Susannah Conway

Sometimes I wonder if the only reason I make (or order) certain dishes is so I can Instagram them. But then again, photographing your lunch is such a great way to practice your composition skills!

Things I want to remember

susannah — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:35:42 +0000

I strap him into his car seat, close the door then walk round and get in the other side, next to him. He looks at me with a smile so I get really close and whisper: “hello.” “Hello” he whispers back. It’s the first time I’ve heard him whisper. So unexpected and cute.

His words are starting to include more abstracts, like help, blue, purple, cold, catch, pop, as well as things, like hat, hair, egg, owl, house, balloon, cake. He pronounces elephant “emmett.” He’s also joining-up words to make little sentences: “Look daddy!” “Hello mummy.”

Sing a Simple Song by Sly and the Family Stone comes on the radio. Noah’s daddy starts doing a funny dance round the kitchen, so I go in and start dancing too, which gets Noah dancing between us. And then his mummy joins us, and we all bust some moves on the kitchen floor. Impromptu Sunday dance parties are the best.

He likes to play with the contents of my make up bag while i’m putting my face on. He uses the tiny eyebrow comb to brush his hair. And he LOVES when i use the hairdryer on his hair. He points the hairdryer, looks up at me and says “yes?”

We’re in the car again, driving home. He’s chatting away to himself, as he does, when I hear him say: “Nana. Daddy. Shoo-she. No-no.” No-no is his word for Noah and he points to himself when he says it. He’s just listed everyone in the car.

Highlight of 2012 so far: walking into the spare bedroom to find Noah and his nana both jumping on the bed. Words fail me… :)

Something for the weekend

susannah — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:13:25 +0000

Noah and I were splashing in muddy puddles yesterday. We had the BEST TIME EVAH

Loving Jeska’s February matchbox challenge

This turns my brain inside out

You remember Jo’s lovely guest post from last year? She’s made a Creative Licence!

[video] Miranda July on creating ‘propelling’ work (also: typeface love)

The Apollo 11 rocket made out of Lego

[video] the art of pesto (and want to try this: how to almond milk)

Need to get one of these gratitude journals before they’re gone!

Predictions of what 2011 would be like by a newspaper in 1911

[video] How to deal with copycats from Marie Forleo

There’s always something cool to find at Convoy

Hanging out for the new 3191

And finally, Guerilla gardening with the Pothole Gardener

Enjoy! xo

Remembering what supports us

susannah — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:01:23 +0000

I felt really bruised this morning. A combination of bad dreams, snippets of memories that caught me off guard, the pressure of all I have to get done and just the general heaviness of grey January weather. It tooks me ages to get myself together. I had a to do list that wasn’t going to do itself but my mind was all over the place. Working at home is really great until you hit a day like this — unfocussed, over-emotional, racing heart, can’t settle, and no one is there to tell you to pull yourself together and just get on with it. No colleagues to moan to, no clients to put on a facade for. Just boring old me.

So I pulled on some going-outside clothes (as opposed to my usual working-from-home clothes which look remarkably like about-to-go-to-bed clothes), grabbed my notebooks and pens and forcibly shoved myself out into the world. It’s a ten-minute walk to my favourite cafe and I walked fast, the cold air trying to get inside my coat. There weren’t many people about and even the cafe was quiet. And that was perfect for me. I took over a table, spread out my tools and ordered a decaf mocha.

Somewhere between my first sip and leaving the cafe an hour later, I found my calm. With no internet (or laptop, for that matter) I was forced to do my brainstorming on paper. And as it always does, my energy shifted and brought some new clarity with it. You would have thought, after all these years of self-employment in one form or another, I would remember the tricks that get me back in the game. Going for a walk outside is the most obvious and basic, yet it’s the one I find so hard to do. “I don’t have time” falls from my lips as i stare into my monitor, hoping the words will arrange themselves. I don’t have kids to collect from school, or even a dog to walk, so I have no pressing reason to get up from my desk. Yet this one small activity — and a mocha in a cafe is hardly torture, is it? Sometimes i want to slap myself — made everything better. I let go of the bad dreams. The memories receded back into their hidely hole and grey sky didn’t look so bad once I was standing under it.

And the best thing? I managed to work through a block I’d had in the structure of my new course, and realised that it needs to be SIX weeks and not five. :)

Restart. Reset. Reboot. Works like a charm.

#MustRememberThis

How to make dreams come true

susannah — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:28:32 +0000

Is there anything better than a brand new notebook? I love the smell of the blank paper, the feel of the cover in my hand, the promise of all the ideas I’m going to catch and keep. Whenever I start a new project I like to treat myself to a new notebook (any excuse!) as a way to mark the beginning — I did this with my book and now have a battered Moleskine full of all the threads I wove together.

