Pernille Norregaard - Writing as a Daily Practice (interview)
01/28/15 • 41 min
Pernelle has been writing professionally for 12 years, 7 years as her main job. The writing came in fits and starts. She would go through massive creative spurts and produce tons of work in no time. And then she won’t write for a few weeks or a month. Then she’d have another creative spurt.
This way of working depleted her. She would have one of these creative bursts and then feel empty and think she couldn’t do it again. She knew she could write, but she didn’t know how to make it a sustainable activity for herself.
So she started experimenting. At first, she set up her schedule to write in the afternoons. Then she tried writing first thing in the morning. The she added some meditation before writing.
All the experimenting had paid off. Pernille has a solid writing practice that supports her and allows her to bring her creative work into the world in a way that feels nurturing and sustainable. Listen to her story of how she worked out the details of her practice, what she does now, and how it has changed her life.
In this interview, Pernille shares:- what writing (and life) was like for her before her daily practice
- her analogy of writing a book to running a marathon
- her trial and error process of creating her daily writing practice
- what her daily practice looks like now
- the rituals she goes through before she sits down to start writing
- how and why she separates writing and editing
- why limiting our choices (or eliminating them altogether) can help us be more creative
- her best advice for starting a daily writing practice
- the important difference between “original” and “brilliant”
- how her daily writing practice carried her through burnout after finishing a novel
Resources to Connect with Pernille:
- website
- Pernille’s articles on creating a consistent daily writing practice.
- John Cleese - How To Be Creative (video) - brilliant video about the open and closed modes Pernille mentioned, how they relate to creativity, and how to use that information to be more creative
- The Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg
Pernelle has been writing professionally for 12 years, 7 years as her main job. The writing came in fits and starts. She would go through massive creative spurts and produce tons of work in no time. And then she won’t write for a few weeks or a month. Then she’d have another creative spurt.
This way of working depleted her. She would have one of these creative bursts and then feel empty and think she couldn’t do it again. She knew she could write, but she didn’t know how to make it a sustainable activity for herself.
So she started experimenting. At first, she set up her schedule to write in the afternoons. Then she tried writing first thing in the morning. The she added some meditation before writing.
All the experimenting had paid off. Pernille has a solid writing practice that supports her and allows her to bring her creative work into the world in a way that feels nurturing and sustainable. Listen to her story of how she worked out the details of her practice, what she does now, and how it has changed her life.
In this interview, Pernille shares:- what writing (and life) was like for her before her daily practice
- her analogy of writing a book to running a marathon
- her trial and error process of creating her daily writing practice
- what her daily practice looks like now
- the rituals she goes through before she sits down to start writing
- how and why she separates writing and editing
- why limiting our choices (or eliminating them altogether) can help us be more creative
- her best advice for starting a daily writing practice
- the important difference between “original” and “brilliant”
- how her daily writing practice carried her through burnout after finishing a novel
Resources to Connect with Pernille:
- website
- Pernille’s articles on creating a consistent daily writing practice.
- John Cleese - How To Be Creative (video) - brilliant video about the open and closed modes Pernille mentioned, how they relate to creativity, and how to use that information to be more creative
- The Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg
Previous Episode
Jenn Hand - The Healing Power of Journaling (interview)
Jenn Hand knew she had issues with anxiety and depression. When she started seeing a therapist, she didn’t connect those issues to her difficulties with food. She had been alternating between restricting and binging - crazy eating was just her everyday experience.
Her therapist asked Jenn to start keeping a food journal - just what she ate and when she ate it. Then the therapist asked her to add how she felt after she ate. That was challenging. Jenn wasn’t used to looking at her feelings. She had been stuffing them down with food instead.
Slowly, she started to see her patterns of disordered eating. She was able to use her journal as a place to meet her experiences with love and acceptance, and she has found a new level of peace with food and with her life.
Listen to Jenn’s story of how journaling helped her develop the self-awareness to heal her disordered eating and how she continues her journaling as a vital part of her daily self-care.
In this interview, Jenn shares:- how she got started with journaling about her food
- her favorite analogy for disordered eating
- how her journaling shifted as she started seeing her eating patterns
- how things got worse after she started journaling before they got better
- how journaling shifted from feeling like a lot of work to an essential aspect of her self-care
- how she prepares herself now for stressful situations
- how the quality of her thoughts has changed over time
- her relationship with food and journaling now
- what she does with her old journals
- her best advice for starting a practice like hers
- website
- email - [email protected]
- Jenn’s free gift - Your Must-Have Guide to Ending the Diet Cycle
Next Episode
Britt Nemeth - A Year Long Photography Practice (interview)
Britt Nemeth loves photography. To her, it’s an ineffable and heart driven experience. She strives to not just make pretty pictures, but to capture the essence of each particular person, place or thing she shoots.
When she is taking photographs, she was deeply in that presence that makes photography so special for her. But running her photography business took her out of that presence much of the time.
A friend asked her to the 5 day #blackandwhitechallenge. Britt agreed, not thinking too much off it. From the first day, she was hooked. It took her back to what she loved most about photography and it inspired her to create her own 365 black and white photo challenge for 2015.
Listen to her story of what’s shifted for her in the first month of this practice, and check back for updates on how it’s going throughout the year.
In this interview, Britt shares:- the 5 day black and white challenge that got her started
- the new 365 day challenge she has created for 2015
- what’s shifted in her photography business as a result of her new inspiration
- how she sees the challenge unfolding for her this year
- website
- blog post - Can a Simple #hashtag Challenge Change Your Life?
- Instagram - her 365 day challenge hashtag is #bnpbwchallenge
- Amy Scott - 100 Happy Days and Beyond - taking a photo every day of something that made her happy with the 100 Happy Days Challenge
- Catherine Just - Practicing with Her Son - Catherine’s frustration with her son’s nap time shifted after she started taking a photo of him during his naptime (start at 2:59)
- Melani Marx - Deepening Her Connection to Herself - Melani took photos during her daily walk (start at 12:30)
If you like this episode you’ll love
Episode Comments
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode
<a href="https://goodpods.com/podcasts/simple-daily-practice-radio-with-peggy-freeh-462477/pernille-norregaard-writing-as-a-daily-practice-interview-62540839"> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/badges/generic-badge-1.svg" alt="listen to pernille norregaard - writing as a daily practice (interview) on goodpods" style="width: 225px" /> </a>
Copy