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Candid chats about our creative lives
Episodes
Monday Mar 14, 2022
Monday Mar 14, 2022
Do you struggle with trusting yourself when it comes to your creative pursuits? Do you doubt your abilities or count your work’s worth short?
Authors Joy E. Rancatore and Mea Smith have been there, too. Tune in to this episode for a candid chat on the dangers of lacking creative trust and some of the misbeliefs that lead to such a mindset. Joy and Mea also share a few tips for how they overcome their self distrust.
Check out links for mentions from this episode:
Anna Bright, author of Beholder and Boundless: https://www.annabrightbooks.com/
Jordan Peterson, professor of psychology and promoter of Future Authoring: https://www.selfauthoring.com/future-authoring
Continue the conversation and stay in the know for all things QWERTY—subscribe to the monthly newsletter: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/z9f1z5.
Intro music created and performed by Brent Smith.
Continue this week’s chat via email at qwertywritinglife [at] gmail [dot] com. For more information about us, the show and our writing craft book series, head over to https://qwertywritinglife.com. Subscribe in your favorite podcast portal. Or, if you’d rather see our grinning faces, ring the bell on our YouTube channel. Please share our podcast with your friends, too! For more about Mea and her writing, visit storyswell.net. Joy and her details can be found at joyerancatore.com.
Monday Feb 28, 2022
Monday Feb 28, 2022
How can creatives be prepared at all times for interactions with influencers or consumers of their art?
Authors Joy E. Rancatore and Mea Smith suggest Creative Kits. Investing time and resources into preparing these items—either hard copy or digital or both—allows creatives the freedom to make the most of any opportunity that comes their way.
In this episode, learn more about what these kits are, what they might include, how to put them together, where to house them and what tips Joy and Mea have to make your kits the best they can be.
How about some inspiration for your kits? Check out these links mentioned in the show:
Amy Harmon Book Club Kits: https://www.authoramyharmon.com/book-club-kits.html
Lisa See Book Club Kits: https://www.lisasee.com/about-lisa-see/book-clubs/
QWERTY Writing Life Media Kit: https://qwertywritinglife.com/contact
Joy’s Media Kit Page: https://joyerancatore.com/media-kit/
Joy’s Book Club Page (with Book Club Kit access): https://joyerancatore.com/book-clubs/
For more from the QWERTYs, subscribe to their monthly newsletter:
https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/z9f1z5
Intro music created and performed by Brent Smith.
Continue this week’s chat via email at qwertywritinglife [at] gmail [dot] com. For more information about us, the show and our writing craft book series, head over to https://qwertywritinglife.com. Subscribe in your favorite podcast portal. Or, if you’d rather see our grinning faces, ring the bell on our YouTube channel. Please share our podcast with your friends, too! For more about Mea and her writing, visit storyswell.net. Joy and her details can be found at joyerancatore.com.
Monday Feb 14, 2022
Monday Feb 14, 2022
Business owners consider Focus one of the top tools of their trade, regardless of the type of work they do. Creative Business Owners are no different; in fact, as authors Joy E. Rancatore and Mea Smith share in this episode, Focus is an ever-changing constant for them. With each new season, they must reevaluate their Focus and determine how to achieve the goals that are most vital to their creativity and business at that time.
Follow these links to dig deeper into the topic:
Dan Blank’s website with more information about Creative Clarity Cards and Finding Your Ideal Reader: https://wegrowmedia.com/
Dan Blank, The Creative Shift Podcast, “Start the Year with Creative Clarity” (creative clarity cards): https://wegrowmedia.com/start-the-year-with-creative-clarity-podcast/
QWERTY Writing Life, Season 3, Episode 17: “Fundamental Standards for Creatives”: https://qwertywritinglife.podbean.com/e/fundamental-standards-for-creatives/
QWERTY Writing Life, Season 1, Episodes 10-12: “Benefits of Short Fiction” https://qwertywritinglife.podbean.com/e/benefits-of-short-fiction-part-1/
Mea’s books:
Grief Like a River (poetry): https://storyswell.net/books
Finders Keepers: A Practical Approach to Find and Keep Your Writing Critique Partner (nonfiction): https://www.logosandmythospress.com/finders-keepers
Writing with Maggie Stievfater Course: https://www.etsy.com/listing/806360184/writing-with-maggie-stiefvater-8-hour
For more from the QWERTYs, subscribe to their monthly newsletter: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/z9f1z5
Intro music created and performed by Brent Smith.
