The Creative Identity

A Tomato Doesn't Sit Down

If you get The Creative Times once a month, you will have already read some of my thoughts on Tootsie, therefore I should apologise if what follows will sound a bit too familiar for your liking. Not everyone gets The Creative Times though, right? And why not of course? Sign-up on the left dear reader! Tootsie is often referred to as 'that movie with Dustin Hoffman in drag' but I must tell you that every time I hear that one, my heart plummets all the way to my heels. How about this: frustrated unemployed creative proves that with hard work and perseverance one can accomplish anything. Believe me, the 'in drag' side of things isn't something that ever struck me as the most important aspect in Tootsie, for Michael's plea is one that is painfully felt across the creative world, superseding geographical, historical, sexual and religious boundaries. In other words: if you've ever struggled to meet your basic needs while dying to follow your creative call, this is the movie you should watch. When I wrote a little piece about Ignore Everybody, one of the things I decided to focus on was the author's message regarding creative output and financial obligations, the upshot of which was don't quit your day job. I began watching Tootsie as a child but I must have probably notched sixty viewings over the years before I realised that in the beginning Michael (and his flatmate Jeff) is working as a waiter. Of course the grand... Read more →

eCourse Log Ins

If you have signed up for the online course, you should have received the invitation to create your username and password on the course's site. If you didn't, or are experiencing any problems, do drop me a line. If you have not signed up for the online course, you still have two days left, as the fun and games start next weekend! Read more →

The Accidental Creative Identity

When I cast my mind back to the first few weeks in 2008 when I was job-free and yet not job-less, as I was working on my PhD, I don't exactly remember what that time was like. Apart from the PhD notes and my first editing jobs, I don't remember what I was doing with my time. It was during those neither-here-nor-there weeks that my supervisor suggested I started enquiring about posts within various universities because nobody waits (or should wait) until the VIVA to get a job, no matter how unrelated to one's own research. Yet, I wasn't getting anywhere. Not only was I not getting anywhere with the peripheral jobs (I would have quite happily been an undergraduate secretary, I am not too big for such jobs regardless of the PhD, I can assure you), I felt like I was getting nowhere in general. While I never felt the need for a bona fide permanent full-time job, it was the first time in my adult life when I did not have to spring out of bed in the dark at 6.30 am, and even though all of this freedom was, in a way, delicious, I was feeling displaced. My mind was thrilled with the latest developments, yet my body felt like a carcass that was hanging between the alien no man's land of the house and the buzzing outside world where I did not belong any more. When I discussed this with a friend of mine she pointed... Read more →

eCourse Doubts: Got Any?

Books by Galia Alena This post is way, way overdue considering the number of emails with copycat questions I've been receiving as the date of the eCourse approaches. It's a funny one this because there are really only four questions I keep getting. If you think of anything else, drop it in the comments or send me an email if you're a bit shy. 1– I am worried by the level of writing required for this course. I am not sure I qualify. I must confess I saw this coming for ages, even before the course was up on the site. I am perfectly aware that some of the things that I have written about in the past may make some feel slightly intimidated. I love my rants about grammatical atrocities and lack of professionalism and I never felt the need to disguise it. But let me tell you this dear reader: I am like nobody else out there. Surf cyberspace for a while, and you'll come across countless sites that try to sell you something that does not exist, sites that harp on and on about the greater viability of self-publishing over traditional publishing (oh dear God... you're far more likely to be crushed by the self-publishing wheel than by a thousand rejections at the hand of Darley Anderson and Ed Victor combined and it will cost you money) and sites that hail to editing, proofing, blogging and copyediting as the solution to your cashflow problems whilst discounting the... Read more →

Birthday Give-Away Winner

Congratulations Lisa! Drop me a line with your address! And all of you who entered... wow, thanks for the comments, I hope you'll stick around and maybe join me and the others on the course that starts in two weeks! Read more →