved my book and in a couple of years I had sold out. It was time for a second edition.
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Tags: authentic, author, book, publish, writer, Writing
Posted in Creativity, Publishing, Writing | 2 Comments »
Monday, June 21st, 2010
 I wonder how many of us got up to greet the dawn at 4.44am (here in the UK) on this bright summer solstice morning?
I am really happy to have done so as it truly was an awe inspiring experience. Blessed with mainly clear skies, I stood in the middle of the field next to our house with a high 360 degree panoramic view listening to the chorus of birds in the nearby wood. The deep red glow reflecting off wispy clouds set the sky on fire with what really felt like the “dawn of a brand new day”.
Celebrating the power of the sun when it is at its most potent has been of spiritual significance for thousands of years.
Creatively this is a time to celebrate growth and full expression of all the gifts you have to share with the world through your writing, speaking, relationships … and through simply being true to who you are deep inside.
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Tags: conscious, creative, creative process, Writing
Posted in Creativity, Personal Reflections, Writing | 1 Comment »
Monday, June 7th, 2010
 One of the aspects of writing a book for publication that I emphasize with the Writer’s Journey approach is to give as much attention to preparing yourself for published authorship as you do to preparing your work.
This is because who you become as an author is just as important as what you write.
One facet of this relates to developing and strengthening certain qualities that are proven to be of value to support you on the path to publication – and beyond!
The 5 qualities that I recommend cultivating are: courage, commitment, perseverance, patience and authenticity.
Courage
It is said that courage is a decision made in the face of fear, not in the absence of it. And most writers I know would agree that courage to face fears, anxieties and doubts go hand-in-hand with the process of writing.
Why is that?
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Tags: author, imagination, mindset, publication, Writing
Posted in Creativity, Publishing, Writing | 9 Comments »
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Patience means the capacity to endure waiting, delay, or provocation without becoming angry or upset (Roget’s New Millennium Thesaurus).