Continue this week’s chat via email at qwertywritinglife [at] gmail [dot] com. For more information about us, the show and our writing craft book series, head over to https://qwertywritinglife.com. Subscribe in your favorite podcast portal. Or, if you’d rather see our grinning faces, ring the bell on our YouTube channel. Please share our podcast with your friends, too! For more about Mea and her writing, visit storyswell.net. Joy and her details can be found at https://joyerancatore.com/links/.
Monday Jan 31, 2022
Monday Jan 31, 2022
Authors Joy E. Rancatore and Mea Smith explore the importance of Fundamental Standards for Creatives. These core values or beliefs can be used as a tool to guide reactions to readers, publishers and reviewers or to influence business decisions. Listen in for definitions of Fundamental Standards and Touchstone Affirmations, examples from the authors’ own businesses and four action steps to turn this concept into practical use.
If you’d like to subscribe to the monthly QWERTY Writing Life newsletter, click this link: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/z9f1z5
Intro music created and performed by Brent Smith.
Continue this week’s chat via email at qwertywritinglife [at] gmail [dot] com. For more information about us, the show and our writing craft book series, head over to https://qwertywritinglife.com. Subscribe in your favorite podcast portal. Or, if you’d rather see our grinning faces, ring the bell on our YouTube channel. Please share our podcast with your friends, too! For more about Mea and her writing, visit storyswell.net. Joy and her details can be found at joyerancatore.com.
Monday Jan 17, 2022
Monday Jan 17, 2022
You want to collaborate with a partner to produce something big—maybe a book? In this episode, authors Joy E. Rancatore and Mea Smith bring you some tips that have helped them launch a nonfiction book, a podcast and a brand together.
In keeping with their candid style, Joy and Mea keep this topic real and raw and fun.
Learn more about their book on writing critique partners, Finders Keepers: A Practical Approach to Find and Keep Your Writing Critique Partner: https://www.logosandmythospress.com/finders-keepers
If you’d like to subscribe to the monthly QWERTY Writing Life newsletter, click this link: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/z9f1z5
Intro music created and performed by Brent Smith.
Continue this week’s chat via email at qwertywritinglife [at] gmail [dot] com. For more information about us, the show and our writing craft book series, head over to https://qwertywritinglife.com. Subscribe in your favorite podcast portal. Or, if you’d rather see our grinning faces, ring the bell on our YouTube channel. Please share our podcast with your friends, too! For more about Mea and her writing, visit storyswell.net. Joy and her details can be found at joyerancatore.com.
Monday Jan 03, 2022
Monday Jan 03, 2022
Authors Joy E. Rancatore and Mea Smith view a new year through a different lens. Join them for A Creative Approach to Beginnings. The key to approaching something new with lessons in tow might rest in spending a few extra moments with past failures or suffering.
Learn more about Abigail Dodds and her book, (A)Typical Woman: Free, Whole and Called in Christ, at her website: https://hopeandstay.com.
Find out more about Mea’s book, Grief Like a River, including where to get your own copy, on her website: https://storyswell.net/books.
If you want a free copy of the goals PDF mentioned at the beginning of the episode, subscribe to the monthly QWERTY Writing Life newsletter:
https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/z9f1z5
Intro music created and performed by Brent Smith.
Continue this week’s chat via email at qwertywritinglife [at] gmail [dot] com. For more information about us, the show and our writing craft book series, head over to https://qwertywritinglife.com. Subscribe in your favorite podcast portal. Or, if you’d rather see our grinning faces, ring the bell on our YouTube channel. Please share our podcast with your friends, too! For more about Mea and her writing, visit storyswell.net. Joy and her details can be found at joyerancatore.com.
Tuesday Dec 21, 2021
Tuesday Dec 21, 2021
Authors Joy E. Rancatore and Mea Smith take inspiration from the Writing with Maggie Stiefvater seminar and put their QWERTY twist on an exercise for a special workshop—Starting a Story Together.
Tune in for some tips on how to collaborate with a creative friend on a new type of project. How could a creative team-up boost your personal projects or pave the way for new opportunities in the future?
If you’re a writer, check out the highly recommended Writing with Maggie Stiefvater Course: https://www.etsy.com/listing/806360184/writing-with-maggie-stiefvater-8-hour
If you want to stay in the QWERTY know and help influence future episodes, subscribe to the monthly QWERTY Writing Life newsletter:
https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/z9f1z5
Intro music created and performed by Brent Smith.
