Cartoonist and coach Jessica is the founder of the Creative Focus Workshop, and author of Growing Gills: How to Find Creative Focus When You’re Drowning in Your Daily Life, the graphic novel La Perdida, and two textbooks about making comics, Drawing Words & Writing Pictures and Mastering Comics.

Her book Out on the Wire is about how the best radio and podcast producers in the world use story to keep us listening. Jessica’s latest work of fiction is the Eisner-nominated Trish Trash: Rollergirl of Mars. She is chair of the illustration program at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

In this episode Jessica and I discuss:

• The inspiration behind Growing Gills
• The myth of the muse and “right brain versus left brain”
• The power of time tracking
• Dealing with external and internal nay-sayers
• The power of planning and creating your own rules

Plus, her #1 tip for writers.

About Jessica Abel

Cartoonist and coach Jessica Abel is the founder of the Creative Focus Workshop, and author of Growing Gills: How to Find Creative Focus When You’re Drowning in Your Daily Life, the graphic novel La Perdida, and two textbooks about making comics, Drawing Words & Writing Pictures and Mastering Comics. Her book Out on the Wire is about how the best radio and podcast producers in the world use story to keep us listening. Jessica’s latest work of fiction is the Eisner-nominated Trish Trash: Rollergirl of Mars. She is chair of the illustration program at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Sign up for her Creative Focus Workshop, check out her website and connect with her on Twitter and Facebook. You can also download her “What’s Stopping You?” worksheet right here! 

Growing Gills

Go from overwhelmed, anxious, and stuck, to consistent, clear, and in control of your creative life.

If you feel like you’re floundering in the deep end (Not waving, drowning!), and anxiety over the complexity and enormousness of your creative projects overwhelms you, stop scrambling to fit everything in and feeling stretched thin.

Dive deep and swim

Sustain the energy you feel when thinking of how awesome your projects could be.

Value your own creative work as highly as work you do for other people.

Build a reusable structure and process that will consistently get you to the finish line.

Blast through your stuck-ness.

Focus. Finish. Move on to the next project.

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link, where if you choose to purchase via the link DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 293

(Right-click to download.)

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Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 293: Find Your Creative Focus — Interview with Jessica Abel appeared first on DIY MFA.