Stepping Off Now: Lessons in the Art and Craft of Creativity
Stepping Off Now is a podcast about how to live your creative best life. I’m Kendra, a social scientist and writer. I spent decades feeling creatively unfulfilled while I pursued conventional life goals, culminating in severe burnout that took years to recover from. This podcast chronicles my journey in real time as I find my way home to my essential creative self. I discuss topics like harnessing the intuitive creative process, using creativity to manage mental health, and sorting through all the external pressures and expectations to figure out what YOU really want. My hope is that you’ll find inspiration and solace here. You are not alone, and you are stronger and wiser than you know! You can find out more by visiting my website, kendrapatterson.com.
Stepping Off Now: Lessons in the Art and Craft of Creativity
E154. Does Structure Constrain or Free Us?
I am using my current project, novel #2, to master plot, my weakest area as a writer. In the past, I've been ambivalent and even felt antipathy toward applying commercial and Western-style plot structures to my novels, because I felt they constrained my art. So what's changed? In this episode I discuss my evolving views on structure in life and art, and why I'm now leaning into the concept that structure can free us...if we do it right.
For some background on my thoughts on plot, and particularly on Western vs. Eastern styles, see this episode on the Kishotenketsu narrative structure.