Continue this week’s chat via email at qwertywritinglife [at] gmail [dot] com. For more information about us, the show and our writing craft book series, head over to https://qwertywritinglife.com. Subscribe in your favorite podcast portal. Or, if you’d rather see our grinning faces, ring the bell on our YouTube channel. Please share our podcast with your friends, too! For more about Mea and her writing, visit storyswell.net. Joy and her details can be found at joyerancatore.com.
Monday Dec 06, 2021
Monday Dec 06, 2021
In this episode of QWERTY Writing Life, authors Joy E. Rancatore and Mea Smith consider the topic “Filling the Creative Well” from a different perspective. They examine how consuming entertainment, for the creative, is a deeper pastime. Creative stimulation continues with the reflection afterward. With this combination of consuming entertainment with a creative spirit and a reflection on what it has given comes the incorporation of these new thoughts and ideas into personal creativity.
Check out some of Mea and Joy’s inspiration:
Alexandra Bracken: https://www.instagram.com/alexbracken/
Black Panther: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/
Shang Chi: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt9376612/
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25883848
The Hating Game movie: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt8718158/
A Mouthful of Air podcast: https://amouthfulofair.fm
Mary Poppins: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0058331/
Mary Poppins Returns: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt5028340/
Saving Mr. Banks: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2140373/
Magnolia Network, home of some of Joy’s favorite shows, “Fixer Upper,” “The Cabin Chronicles” and “Self Employed”: https://magnolia.com/network/
If you want to stay in the know and help influence future episodes, subscribe to the monthly QWERTY Writing Life newsletter:
https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/z9f1z5
Intro music created and performed by Brent Smith.
Continue this week’s chat via email at qwertywritinglife [at] gmail [dot] com. For more information about us, the show and our writing craft book series, head over to https://qwertywritinglife.com. Subscribe in your favorite podcast portal. Or, if you’d rather see our grinning faces, ring the bell on our YouTube channel. Please share our podcast with your friends, too! For more about Mea and her writing, visit storyswell.net. Joy and her details can be found at joyerancatore.com.
Monday Nov 15, 2021
Monday Nov 15, 2021
Authors Joy E. Rancatore and Mea Smith give thanks for the “little things.” Listen in to their candid chat about how the holidays often cause us to put on blinders to the good things around us. Those blinders keep our focus locked on to whatever big emotions we are feeling and how those feels are affecting us.
When we recognize the blinders for what they are and cast them aside, we can finally notice the “little things”—flowers, a breeze, the sunlight through the trees. Soon, these “little” things grow huge as they swell our gratitude. Living with a grateful heart allows us to approach the holidays without blinders and with a boost to our creativity.
If you’re looking for some gifts that give back, check out Sseko Fellow Laura Kee’s shopping page: https://ssekodesigns.com/laura
If you want to stay in the know and help influence future episodes, subscribe to the monthly QWERTY Writing Life newsletter:
https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/z9f1z5
Intro music created and performed by Brent Smith.
Continue this week’s chat via email at qwertywritinglife [at] gmail [dot] com. For more information about us, the show and our writing craft book series, head over to https://qwertywritinglife.com. Subscribe in your favorite podcast portal. Or, if you’d rather see our grinning faces, ring the bell on our YouTube channel. Please share our podcast with your friends, too! For more about Mea and her writing, visit storyswell.net. Joy and her details can be found at joyerancatore.com.
Monday Nov 01, 2021
Monday Nov 01, 2021
Bingeing craft techniques allows Creatives to immerse themselves in learning or inspiration, but it’s not always possible in traditional ways. Authors Joy E. Rancatore and Mea Smith color outside the lines with a few unusual ways to accomplish this feat.
They split bingeing into three categories and give examples of each from their own lives. Creatives can binge their craft through creative instruction, practice and consumption. As the co-hosts discuss, it’s important to explore all three to maintain a balanced creative life.
Visit the following links for recommendations from the show:
Writing with Maggie Stiefvater Course
Merriam-Webster Word of the Day
Oxford English Dictionary Word of the Day
If you want to stay in the know and help influence future episodes, subscribe to the monthly QWERTY Writing Life newsletter:
https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/z9f1z5
Intro music created and performed by Brent Smith.
Continue this week’s chat via email at qwertywritinglife [at] gmail [dot] com. For more information about us, the show and our writing craft book series, head over to https://qwertywritinglife.com. Subscribe in your favorite podcast portal. Or, if you’d rather see our grinning faces, ring the bell on our YouTube channel. Please share our podcast with your friends, too! For more about Mea and her writing, visit storyswell.net. Joy and her details can be found at joyerancatore.com.