Creativity is Productivity: Take Advantage of Working from Home

By Johannah | March 16, 2020

Creativity keeps the right brain active, which, in turn, benefits left-brain thinking. It opens us up to new insights and innovations. It enriches our analytical abilities, expanding our tools for interpreting data and solving problems. It energizes us, making us more productive. And it makes everything more fun.

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Client Testimonial: Lawless Research

By Johannah | January 10, 2020

I had the pleasure of serving as the 2018 corporate poet laureate of Lawless Research, a leader in market research. Peggy Lawless, CEO, had these kind words to say about our work together.

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Writing Coach Insights: On Creativity, Hard Living, and Letting Go

By Johannah | December 24, 2014

It doesn’t have to take a disaster to write a good poem. If you cultivate mindful openness, humility, and surrender, you can sustain your creativity under any circumstance.

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Writing Coach Insights: Going Beyond

By Johannah | November 2, 2013

Try to catch yourself before you go into your usual reactions—and if you’re having trouble with that, try writing about it. Cry over the page. It can take whatever you have to give.

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Shock, Awe, Eros, and a Little Bit of Rock & Roll

By Johannah | January 11, 2012

It’s a new year, and there are lots of new events and services in the works. My motto for 2012 is, “Just start it!” That goes for you, too, and your writing or creative endeavors. No more thinking–GO! With that in mind, we’ve expanded into…

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Writing Coach Insights: Frankenstein and Einstein

By Johannah | March 24, 2011

True genius, a deep and authentic sense of creativity, is only possible if, at some level, you accept the process of constantly becoming, if you know yourself to be both Frankenstein and Einstein–because only the beginner’s mind is capable of genius.

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Writing Coach Insights: Being Frankenstein

By Johannah | November 22, 2010

You must be a beginner before you can be brilliant, which is why there is so much honor in starting anything new, in putting your hands in the dirt and planting a new seed. As you learn to write, it is critical to know that ignorance is a critical stage of genius.

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Writing Coach Insights: Worry and Other Creative Drains

By Johannah | August 17, 2010

Being creative means living richly and bravely, of feeling and experiencing and allowing instead of suppressing. Sure, maybe propelled by the energy of fear alone, you can force yourself to finish that report or project, but then, you are creating from the energy of constriction and resistance and suffering, whereas true creative energy is characterized by ease and joy.

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Writing Coach Insights: Turning Frustration Into Good Writing

By Johannah | October 11, 2009

“Annoyed” can be an interesting emotion to explore in writing. It is not a reflection of shallowness or immaturity, but perhaps an indication of significant needs and motivations. Notice what bothers your characters. Do they do something about it, or do they simply stay annoyed and put up with the bothersome situation? How does each option influence the story’s plot and the character’s responses to conflict?

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Writing Coach Insights: The Power of “Yes”

By Johannah | September 28, 2009

“No big whoop” and “yes” are attitudes of allowing, ones that free you to make mistakes, to be eccentric, to be imperfect and thus intriguing. This is what the use of specific detail in creative writing is about: capturing those unique traits that make something come alive on the page by distinguishing it from anything else of its kind, picking out one or two or more key features that tell something essential about a character or an interaction or an object.

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