I use an A5 Filofax (an ochre Malden, for all you Filofanatics out there) for all my business notes as I like the flexibility the loose pages and dividers give me. I’ve tried using online calenders and note-catchers, but nothing beats paper and pen for fast notes and brainstorming — it just suits my brain better.

So it was at the end of last year when it occured to be me that I could use a similar system for my dreaming & scheming. I’ve taken one of Andrea Schroeder’s journalling courses and have always admired her daily journalling, and while I don’t have any painterly talents, i do like to get my crafty on once in a while. So I turned my spare A5 Filofax (aqua Finsbury) into my Creative Dream Journal. And by “creative dream journal” I mean the stuff I want to manifest and make happen. Because to do lists are how I organise my daily tasks, so why not try a to do journal?

It could work, right?

There are currently six sections I’m working with: Life, Love, Business, Home, Abundance and 2012. Rather than be too precious about it, I’m sticking in magazine tearings, using lots of coloured paper and blinging it all out with washi tape and Sharpies. I’ve also recently discovered the joys of blank paper. I always use lined Moleskines for journalling — there’s something about the orderliness of the lines that keeps my scrawly handwriting in check and helps the words flow — but in my CDJ i’m using coloured pens on blank paper and it seems to access a part of my brain that’s been wanting to play for a while. I’ve been yearning for COLOUR! and scribbles! and messy mindmaps!

(I’m sure all you creative journallers out there are nodding your heads, but it took me a while to figure all this out ;)

I work in each section when I have something to add — sometimes that’s daily, sometimes it’s weekly, but either way, having a turquoise binder near me helps to jog my memory. It feels like i’m more actively participating in my dream creation/wish fulfillment/possibility attraction.

The 2012 section has been well-thumbed as i work through my Unravelling workbook and sketch out plans for the new year. Life has a driving instructor’s card taped in as i plan to retake my test this year. Love is filling up with collages and letters to a future Mr Photobird (don’t know if that will work but it’s a fun way to imagine he actually exists and helps short circuit my scepticism.) Home holds all the plans for my next move, including the adoption of a kitty.

Business is my space for dreaming up new ways to send my work out into the world. I’ve also been doing the Business Soul Sessions exercises in here and enjoying looking at my biz from different angles (including imagining my biz as a person, above.)

Meanwhile, I’m unpicking my ideas around income, relationships, possibility and the future in the Abundance section. This is curently the least used section of my CDJ — even though I whole-heartedly believe in abundance, I still struggle with it, if that makes sense, so i knew I needed to give it some space. Or perhaps it will be absorbed into the other sections — this is why using a Filofax (or any binder) works so well. It’s a perpetual work in progress that can be added to and edited as the whim takes me. It’s never finished, unlike a bound notebook. There’s something incredibly satisfying about working on all my plans in this way, and being able to reorder pages is helping me reorder my world too.

So there you have it. Operation Make Dreams Happen is a go.

How do you organise your dreaming and scheming?

Thought you might need this too

susannah — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 14:50:47 +0000

Serotonin Boosters from Photobird on 8tracks.

I made a mixtape for you (and me) on this rainy Saturday afternoon xo

Something for the weekend

susannah — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:11:04 +0000

A shorter SFTW this week as I’ve been trying to spend less time on the interwebs and more time brainstorming in my journal… so far, so good!

Currently obsessed with Amanda Marsalis’ daily Polaroids

Loving this desktop wallpaper from Fossil (and this one too)

Good stuff from Charlie: How to deal with copycats and idea thieves

Have you seen A Year with Myself?

I can’t tell you how much I want to see Moonrise Kingdom

I shared a poem over on Words Dance this week

Mmmm… winter salads (and breakfast salad)

i love this rug

This made me look twice

You become what you believe, with Oprah & Cheryl

Been finding lots of new blog candy thanks to Rachel’s Blogs to Bookmark posts

[video] “Even though I ate a piece of cheese today I totally love and accept myself”

And finally, I’ve nailed down the dates for my spring classes, including the inaugural session of Blogging from the Heart! Registration for BFTH opens Sunday February 5th xo

This is how I write: Justine Musk

susannah — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:25:07 +0000

I can’t remember how I came across Justine Musk’s work but I do know it stays with me long after I’ve read her words (I often link to her posts in my Friday round-ups). The author of three dark fantasy novels, mama to five boys and a prolific blogger, Justine’s got the kind of edgy style I love, so I was thrilled when she agreed to do the interview. Hot pink notebooks, candles and badass creativity? Bring it ON.

