Tea for Creatives: Christina Katz’s Creativity Tips
Christina Katz, also known as The Writer Mama and The Prosperous Writer, is the author of three books from Writer’s Digest: The Writer’s Workout, Get Known Before the Book Deal, and Writer Mama. The prolific author recently ventured into writing the “shortest stuff” she’s every written: a series of posters on writing and creativity available at the Etsy shop, Words, Glorious Words!
A champion of mom writers while also maintaining her own prolific career, Christina offers writing career tips and parenting advice in national, regional, and online publications. Christina has worked with thousands of writers over the past decade, helping her students go from unpublished to published, build professional writing career skills, and increase their creative confidence. Christina is a popular speaker on creative career growth, platform development, and micro-publishing. Her work has been featured and quoted on television, on radio, in newspapers, in magazines, in books, and online over the past decade.
Read on to find to find out how Christina keeps the “muckety-muck” of life from interfering with creativity, how she overcame her own fears as she wrote her first book, and learn three tips for staying creative even in a time crunch. And boy did she surprise us with the answer to “what film character do you most identify with and why.” Her answer will surprise you, too.
What does creativity mean to you?
For me, creativity = life. We are surrounded by so much creativity each and every day, and we each contain so much creative potential ourselves, it’s staggering. However, there is a lot of muckety-muck in the world and most of it can not only interfere with creativity, it can even impede it if we let it. In today’s world, I think detaching whatever interferes with our unique self-expression in the world has to become a daily practice. Otherwise, it’s difficult to make space for our true self.
What unexpected directions has creativity/ being creative taken your life/career?
Well, for one thing, I never really set out to write about writing. Writing about writing is more something that happened as I was exploring my own abilities and potential as a writer. Creativity and spirituality feel more natural and intuitive for me to write about. Fortunately, I can write, teach, and speak about writing and still be talking about creativity at the same time. As far as spirituality goes, I try to honor my own spiritual desires while respecting other peoples’ choices.
What are your top 3 creativity tips or techniques for writers who have limited time?
1. Find some targets you can aim for and hit, and then make doing this part of your daily writing practice. It’s okay to take days off, but if you want to be a writer, you have to actually write.
2. Learn to squeeze more time out of the day by getting up earlier or staying up later until you start to enjoy the habit of regular writing without too much pressure.
3. Let the act of writing itself be a joy. Don’t squeeze all the fun out of it, even if you want to become a professional. You are the one who creates your career, so go ahead and make it one you’d like to have.
What keeps the flame lit beneath your muse?
I inspire myself. I am like a fire hose pouring out ideas. I could never do everything in one lifetime that I want to accomplish. Not that all of my ideas are winners, but on any given day, I probably have a hundred viable ideas that I won’t be able to get to within 24 hours. Thank goodness tomorrow is another day because I’ve already got plenty of ideas for how to spend my time.
What character from a book or film best represents your philosophy on life and creativity?
That’s a great question. I am going to go with Shrek, The Musical. I just watched the film version of the musical with my family because my daughter’s school is going to mount a production this winter. The reason this story resonates with me is because it’s about an ogre who is fairly miserable and off-putting until he meets his soulmate, Princess Fiona, who softens him and causes him to become a less-guarded and more caring individual. In the end, he likes and gets along with everyone because he can finally like and accept himself the way he is.
I think a lot of people can identify with this Ugly-Duckling-type of story. They don’t fit in until they go out into the world and encounter other members of their tribe. After this happens, they can relax into themselves and begin to trust their own instincts. This film represents my sense of trusting each person’s potential and my encouragement that folks let go of participating in whatever status quo they were raised in, so they can unlearn all that is not meant for them and pursue a more personally meaningful calling and life.
A little bird told us you are a tea fanatic; is that true?
I am something of a tea fanatic. What is really fascinating to me are all the varieties of tea that exist and all the many different ways tea can be prepared and enjoyed. I love hot tea in one of my favorite mugs on a cool day as much as I love iced sun tea in a travel cup on a warm day. In many countries, tea is a way of life, in the same way that coffee is a way of life in the United States. But I would say that tea is definitely more romantic than coffee. It’s softer and more feminine, which of course reminds me of creativity. Creativity inspires a more contemplative lifestyle and that’s why tea and creativity go together so beautifully.
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Tags: artistic process, Christina Katz, creative minds, creative process, creatives, inspiration, Possibiliteas, Writer Mama, Writer's Workout, writing tips
