Vision Tools

September is Vision Month

Hi, friends! So today I thought that I’d share with you some of my favorite links, books, and other resources to help you figure out your creative vision.

• Inner Mentor Meditation by Tara Mohr: I do this meditation every now and then just to check in with myself. It can be pretty revelatory.

• Firestarter Sessions by Danielle LaPorte: What I love about LaPorte’s approach to setting goals is that it’s based on figuring out how you want you life to feel before you figure out the steps you need to take to create those feeling outcomes in your life.

• Donald Maas, a literary agent and writing teacher, has an exercise he teaches (in either The Fire in Fiction or Writing the Breakout Novel) for character creation that also works for your personal writing goals.

1. State your goal. Write it down.

2. Say out loud, “I will do anything to reach my goal, just don’t ask me to _______.”

3. Whatever you used to fill in the blank is the place where you need to begin your action plan. :)

4. Repeat with each of your goals.

• Earlier this month, I talked about creating an Id List. It’s where you write out all of the tropes, archetypes, settings, etc of stories that light up your id. Create you list and figure out if what you’re writing is in line with what you love.

• Take a class with Becca Syme or read one of her books. I’ve taken all of her classes, read some of her books, and had coaching sessions for myself and my son (who is about to apply to college).

• Subscribe to Vicki Pettersson’s Youtube channel. Vicki is one hell of a writer and she’s been in this business long enough to be able to cut through the crap to share helpful, useful tips for weathering a writing life. She’s a good friend, too, but I’d watch her videos anyway because I always get some new idea.

This should get your started on your vision quest. I’m happy to answer questions in comments, and please share any of your favorite inspirational vision tools, as well!