Daily pages - February 11, 2022

I really wonder if a book would, in itself, bring in that much money. It may be that it will be a small income. To me the book is a launching pad for other pursuits. And I’m wondering if the pattern book is the wrong book for right now. Maybe it isn’t, but I don’t know. I suppose that’s why I should get the proposal out there and see if it gets accepted anywhere.

So, yeah, lots of competing goals, but only competing if I think of it that way. If I think of all of it as part of my creative practice, then they come together under a single umbrella and that is somewhat easier. It might be difficult to imagine an IT job or freelance work for who-knows-who could be considered part of my creative practice, but if I focus on finding non-profit work that needs doing, I might be able to make that work.

I get the feeling that non-profits are looking to use consultants as much as possible, I suppose as a way to keep costs down, just like corporations. Being established as a consultant, or at least as my own business, sets me up to be able to take advantage of that. So I have that going for me.

I have a sense of urgency about all of this. I just read a book review that expressed my thinking pretty well. The book is called “How to save the world for free” and is a compilation of lifestyle changes we can make to help the world. The review I read was much like I have felt: that such little changes are tips/tricks do nothing but hide the severity of problem from people. I still think that for the most part, but making those lifestyle changes as part of a larger creative practice makes sense. It’s work that needs doing and will bring a person’s actions in line with their values. By itself, though, I think it’s a form of greenwashing.

About that urgency, though. I feel like if I stop doing my work now and take a year to work, it could be too late. I feel sometimes that I’m already too late. But I need to try and get this idea out and get as many people contributing to a better world as I can. So I don’t want to set it aside now, I want to double down on it. I want to use as much time and energy as I can muster to get it done tomorrow.

I’ve been using this idea of an ecosystem of tools and information that I’m trying to build. Each part of the ecosystem is necessary and interconnected with the rest. And I feel like much of that ecosystem is in place. The big missing piece is the motivation to begin a creative practice.

I feel, recently, that this is the subject of my first book. If I were to focus more on that as an idea, then I may have a better chance at getting an offer on the book. Then, maybe later the patterns would make sense.

So, I think I need to outline such a book. I can pull a lot of ideas out of the patterns and create chapter outlines. Then I can perhaps submit that as a proposal and see what interest there is. I’m a little nervous. I’ve tried to outline things like this before and have gotten bogged down, but maybe this one will come together more easily. I feel like there’s a lot of material to pull from.

Let’s take a quick stab at an outline for Creative Practice:

• What is a creative practice?
  • An expanded idea of creativity
  • Goals:
    • Improve the world
    • Strengthen your personal universe
• The cycle of a creative practice
  • Find work that needs doing
  • Choose the work that’s yours to do
  • Do the work
  • Assess and repeat
• Work that needs doing
  • This is a value judgment
• What’s yours to do
  • Looking inward
  • Great loves
  • Motives
  • Time commitment
  • The income factor
• Assessing and restarting the cycle
• Getting started
  • Notebook
  • Creation realm
  • Finding time to create
• Living into the future
  • aligning your daily life with your values