On Creative Processes
Featuring an interview with Amanda Polick!
Hello and welcome to the Tuesday post for all subscribers, another interview with someone who inspires me greatly. On Friday, paid subscribers will receive a recipe for what I have been referring to as “dinner bowls” in a continuation of my cooking without a kitchen series. Get excited! As ever, you can learn more about what I do here.
Amanda Polick is someone I have loved since the first time I heard her speak. After leaving a career in acting, improv, and sketch comedy, she pivoted to working at magazines such as Cooking Light and Time Inc. She was also the first dedicated segment producer of Facebook Live for Southern Living, Cooking Light, and Coastal Living. Now, she works as a cookbook and food memoir coach, helping people tell their best stories.
Laura Scherb: So! Creativity and productivity, I think, is a line that you do really well in balancing and in helping other people balance when they're telling stories, too. Could you talk a little bit about that? I feel like you've mastered it so could you tell me about how you approach those two things living in the same brain and body and experience?
Amanda Polick: It took me a while to get this, in full transparency. I used to believe that creativity was something where you had to be inspired by it. When I was a teenager, I loved to write poetry and short stories, and I thought that I had to feel the right things to be creative. It was actually when I started doing improv and writing sketch comedy that I realized that you can't wait to be inspired. Because with comedy, you’re talking about a news cycle. You're talking about current events. So you always have to be on your toes. And I think that that was the first thing that kind of sparked this idea of always writing, always looking for the opportunity to be inspired. Give yourself that chance. And so over the years I have developed this method where I ask: what can I do in 30 minutes? I think 30 minutes is this sweet spot where if you give yourself 30 minutes every day to write and just to show up, your creativity can be sparked because of that productivity. It’s kind of this wheel that once you start moving it, you really can't stop it. But you have to also allow yourself the time to really just sit and stare at a screen and be annoyed.
LS: Oh, this is a hot take. I love it.
AP: With the productivity too, though, there would be times where I'm like, “Oh, I'm really not writing anything good, right, now, let's move to a new task.” There's just times where you're hitting a wall and the juices aren't flowing. And I think that sometimes it's okay to move to something else and come back and see how it is. Because energy is a huge thing, too. I think that it's also about just creating space for where you kind of do a check in, and if you have to get work done, try to set a 30 minute timer. You could get so much stuff done. And a lot of times you'll work longer, but it's just more of making it a habit of showing up in even if it's imperfectly. It's not going to be pretty most of the time.
LS: So true. I really struggle with this idea. Some days, I wake up, and I just have this photoshoot that I'm dying to do, and I'm so excited. But other days, I wake up, and I have a photoshoot scheduled to do for a client, and I just like don't feel that creative rush. And over the years, I've kind of flip-flopped on whether I push through and do it today or do I just sort of acknowledge that that creative spirit is not there and wait for another day. But it's hard to walk that line, especially when it's your livelihood that's tied to your creativity.
AP: Yes, and those are the days where I set a timer! I can do anything for 30 minutes. Then you kind of just release that and you do as much as you can. And even if you don't have the energy for something beyond that, you at least got something done.
LS: I love that. So let's talk about creativity and how you think about it as someone who I feel does a very, very good job at coaching people through the ups and downs of creativity and the creative process. How do you think about creativity? And then how do you look at someone else's creative cycle and step back from that and sort of think about how to just get them through?
AP: Yeah, it's a great question. I think that there's this huge misconception that not everyone is creative. And I don't agree with that at all. Creativity is everywhere, and it's not just confined to groups of people.
But for me, creativity has always just been this freedom to express myself. So whether I was acting or writing, it was just this freedom to take all these things that are living in my heart and in my head and put them out into the world so other people get to experience them. And that's one thing I really try to help clients with.
When I work with clients, I always say: this is not my story. This is not about me telling you how the story should go. I really try to ask questions and get super curious about things. I want them to tell me why they were inspired to tell this story, the moment when the book really kicked off for them. There's gonna be a time when you want to literally throw your computer out the window. I just try to bring people back to that original why and that excitement.
