14. Practice vs praxis (Or, getting the real work done)

Explicit content warning

02/29/24 • 35 min

the Inspirited Word

You’ve probably heard this core and celebrated advice for a successful writing life:

Write every day
Finish as many projects as possible
No exceptions

And maybe, like me, you’ve also heard this extremely well-adjusted and reasonable guidance more times than you can count: Being a writer is awful. So if you’re able to walk away from your writing, you should—but if you’re too obsessed to quit, no matter how miserable you get, that’s how you know you’re the real deal.

That last nugget of wisdom scared me away from books on the writing life for years.

This month, I get honest about “failing” this classic (and ultimately unhelpful) advice. And I’m exploring how writing praxis can rescue your writing practice from becoming just a bunch of self-punishing rules spiraling inside a pit of despair.

Plus, I share the four key threads of much better guidance that I learned from finally binge-reading hundreds of pages of writing life advice from Ursula K. Le Guin, Octavia Butler, and others.

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If you’re dreaming of a sustainable writing practice filled with more life, spirit, and deep magic, visit the link to join the newsletter circle. You’ll get monthly inspiration and supportive, inspirited practices delivered right to your inbox.

https://www.inspiritedword.com/about/#the-praxis-circle

Prefer to access subscriber content via Substack? I got you: https://inspiritedword.substack.com/

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Episode links:

The Wave in the Mind, Ursula K. Le Guin

“Furor Scribendi,” Bloodchild and Other Stories, Octavia E. Butler

Octavia E. Butler: The Last Interview and Other Conversations

Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg

Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You’ve probably heard this core and celebrated advice for a successful writing life:

Write every day
Finish as many projects as possible
No exceptions

That last nugget of wisdom scared me away from books on the writing life for years.

Plus, I share the four key threads of much better guidance that I learned from finally binge-reading hundreds of pages of writing life advice from Ursula K. Le Guin, Octavia Butler, and others.

_____

https://www.inspiritedword.com/about/#the-praxis-circle

Prefer to access subscriber content via Substack? I got you: https://inspiritedword.substack.com/

_____

Episode links:

The Wave in the Mind, Ursula K. Le Guin

“Furor Scribendi,” Bloodchild and Other Stories, Octavia E. Butler

Octavia E. Butler: The Last Interview and Other Conversations

Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg

Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

13. So... what is visionary storytelling, anyway?

There’s a popular New Year meme about picking words to act as guideposts for the year. And in this first month of 2024, I’ve found myself reflecting on two sort of abstract terms I use to describe what I’m up to with this podcast: “visionary,” and “praxis.”

These terms are signifiers for the real core of what I’m grappling with here – the disconnect so many creatives experience between all the beautiful and transformative things we believe about creative craft in theory, and all the doubt and dismissiveness we often feel about our own work in reality.

Today I’m getting into what I’m actually saying when I say “visionary writers” or “visionary storytelling,” and why I think cultivating a visionary approach could free us from all of our creative hang-ups and blocks and neuroses, now and forever.

(I am clearly joking with that grandiose claim... but also, I’m kind of not?)

To kick off year two of the podcast, dive deep with me to discover what could be possible when we define true vision for ourselves and our stories.

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https://www.inspiritedword.com/about/#the-praxis-circle

Prefer to access subscriber content via Substack? I got you: https://inspiritedword.substack.com/

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Episode links:

Walidah Imarisha

What is "Visionary Fiction"?: An Interview with Walidah Imarisha.

Books and other projects

Tyson Yunkaporta

Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World

For the Wild podcast: Tyson Yunkaporta on Inviolable Lore

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next Episode

15. Reclaiming your creative calling

Ever found yourself lying awake very late at night or very early in the morning wondering if you've missed your calling in life? I'm guessing most writers will be in the yes camp; we tend to be sensitive souls, primed by school and work and even religion to long for "the call" to a vocation of purpose and meaning.

I think our insomniac worries stem from a common cultural fallacy: ideas about having a calling are often conflated with having a career. And this reduction fundamentally confines our vision of what a vocation can be, who gets to have one, and what counts as valuable work.

But writing as a vocation follows an internal rubric of integrity, not an external one of success — which gives you the freedom to measure your creative life by its impact on your spirit, not by your job or your publishing credits.

Tune in to explore what makes vocation such a powerful idea for creatives, and how reclaiming it might shape your writing.

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https://www.inspiritedword.com/about/#the-praxis-circle

Prefer to access subscriber content via Substack? I got you: https://inspiritedword.substack.com/

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Episode links:

This Here Flesh, Cole Arthur Riley

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.