The Seasons of a Creative Life ~ Part 3: Autumn

The Seasons of a Creative Life ~ Part 3: Autumn

This is part 3 in a 4-part series on The Seasons of a Creative Life. You can read part 1 here and part 2 here.

Just as the season of summer does not last all year, neither does the summer of our creative life.

Autumn comes and, with it, a period of harvesting and then pruning.

In the natural world, we see things fall away, die back and turn colder during this time.

In our creative lives, this is the time for bringing projects to completion, revising, refining, and also honing our skills. A priceless time.

Autumn: A Time of Learning and Discerning

The autumn of our creativity is when we have the energy for studying new tools, looking with a discerning eye at our works and seeing how they can be made better. You may not feel the inspiration of new ideas flowing, but it is just as valuable and important to go over your first and second and third drafts and make improvements, learn from your mistakes, and practice new skills, to grow as an artist.

Autumn: The Final Harvest

In the harvesting phase, we have the focus and discernment to refine our projects and bring them to completion. Letting ourselves complete a project is necessary to make inner space for something new in the next springtime cycle.

In the next post, we’ll talk about the winter of our creative lives and how it paves the way for spring. Stay tuned!

If you want ongoing support, guidance and community to help you navigate the seasons of your creativity so you can really thrive and shine, join me here.

The Seasons of a Creative Life ~ Part 2: Summer

The Seasons of a Creative Life ~ Part 2: Summer

This is part 2 of a 4-part series of the Seasons of a Creative Life. If you missed part 1, read it here.

Following the period of initial inspiration, the Springtime of your creative cycles, comes Summer.

Summer is a time of tending our new shoots and watching them grow, watering, feeding, and weeding.

This is the period of working on our creative projects with devotion, logging the hours it takes to bring something from seed to fruit. This is where you put in regular “studio time” so those precious, bright ideas can become actual finished pieces.

Summer: A Time of Sustained Growth

The summer of our creative life is the middle of writing the novel, making the painting, choreographing the dance piece, or building the house. You are riding the current of the initial ideas and sustaining the growth to bring your project or dream to completion.

This is the phase in my IMAGINE Dreamtending process that I call GROW. This is when you grow your dream from its first shoots into a full, healthy plant.

At this cycle, you need structure, a map or plan, a way to break your big goal down into do-able steps. You need support, feedback and regular doses of inspiration, so you can keep going.

Summer: A Time of Sharing

Summer is also an expansive, outward-focused time in the natural world. We tend to be more playful and more social in this season. In the summer of your creative life, this is a time to put on shows, give readings or performances, send your work out in the world or find ways to share it with others, even if it is just a few others. You might want to collaborate on a project at this time.

PeopleTalking_123rfOur creative lives need this sharing of our ideas and creations in order to feel meaningful and complete, in order to keep generating energy and enthusiasm to create. If you are lacking in creative community or places to share your work, you are missing a key, essential element in a creative life. (See my book 6 Essential Ingredients of a Thriving Creative Life.)

If that is the case for you, take a class, join or start a group, rent studio space in a collective, host a creative salon in your living room, find like-minded people who are up to similar things that you can be in creative conversation with.

In my next post, we’ll visit the creative season of Autumn and learn how valuable and essential that season is.

Welcome.

Brilliant Playground is a space of inclusion and honoring for people of all colors, races, paths, genders and sexual preferences. You are welcome here!

https://www.brilliantplayground.com/subscribe/

Creative Sparks provides tools, guidance and soul inspiration about once a week to:

  • Ignite and sustain your creativity
  • Identify and realize your heart’s true dreams
  • Live a life of passion, purpose and deep play

We are soul-crafting here. Join us!

 Subscribe here

Join me on Patreon for insider access to my best stuff!

Blog Archives