Posts by Linda McLean
The Story or Creating an Online Creativity Course – Part 1: “This is Your Song”
I’m creating an online songwriting course and I’ll tell you why. It’s because I know for a fact that everyone has a creative genius in them, lurking there behind a veil of equal parts fear, confusion and overwhelm. It’s the genius that lives in the secret desire we suppress into submission and call ‘stupid’, fanciful’…
Read MoreComing in from the cold – at home in my local yoga studio.
We all need somewhere to go where we can come in out of the cold. I’m looking out my living room window at the gray sky and the slush falling in near freezing temperatures. Winter is coming, as it does, right after the short sweet Canadian autumn of dazzling reds oranges and yellows. Barren trees,…
Read MoreDreams and Schemes – The Magic of Doing What We Love
When I was twenty- eight years old I told myself I needed to stop wasting time daydreaming about being a songwriter. I remember distinct conversations with myself, talking right at my heart and saying, “Stop your moaning. Be grateful for what you have. Get on with your fabulous life.” In reality I was terrified of…
Read MoreWhat Do You Stand For?
“If we don’t stand for something, we’ll fall for anything.” It’s hard to know what we stand for. Especially, I think, because of all the self-censoring going on these days. We’re afraid to say what we truly believe. Or we’re so confused by the zillions of different ideas floating around in the strato-blogo-twitto-media sphere that…
Read MoreWe’re all Creative – but that doesn’t mean it’s easy.
We’re all creative. I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again. If you are alive and you are a human, you are a creative being. I first heard the idea in 1996 when I read Csikszentmihalyi’s Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention – our ability to be creative is what distinguishes…
Read MoreMy 28 Day Writing Challenge – Single-minded focus
Multi-tasking versus one task. It comes easily to me. After years of working on several things at once or fitting a project into all the other responsibilities (‘Writing is what I do between the ironing.” Alice Munro) I can work on several songs at a time while moving houses. I can work on a story…
Read More4 Steps of Songwriting – You Have a Song in You
I believe you have a song. I believe everyone has a song, a unique song that no one else can write. Even if you’ve convinced yourself that you’d never in a million years write a song, I know you can. I’ve worked with so many people who were stuck in ‘negative self-talk-myself-out-of-it-talk’, only to find…
Read MoreChildren are resilient? No they aren’t.
“Children are resilient.” That was the statement I heard over and over during our years of family mediation. What does that mean? Its an adjective, an attribute attached to a noun. And words like strong, tough, hardy, bouyant, and irrepressible are used as synonyms. Children are resilient? No they aren’t. Maybe some are in some…
Read MoreThe Year of Finishing
Many moons ago, I was a mom raising three kids. I was building a house in the country. I was thinking about what to do when I grew up. I hadn’t become a songwriter yet. I hadn’t started writing books. I was about to go back to school to get a Masters degree. Recently I…
Read More4 Steps to Prime Your Creativity Pump
You do have creative bones, you just don’t know it. The problem isn’t what most non-artists believe about themselves, ie ‘I don’t have a creative bone in my body.’ The problem is we don’t learn how to tap into our creativity. When we’re schooled to do as we’re told it can be hard and scary…
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