Chapter Four – Questions and Demands
1. Are you aware of the phases of your work? Do you get low when a major project is over? If so, have you ever considered ways of trying to bridge out of the project before the loss sets in?
2. Do you respect your fallow periods? If they’re healthy for you, can you expect them and use them to help generate the next big burst?
3. Are you aware of your moods? I suggest noting your moods and then using them. If in a happy mood, see how generating new work goes. If in a foul mood, try your hand at editing. Make notes on how this works for you. Are you letting yourself be gullible in the early stages of a project?
4. Do you hustle while you wait? I hope so. But if you don’t, could you practice it?
5. Have you ever tried to work on two large scale projects at once? If handing off a project is hard for you, you might want to start with a small side project — a cheat project — that can help you get through the waiting.
6. Criticism. We’ve gone over it — but it’s so crucial. Keep thinking about your own methods to deal with criticism and how maybe a healthy fear of failure can help you get over a fear of criticism.
7. Are you playing into the trap of believing in luck, blind inspiration, and innate talent. Take a hard look at how you might be letting these beliefs interfere with your work.
8. Hard work. What’s your relationship to it? Can you mess with that relationship?
9. Shame and guilt, this is so loaded I’m afraid to even ask any more questions than those posed in the session. Keep an eye on shame and guilt. Take notes.
10. Is your creative process hard? Can it save you?
11. What would happen if you prioritized the traits of high producers — starting with those that might be easiest to experiment with — and introduced them into your process? How about you start that — like today? Like now.
12. A general question: Do you think that Julianna Baggott ever turned into a really great daughter-in-law? Hint: she did not, my friends. She was kind of not a great daughter-in-law.