CREATE:15 Is Out Now: the Challenge in a Nutshell
CREATE:15 is a low-stakes challenge to develop a simple creative practice >>> 15 days creating, 15 days sharing what you create, 15 days (re)making your life by making art
»»» CREATE:15 starts today, but you can join anytime and do the challenge at your own pace. CREATE:15 is available for all subscribers of GENRE: (free or paid) and the digital download with all challenge information, links, and resources, is available now.
»»» Click the link below to get the free digital download and start creating! ⬇️
Two years ago, my life restarted. In 2023, I wrote something for a SLAM poetry challenge, and everything changed. Not immediately, of course, but that poem marks the point of departure from a life I cannot fathom going back to. Within one year of writing the poem, I performed it on stage, wrote more poetry, wrote more everything, quit my law firm, launched a business, and wrote a book. Within two years, I restructured my entire business—or rather my entire life—around my creative center and began writing full-time.
All because of a poem.
I remember how I felt that first time I spoke the piece out loud—during a practice session with other artists scheduled to perform later that year. I remember opening my mouth and delivering the first line: “It was never a lie that split me in two—it was never telling the whole truth” and becoming completely lost in the moment—my double-consciousness and secondary voices gone. I remember returning to the present in the stark silence following my last spoken word and looking up to stunned faces, tears, and the continuing silence of a spellbound moment. But mostly I remember being blown away by my own words; by the power of my voice; by what had been in there somewhere—silent, immobile, comatose—but not dead.
The spellbound moment broke, of course, but something in me broke along with it: the coma—the long sleep of an artist in hibernation, at great risk of death before life, just like Anaïs Nin described. But what happened next is every bit as important as my initial discovery of being not dead. It was the desire to come alive—all the way. So I kept going. I kept creating to see what would happen, what else I would I find, where it would take me. It was very sloppy and weird and confusing, but I kept going because if I didn’t, I knew the best parts of me would die. I did not yet know that art was remaking my life.
By the end of the second year, I had developed an adaptable but consistent creative practice and writing schedule that has become my lifeline—my happy place, my daily bread, my strength, my joy, the truest part of my life.1 The CREATE:15 challenge is a capsule version of this practice. But before I give you the details, I want to explain why developing a creative practice will change your life and perhaps even save it. If you told me two years ago I would be writing and making art full-time now, I would have laughed in your face. Who has time to “make art” and why I would do such a unimportant thing? I just didn’t know.
I did not know who I really was, and I would have never known without getting my insides out through art. And it had to be this way—not because I’m a “good writer” or “like art”—but because of this absolute truth: You can’t take a course, or listen to a podcast, or read a bunch of books that someone else created and experience the type of transformation that happens when you are the one creating.
This is why creativity—the kind that allows you to find yourself, express yourself, and become yourself—is the most powerful, life-changing practice known to humankind. When you create in whatever way your heart desires and your soul requires, you will find what you need. You will find what you love. You will find what needs to be healed. You will find your power and your strength. You will find your truth. You will find your future. I promise.
»»» This is the CREATE:15 challenge in a nutshell:
15 days creating something
15 minutes per day (or more!)
15 days sharing what you create (with someone, everyone, or no one!)
15 days (re)creating your life by creating art
15th through 30th of October (or do it on your own schedule)
Free writing prompts, art project ideas, instructions, resource links, and planning calendar are included with the challenge and available with the digital download below.
»»» THE CREATE:15 CHALLENGE IS AVAILABLE HERE!
Download now for all challenge details, instructions, links, writing prompts, art projects, resources, and challenge planning calendar. ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️
CREATE:15 is a low-stakes challenge focused on developing a simple creative practice that will change your life. To join CREATE:15, subscribe to GENRE: (free for all subscribers) and you will have full access to the challenge, including all resources, writing prompts, art ideas, planning calendar, and access to the GENRE: chat where you can share what you create. Everything about this challenge is adaptable to your schedule, your creative interests, and the requirements of your own soul. How you approach the creative process—whether through writing, poetry, baking, painting, drawing, lyrics, dance, or any other expression—is not important. What matters is creating.
If that sounds like a spiritual practice, that’s because it is.
Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, that sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all. -Emily Dickinson
This has been my favorite excerpt since it captivated me over 20 years ago. There is more to it, and very worth looking up! You can’t steal Hope, nor can you make its song stop. No words, to me, means it is free, liberated, unbound to the parameter of lyric.
That’s my short & sweet tidbit 😌