When Are You Going To Make Your Creative Dreams Come True?

I might have a way to help you achieve that

Last week I attended my 12-year-old daughter’s parents evening. As I moved from one department to another there was an emerging theme. Yes, she was doing well, but she was coasting, there was more inside her that she had to give, more potential she was yet to unlock. In essence, she could try harder.

I looked at my daughter as each teacher made the same remark and at the end of the evening I asked her when she was going to stop coasting and start putting in a bit more effort.

I think my daughter imagines that a time will come when her work ethic just kicks in. That when she really needs to pull it out of the bag, like when she starts her GCSEs in year ten as they do over here in the UK, she will just get herself into gear and start being the student she always imagined herself to be.

You can probably imagine what I had to say to her about this. And to be fair to her, it’s because I have been there. I have coasted; at school, in relationships, at work, in my pursuit of my own creative life. Living in the moment with that idea that ‘one day’ you will crack on with that essay, that idea, that book, (that divorce — ahem).

But realising your creative dream doesn’t happen to you. It happens because of you, and specifically because you make it happen. This is the vital bit that my daughter is missing, that any of us are missing.

I often tell my paid subscribers who come along to my monthly meet-up, or those I am mentoring, that the only difference between you (if you are an unpublished author) and someone who has written a book is that they sat in the chair, putting one word in front of another, and they kept going until it was done. They did the work, and so can you. That is the beauty of being a creator, that we can make something from nothing. That we are alchemists.

It isn’t magic, it is hard work, it is dedication, it is that fear (for me at least) that I might get hit by a bus before I have realised x, y or z ambition.

There can be many things stopping us from reaching for our creative ambitions. Yes there are the usual suspects, procrastination, time, money, energy levels, research, other people, the entire internet.

But the biggest roadblock is usually fear. What if I attempt this and it is not as good as I had imagined? What then? It’s scary, and it’s hard, and it if wasn’t, everyone would be writing books and you wouldn’t long to write one yourself because its too easy and you want to challenge yourself to feel alive in this one precious life you have before you.

But what would you do if nothing and no-one were in your way?

This week I have met with two subscribers who I am currently mentoring, two women who have decided that they are not going to wait any longer to fulfill their creative dreams, they’re going to invest in themselves, they are going to make it happen. I am so excited to see how their brilliant projects materialise as our months working together continue.

Last week I announced in the chat to my paid subscribers that I would be releasing some more spots for one-to-one mentoring (do join as a paid subscriber if only to be a part of the exclusive chat where you can start threads and ask a whole community for advice).

Today I’m opening up a few more spots for mentoring to all subscribers. Below I will outline the costs and what that gives you. I don’t offer many spaces because I need to balance my own writing work plus I want to be able to give you as much care and attention as possible. So a) be quick to grab a spot and b) if you don’t get a spot this time, then I hope to be able to release more in the coming months.

So as opposed to my monthly meet up where we chat as a group, this is one-to-one mentoring and we can use this time to either focus on your work on Substack, in terms of essays, or writing for other media, or a bigger project like a book proposal, or shaping/writing the book itself.

There are a couple of options that I will run through:

For me to read and annotate up to 2,000 words plus a 30-min zoom to discuss this and plan forward is £150/month.

For me to read and annotate up to 5,000 words plus a 40-min zoom to discuss and plan forward it £250/month.

Some people choose to have the meeting first to know what they want to get going on, you can do this too. You can also choose to do this as a one off rather than a monthly price but if you want to work towards more of a project/book I have built in some discounts for those who want to commit to 3/6/12 months. Please note if you want to take advantage of the discount, this will need to be paid in full before we start.

So three months of mentoring would be those monthly prices minus 5%

Six months of mentoring would be those monthly prices minus 10%

And 12 months of mentoring would be those monthly prices minus 15%

If you would like to get in touch to bag a spot then you can either direct message me on the app, or you can email me: annawharton@substack.com

A reminder also that I am running my writing for newspapers and magazine workshop on Monday February 24th at 6pm (GMT), that’s 10am (PST), 1pm (EST) and 5am (Sydney time — oops, sorry Australia!). The workshop is two hours long. The cost is £130 or £65 for annual paid subscribers.

And everything you need to know is in this piece here:

So yes, these are the ways I might help you to realise your creative ambitions this year. But first you need to help yourselves. So back to my earlier question in bold:

What would you do if nothing and no-one were in your way?

I’d love to hear in the comments