Today, I want to take you behind the curtain of something I call Creative Seasons—a way of structuring my writing life + business that just plain works for my brain. Maybe it’ll spark some ideas for your creative process, too!
If I had to sum up what I was doing before? Easy. “Absolutely was not working” and “sucking the joy out of life” pretty much covers it.
I’d found a way to get the actual book-writing done, which was no small feat.
But when it came to marketing those books? Let’s just say a great many tasks were perennially shuffled to next week’s to-do list. And then the next. And—well, you get it.
The Sneaky Power of Theme
Creative Seasons introduced two things I didn’t realize I was missing:
Setting aside time for deep work (to borrow Cal Newport’s term), and tapping into my obsession with creative remixing.
Trying to sprinkle marketing tasks throughout my week basically guaranteed they wouldn’t get done.
Either I was too tired after sculpting tiny food (my current day job) or drafting my next book, or I’d do the marketing first and then be too tired to do my day job—which wasn’t really an option, since, you know…bills.
Hence: another week, another list of untouched marketing tasks.
With Creative Seasons, I now set aside one full week to do nothing but marketing. Yes, I still fill tiny food orders in the morning, but knowing that the rest of the day is fully reserved for one thing, and one thing only, shifted my POV in ways I hadn’t expected.
For starters, it’s way easier for me to get into the zone.
And when I’m in the zone? Wowza. It’s like sprinkling fairy dust on my to-do list!
Instead of, “Ugh, I have to market my books,” it becomes, “Wait—I get to make cool books, and then I get to make more cool stuff to spread the word??!”
It’s amazing how dimming distractions can dial up the level of satisfaction I get from a task, even ones that, in the past, I considered to be majorly boooring.
There’s a Magical Reason, Too
Do you remember when I compared my pen name to a magic circle—a space where “Author Me” can show up distinctly from “Personal Me”?
There’s something similar at play with these week-long marketing boot camps.
The week becomes a magic circle of its own. Within the circle, I focus on a very specific intention and let everything else fall away. And just like in ritual, that container allows energy to gather. It concentrates. And, like most magic…it surprises.
Not only am I finally doing my marketing (a small miracle), the simple act of focusing has sparked unexpected story breakthroughs.
For example, while creating this colorful grid of series clues, I hashed out an important subplot in The Magician & the Labyrinth of Yesterdays—a thread that will ripple forward into the yet-untitled book tied to the Wheel of Fortune card.
I can feel it as I work: Marinating in a focused mindset, even with something “dull” like marketing, weaves those creative threads together, and one leads to the next, leads to the next…
A Bored Witch Causes Trouble
Which brings me to the second feature of Creative Seasons: Remixing familiar themes to create something fresh. (Remember my love of The Simpsons’ ever-changing couch gag? This is the witchy version.)
In a nutshell, I set aside one marketing week per quarter, and each quarter gets a yummy new theme for my brain to chew on.
My love of remixing used to cause problems in my businesses, because every so often I’d get the itch to revamp my branding. Again. And again. (And again.)
Not great if you’re wanting to build brand recognition. But without the refresh I’d start feeling antsy and bored.
Themed quarters to the rescue!!
Now, instead of tearing everything down and starting over, I get to channel that revamp energy into a rotating aesthetic—new imagery, colors, symbols, and seasonal moods.
Brain = happy. Business = (a little more) stable. Win-win.
This quarter’s theme?
In the coming weeks, we’ll explore the world of Twin Flames through this dreamy, midsummer lens. Think golden-hour walks in the woods or curling up with a good book to the backdrop of a summer storm.
If you’ve read The Fool & the Threads of Time, you might remember those little shrines, deep in the meer—and those empty place settings left for the Hidden Company.
(And if not? No reading homework required to enjoy what’s to come.)
We’ll slip into the summer woods, looking for those shrines—looking for clues.
Who are the Hidden Company? And why do the Harandeans still leave offerings, even though most believe they’re nothing but children’s tales?
Oh, and that shimmering in the distance, just visible above the canopy? That’s the Waterfall of Mesmer. Some say its waters conceal caves, and if the legends are true, one of those caves houses a very peculiar guest…
We’ll explore all this and more in the weeks to come.
Welcome to Languorous Summer.
