In this episode, we wrap up our journey through the Creativity Quest, a framework developed by our own Gina Hogan Edwards to help writers navigate their creative journey. We discuss the origins of this 10-stage process and how it can serve as a personal coach for writers. Melody and KimBoo share our experiences with the quest, highlighting stages that resonated with us most. We explore the non-linear nature of the creative process and how the quest can help writers orient themselves in their journey. Gina opens up about her struggles in writing about the quest, reminding us all that even experienced writers face challenges.

We also touch on upcoming episodes, including one-on-one interviews with Gina and Melody, and an exciting interview between Melody and author Karla Refogo. Join us for this insightful discussion on creativity, writing, and personal growth!

RESOURCES

Ep. 43: Navigating the Stages of Creative Mastery

Dave Hogan, Gina’s Pop
0:02
Welcome to Around the Writer’s Table, a podcast focusing on the crossroads of creativity, craft, and conscious living for writers of all ages and backgrounds. Your hosts are Gina, Melody, and KimBoo, three close friends and women of a certain age, who bring to the table their eclectic backgrounds and unique perspectives on the trials, tribulations, and the joys of writing. So pull up a chair and get comfortable here around the writer’s table.

KimBoo York
0:43
Welcome back, listeners. You are at Around the Writer’s Table podcast. We’re recording episode 44, a historic moment for us because we have come fully around The Creativity Quest. We wrapped up all 12 stages. Is it 12, Gina?

Gina Hogan Edwards
It’s 10.

KimBoo
1:00
Yeah. 10. Okay. I can’t spell and I can’t count. That’s all right. I’m a professional author. So that’s all right. All 10 stages of The Creativity Quest. And we’re going to do a little bit of a deep dive into that. Now this isn’t going to be a full review of every single phase of it, but we are going to give you some insight into what we’ve talked about, why you should go back and listen to some of the past episodes where we do deep dives into each one of these phases or stages. 

We’re going to talk to Gina. We’re going to put her on the hot seat about how she came up with this, why, how it can be useful to you as a writer. So please stay tuned, as they say, so that we can give you some really great insights and thoughts about the value of The Creativity Quest, as Gina has thought it up and put it out here in the world for us. 

As you may know, I am KimBoo York. I’m a professional author and productivity coach for creatives. I run the 1 Million Words Club, which is a membership community on Discord. It’s a positive, non-judgmental, encouraging space that works on people—works on people! Like, oh, we’re hammering on their heads. No!—that encourages writers in their quest to find the right mindset, to find the right process for themselves, to engage with their own productivity on their own terms. So it’s a great community. I’m really enjoying that. 

I’ve also got several fiction serials that are going on right now, fantasy serials. That’s exciting for me, and one of them’s almost wrapped up and then another one’s just starting. 

So the writing life never ends. But I am a co-host here with my co-hosts, Gina and Melody. So, Melody, why don’t you give us a short introduction to yourself for any listeners who have not been by here before.

Melody
2:55
Thanks, KimBoo. I’m Melody, A Scout. I’m an author, landscape designer, landscaper, gardener. Anything having to do with plants is my jam. So I wrote a book called Soul of the Seasons, available in most online bookstores. I help people find their sense of home by creating balance and harmony. That’s me.

KimBoo
3:23
You do. You’re so insightful. Melody, are there any paperback copies of that book still available? Would people be able to get those? I know it’s available on all bookstores online as a digital version.

Melody
3:35
My book? 

KimBoo
3:37
Yeah. Your book? The one you wrote. Yes.

Melody
3:40
Yes. Yes, it is available in print form, has been. So, yeah, and I offer autographed copies if you desire that, so you can contact me directly. 

KimBoo
3:54
Awesome. Yeah, a lot of people, a lot more readers are buying paperback and hard copies these days. Yeah, seems to be an up-swinging trend. So, I just wanted to make sure that was still available. And that brings us to you, Gina, the woman of the hour. Give us a short introduction for new listeners or people who may have possibly forgotten who you are. I can’t imagine that though. 

Gina Hogan Edwards
4:15
Hello, listeners and hello, KimBoo and Melody. It’s good to see your faces. I am Gina Hogan Edwards. I’m a writing retreat leader. We have one to two wonderful retreats every year on St. George Island, where women come together in community and learning and supporting each other. I’m also a certified creativity coach. I’m an editor and I’m working on a historical fiction set in 1968. I’m doing some experimentation with how to release that novel. I have a Substack. I also have a Medium page. I also have a page on a new platform that’s called Ream, which KimBoo also has. She didn’t mention that, but I’ll give her a plug for that to where we are serializing our fiction. 

So that is a very new venture for me, not quite such a new process for KimBoo. But I’ve been learning a lot from that. And hopefully, you’ll be hearing more about that in the future. But it’s all kind of an experimentation, a little scary, a lot of fun. And we’ll see where it goes.

KimBoo
5:28
I’m very excited for you anyway. If you’re not keeping up with her, then you should. Definitely give her a follow on Substack. Or Medium. I mean, that’s the thing about these days, isn’t it? Writers need to be in the places where readers are. So that’s what, I think, our experimentations are all about.

Melody
5:46
Yeah, and as a reader, I just wanted to give a plug as a reader and a subscriber to both of my co-hosts. I highly recommend, even if you’re not a writer. It’s entertaining and fascinating and filled with lots of good information. 

