This here is Toby Tortoise, who I take care of sometimes.
He lives just along the lane from me and he has strawberry on his face.
(living his best life!)
When itās cloudy and cold, Tobes moves r e a l l y slowly. I thought he was sick once, until I remembered heās a reptile.
In this pic, heās in the sun, stretched out, with fruit and vegetables literally falling from the sky into his open mouth (you should see his little pink tongue itās cuuuute).
All he needed was a little sunshine and warmth to do the thing he does best: eat and snooze.
What do you need to do the thing you do best?
Do you know what you do best?
Hint: itās being creative. Humans are incredibly good at being creative.
All of us are.
Yes, even you over there in the corner, hoping I wonāt see you, who thinks you arenāt.
But how often are conditions right for you to harness it?
Like Toby, I thrive in sunshine, brightness, and QUIET.
I love my cosy office.
I surround myself with my favourite books; make piles out of them ā make a creativity fort.
I canāt write if Iām not in the right space, physically and metaphorically and spiritually and snackily.
My prescription for you: create more things that bring you joy. I further recommend that you figure out the conditions that help you harness your creativity, and create them whenever you can.
Your conditions will look different from mine and thatās cool.
Donāt think thereās a blueprint for this ā there isnāt. It takes time to figure it out and you might find people telling you youāre āwrongā ā that āreal writers can write anywhere, even in chaosā.
Good for you, chaos writer.
I canāt. So I donāt try.
Youāre not wrong.
Youāre you.
Happy writing!
And if youāre normally a slow and steady tortoise, but youād like a booster shot, how about joining me next Thursday March 13 at 11.15am UK time for my Find Your Funnybone microworkshop?
Itās just 45 minutes and hereās how it goes:
- 3 new comedy writing techniques for you to try out
- Short timed writing sessions for you to bang out a load of ideas and bounce off the group
- My feedback on your ideas and suggestions for development
- A short session at the end for you to take a piece of writing you want to make funnier and do just that
Plus you get bonus access to my Creative Playground Power Hour directly afterwards to practice your new-found writing skills.
And all for just 25 of your finest English pounds.
Youāll also get access to the recording for the rest of your natural life, to refer back to anytime. Hurrah!
Book your space here:
And now for the Friday Goodie Bag. Yay! Hereās what Iāve found for you this week:
Narges Mohammadi on The Guilty Feminist Podcast
TGF podcast is one of my faves ā usually a light-hearted look at modern feminism, poking fun at themselves and the patriarchy, always with a really serious mission: to make the world safer for all of us, men and women and everyone in between.
This episode is a little different. Itās an interview with Narges Mohammadi, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, fearless activist and leading voice for womenās rights in Iran. Sheās been in prison for a very long time for the crime of using her voice to speak up for women and girls.
She is an absolutely extraordinary woman who has kept hold of her joy and resistance in the face of her fellow prisoners being executed, tortured, oppressed.
So when you look at the world, and womenās rights being rolled back, and the rise of fascism and corporate greed (which are linked), and you feel hopeless ā remember this woman might never get out of prison and still she rises and fights and hangs onto her joy.
āListen in here.
This very useful self-defence video
My husband is a BJJ-er so the algorithm serves him lots of martial arts type stuff, and one theme is ridiculous self-defence videos. Most self-defence techniques taught by āexpertsā are ludicrous at best and harmful at worst, btw, so ignore them. Run away real fast if you possibly can.
Anyway, this one popped into my YouTube feed the other day and made me laugh so much I had to have a little sit down. How can you take a common trope in your industry or area and subvert it?
Enjoy! And remember: spatula! Bap bap bap!
The legend of the Potato King
I wrote a post about oysters the other day on LinkedIn, and Cat Arundel commented about the Prussian Potato King and shared this link.
There are two reasons Iām sharing it with you today:
- Itās just a really cool little visual story in potato prints. I love a bit of random art for storytelling.
- Itās a masterclass in human behaviour and how ridiculous we are. Want someone to do something? Tell them they canāt. Just like King Frederick II of Prussia.
When he found out about the potato, he was really excited. Obviously, because potatoes are wonderful in every form. He wanted his subjects to eat them, but his subjects were like ānah mate, you canāt tell us what to eatā because apparently we all turn into toddlers when an authority figure tries to make us eat our vegetables.
So he fortified a field and guarded his potatoes (in a really half-arsed way) et voilĆ”! The potato became the staple food for his people.
Fight your media bias
Media bias is a very real and dangerous thing, and itās amplified by the algorithms. Social media will push (in some cases extremely harmful) content at you depending on who you are. My husband has given up on Instagram because itās a constant flood of misogynistic content and soft porn, directed at him because heās a middle-aged white dude.
We get a lot of our news from these sources, and itās massively biased.
Mainstream media is the same: it is all run by the extremely wealthy and it all has its own agenda.
Ground News is a way for us to fight this: āGround News is a platform that makes it easy to compare news sources, read between the lines of media bias and break free from algorithms.ā
Sounds good to me and itās free to subscribe (there are paid options too if you want them).
āCheck it out.
Kara Walkerās subversive silhouette art
Kara Walker is a contemporary artist who takes a style popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries among fancy high-society ladies, and subverts it.
She uses silhouettes, which would have been paper cut-outs, depicting the kind of idyllic scene that would have been common back on the plantationsā¦ but look a little more closely and youāll see the brutal realities of being Black in pre-emancipation America. Her art is stunning in every sense of the word and you can learn more about her here.
As Walker says: āThe promise of any artwork is that it can hold us ā viewer and maker ā in a conflicted or contestable space, without real-world injury or loss.ā
What Iām reading
Iāve just finished the second robot and monk novel, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers and now Iām bereft because thatās the last of her work (so far). Iāve read it all. Itās all beautiful.
This book and itās prequel is all about purpose. Why do humans need so badly to have purpose? Why canāt we just be?
What Iām writing
Iām creating a Zine! Iām having loads of fun with it, too. If youāre a current or past client of mine, youāll get a real copy. If youāre a subscriber, youāll get a downloadable and printable version of your own. I want it to be a light in the dark places.
Word of the week
This weekās word, picked randomly from my dictionary, is:
shibui
Japanese: si-boo-ee
It means āimprovement with age.ā
I love this because the modern world is obsessed with youth, and as a woman who must now be reluctantly classed as middle-aged, I love the idea of celebrating a subtle beauty that increases with age, whether thatās a wrinkly face or a time-polished beach pebble.
Quote of the week
Art is about saying, Hey, look! [ā¦] The intention, the purpose, is not to show your talent but to show somethingā¦ I had a very great urgency to show, to share. The cat brings you in things, you know? It was that kind of thing. I discovered things and wanted to share them.ā ā Hedda Sterne
I love this. Even when Iām writing about myself and my experiences, Iām always pointing at something else. This thing, here, through my lens ā donāt look at me, look at what Iām pointing at.
That takes the pressure off our writing.
Find something to share, and share it.
Have a wonderful weekend, and maybe make something cool.
How to work with The MicroBook Magician
āMicroBook Magic: Write your MicroBook in just 8 weeks ā book for April 2025
āCreative Playground: Write every day + get advice, support, and bonus access to my workshops! (1 week trial for Ā£1)
āBook Coach In Your Pocket: Letās see how much you can get done in just 30 days
āVIP Book Breakthrough Day: Make a quantum leap in book progress in just one day (or two half-days)
āNonfiction Book Ghostwriting: Idea to book in just 20 weeks
āBuy My Book: How the hell do you write a book?