There are times in the process when schedules change, when you don’t have the capacity to work on things. I always ask: where is it easy? What about this are you really excited to be writing, to be working on? Let's move there. There is a time where you have to get this thing done. But I think that you have to give yourself that freedom to write where it feels natural along the way.
LS: Yes, absolutely. I read a book a couple of months ago called Process: The Writing Lives of Great Authors. It was so mind blowing to see all these famous authors and how they were all so different in the way they approach things. And they're all tremendously successful. It was so refreshing to read that because it just reminded me that there's no perfect way to do it. I love what you're saying about being so responsive to different people's styles. And I think that's part of your superpower as a coach.
AP: Well, thank you. I think sometimes, too, we look at other people as kind of a blueprint for how we should be doing things. But we don't have to necessarily copy other people but rather respond to our own lives.
LS: I feel like we're already sort of talking about this. But what are some myths about the writing process that you bust when you start working with people?
AP: I see this a little bit more with people who may have been told that they're good writers, but there is sometimes a sensitivity around revisions. It's totally a fair thing, because if you think about it, with school, or even in college, you're not really revising things. You're not really taught how to develop a story ad nauseam and so, I think that people get surprised when I say “This is great. We're gonna revise this.” Some people are kind of taken aback, and they think I was just gonna give them a couple of notes. And so I think sometimes people believe that if they have to revise all this stuff, that means they’re a bad writer. But storytelling is a different beast. And so I think that it just takes a different kind of patience to also be like, this is a different type of writing, and I have to give myself space to really develop this story.
I also think, too, that there is just this fear that whatever you put down on the page, is there forever. Don't be afraid of the garbage. Don't be afraid of the crap. I think that a lot of writers will try to turn in perfection, time and time again. Listen, if you are not writing absolute garbage, at least some of the time, you're really not doing yourself a service, you're doing yourself a disservice. Because sometimes there's really good stuff in the things you think are bad.
LS: That's something that I have really been focused on in the past couple months. I get so paralyzed by sitting and looking at a blank page in front of me. If I can just mentally step back and acknowledge that I'm frozen, then I get something out so I can move past it. I feel like 80% of the time I go back, and I realize it’s not as bad as I thought it was. And I'm actually gonna leave it just like that. Perfect is the enemy of good.
AP: Totally. Something I try to encourage people to do too is that if there's a section you don’t like, just highlight it and leave a comment for yourself to come back later and revise this. Then it's out of your mind. Just leave notes. I love leaving notes on things. So when you do come back and revise, you're like, “Yes, I remember this.” And when you come back, hopefully you have some some new stuff to be writing, but it kind of takes some of that pressure off.
LS: Totally, totally. It's just so wild how much of writing is a mental game, you know? What's the best advice that you have ever gotten about nurturing creativity?
AP: Oh, I know I'm not gonna get the quote right. But it is from Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art. And he talks about this idea of the Muse really needing to strike you. Essentially, the more times you show up for your work, the more opportunities the Muse has to find you. And I think about that so often, when I get into a little bit of a lull, and I'm just not inspired. Just keep showing up. The inspiration will find me if I keep creating those opportunities.
LS: Yes, yeah. I love that. Marie Cheslik, who I interviewed for my newsletter, posted a great video on burnout this week, and she was talking about how the secret to success is luck. But you increase your chances of getting lucky the more you show up. I love it. Okay, so tell people where they can find you how they can work with you give them all the plugs.
AP: Yes. So you can find me at www.amandapolick.com. And you can sign up for my waitlist so you know when I open coaching spots and you can come work with me. And you can also find me on Instagram. I also have a newsletter. If you go to my website, you can sign up for my five day writing series Writing Gold, too.
LS: Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. I so appreciate it.
AP: So good to see you and talk with you.
See you back here on Friday for dinner bowls! Thanks for reading as always.
Thank you for inviting me into this conversation! Loved getting to dig deeper into this, especially with you, Laura. XO