Ladies & gentlemen, please welcome Ms Justine Musk…

SC: What do you use for writing a) notes/ideas/brainstorming and b) your books?

JM: I love big eco-friendly notebooks with hard covers (hot pink when I can get it) and blank pages. Never lined. I need all that gorgeous empty space for scrawling and mind-mapping and random jottings. I do my actual writing on my laptop, but there’s something about the hand-to-paper connection, the physical motion of writing, that helps me think things out.

I switched from Microsoft Word to Open Office because it runs on the open-source Linux platform and you can download it for free. I’m a big fan of Dropbox, which allows you to access your files from any computer anywhere. I just joined Pinterest with the intention to create an online visionboard for the novel I’m working on now. I want to access that visual, holistic, intuitive side of my brain when developing a storyworld, so I will try to get away from words and think in terms of images. You can make new associations that way, flash on insights, open up new ideas.

How do you begin?

It starts with snippets and fragments of things that live in my head for a while – a half-formed idea, or a sense of a character, or a setting I want to use, or an image that keeps nagging at me, or even just a feeling. Then those fragments start joining up with each other in a way that begins to feel like a story. There’s always one aspect I find really compelling, that drives me onward, and the rest coalesces around that, or grows organically out of it.

This part of the process rarely if ever happens at my desk. A lot of it happens when I’m driving. I’ll be rocking out in my car and have that Eureka moment, when different ideas click together and boom. You know it’s a book. The question is whether or not you need to write it.

Describe your writing process (edit as you go? Shitty first draft? Daily word count goal?)

The daily word count thing has never worked for me. Time tends to move differently according to which part of the novel you’re working on. You might have a day where all you get is two paragraphs, but those could be difficult paragraphs that blast you through a vexing plot problem. So it’s still a total win.

I’ve also learned that if I hit a block, it’s a sign that something isn’t working and I need to back up and take another look at how the story is evolving. If I ignore it and press on to meet some arbitrary word count, I tend to zig when I should zag and end up trashing those pages anyway.

The important thing is to stay in daily contact with the novel, even when all you can do is dream it out a little more in your mind.

I’ll do some line-by-line editing as I go, but I leave the heavy lifting of deep, structural revision until I’m working with a complete manuscript. I need to see how all the parts relate to each other.

And I totally believe in the power of the shitty first draft.

What do you do when the words aren’t coming?

I’ve learned to work it hard, then release and surrender. You can get trapped in ruts of thinking where your mind doesn’t go anywhere new, just repeats the same old patterns. So you sever those patterns by switching your attention to something completely different. Or even just zoning out. That frees up your undermind to mull things over for a while, do its own thing, so when you return to the project you can see your way forward again.

So I’ll work out, or take a nap, or meditate, or find an excuse to drive somewhere. I will drive just to drive, because something about it frees up my thinking. And I’ll stay open and receptive to whatever comes to me.

And I’ll read. There’s something about reading fiction that primes my brain and makes me eager to get back to writing.

I’ll also meet up with my writing coach (Rachel Resnick), who will offer up some brilliant nugget that inspires me.

Please describe any writing rituals you have (I’m assuming you have some as all writers I know have some, including me)

I clear my desk, except for a few talismanic objects I’ve chosen to represent the novel in some way and which help trigger the right mindset. I’ll take a few minutes to meditate and downshift into the creative brain waves. I put on music – I make a kind of soundtrack for each novel. Sometimes I’ll light a candle, supposedly to signify that I’ve crossed over into this creative space, but mostly because I just like candles.

What’s your favourite part of the writing process/madness?

I love to revise. I love the feeling you get when you re/vision something and understand how to make it better. The story moves in your hands and takes on its final form.

Justine Musk blogs about badass creativity: how to channel your signature voice and express it in the world with purpose and impact. She’s the author of three dark fantasy novels published by Penguin and Simon + Schuster, and is at work on a psychological thriller called THE DECADENTS. She lives in Los Angeles with her five sons.

Cartoon portrait of Justine by Mars Dorian

* * * * *

Thank you so much, Justine!

You might like this, too: This is how I write: Danielle LaPorte

Getting away from it all

susannah — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:57:03 +0000

Eight women, three nights, one cottage, a lot of coffee, a reiki room, an incredible fox sighting, many bags of vegetables to be juiced, a surprise visit from a Blondie Bear, a few tears, a roaring fire, plenty of crumpets and chocolate, and a heck of a lot of raucous laughter. Thank you Sas, Jo, Megg, Lisa, Leonie, Penny and Emma. xo

[Photo of the magical fox by Penny - he sat in the sun and then sauntered right past us. We couldn't believe it.]