KimBoo
6:03
Yeah, we’ve got a lot of crossing of the streams, because I write about productivity issues, and we’ve got fiction, and we’ve got craft stuff. So yeah, please, please check us all out. We’ve got some great content out there for you to read. 

Today, though, we’re going to circle back around to The Creativity Quest, Gina, I’m going to kind of hand over the microphone to you, metaphorically speaking, because one of the things when we were talking about this particular episode, when we were planning this episode, is talking about, Well, where did this come from? What is it? How did it come to be? How can people use it? What’s the value of it? I mean, I see the value of it, having talked about it for a long time, but let’s just give readers or listeners, I should say, a little bit of inside background on where this is coming from for you. 

Gina
6:51
Sure. Yeah, I would be happy to, and I also want to interject before I get to that how helpful it has been, to me as the creator of this framework, to have this opportunity for us to talk about it on the podcast, for us to work through what does that stage mean? Being able to do that in an interactive environment for me has been very helpful, because a lot of this has been going on in my head for a long time. And then just putting together the worksheets and talking about it within the framework of the seasons, which is Melody’s jam, being able to sort of combine those two things has really helped me get very clear about what each of the stages represents, how the writer experiences it, in the different ways that writers experience it. Because you know, we’re all unique, and yet, there are so many similarities about how we experience this creative journey. And so I just want to thank you both for giving me the opportunity to kind of put this out there in a different way, by talking about it on the podcast. 

KimBoo
8:05
Well, no problem here. I mean, it’s been very insightful for me to go through some of the things that we’ve gone through. We’re going to talk about later in this show. But yeah, it’s been an amazing journey. 

Gina
8:17
Well, you talked about putting me on the hot seat. I’m gonna put y’all on the hot seat, because I’m gonna ask you about the things that we’ve talked about over these last oh, so many months. We started talking about The Creativity Quest all the way back on episode 18. That’s where we gave the initial overview of what the 10 stages are. Then between 18 and now, we have talked about each stage in an episode, gone over what that stage means, what it represents, how the author experiences it. And then in a follow-up episode, we talked with Melody about how it fits into the seasons of our lives, and how we experience the balances and the imbalances. 

So what The Creativity Quest is—in case we have listeners who are just joining us for the first time and as a reminder, for others—it’s a model or a framework, if you will, for how the artist experiences the creative journey. It’s not craft or how-to, but it’s about the artist’s life, all the ups, the downs, the hills and the valleys, and all the sideways turns that we take as we go through our experience of being an artist.

So this applies not only to writers. It can apply to any creative person: a dancer, a sculptor, a painter, whatever creative endeavor you’re in. It has come from, the birth of it, was as I was working with writers as an editor and as a coach, I began to see some similarities in the things that were both holding writers back and the way that writers nurtured themselves, the way they cultivated confidence, the way they might pull away when they were getting so close to where they hoped that they would be. So just observing how that was going on with my client’s. Also observation of my writer friends. You all don’t know it, but you’ve been part of the whole laboratory. As I watched, both of you go through this journey,

KimBoo
10:32
it’s like writers in the mists.

Gina
10:36
And also observations of myself, as I’ve created in my head what I want my writer’s life to be like, and then trying to make that a reality for myself. And as I’ve gone through the writing process, and how that’s felt to me, and where I’ve run into resistance or other kinds of obstacles that have slowed me down, and where I’ve leaned into things that have felt good.

So just observation. My participation, one-on-one with writers in their journeys and how that has played out has all fed into this framework, which is 10 stages. They are designated with names. Each stage has a name, but if you look at the first letter of each stage, it spells out the word CREATIVITY. So that’s where those 10 stages come from. 

Now, you ask, why would this be useful to somebody? How does it apply to a writer? A lot of the episodes, we were talking about the stages. We talked about this as being, sometimes we called it a blueprint, sometimes we called it a roadmap. I think the roadmap analogy is a really good one, because it supports an author in how they’re going to get from here to there. It’s the whole experience as a writer from beginning to end. But it’s also about defining where there is. 

Becca Syme talks about building your author house and making sure you’re building a house you want to live in. And so this is about defining what your house is and figuring out how to get to that place. 

KimBoo and I were talking yesterday about what we were going to talk about on this episode, and something that she said to me really rang true for me. I felt it as a major endorsement of what this framework is about. She said that The Creativity Quest can be like your own personal coach, because it can help you understand what’s happening as you’re going through your author life. It can help you see what’s important and what’s not. It can help you see how to get to the next step or why you’re being held back at the step that you’re at. 

If you learn about this quest by listening to our podcasts and you also follow through and listen to the episodes about the seasons of writing when we talk about each of the stages in relationship with the seasons of our lives, it really helps you see what the balances and imbalances in each stage can be. Then when you compare that with how you’re experiencing your journey, it can really help you navigate the whole thing in a lot more elegant and, hopefully, fulfilling and satisfying and confident way.

KimBoo
13:49
Huh. You said roadmap, and one of the things I think I’ve never really thought of it before. To me, it’s almost like orienteering. I’m sure, Melody, you probably know what that is. But that is like people who just basically take a very basic compass and some other, and then they just try to find their way through the wilderness to a spot, a goal. And it’s a little bit of adventuring. It’s a little bit of risky, because you risk getting lost. You know where you want to go, but you’re not following a trail to get there. You’re orienting yourself through the forest in the wilds to get to where you want to go. That does seem to be the writing experience for a lot of people. I love the thought of The Creativity Quest is like the orienteering guide. Like, Oh, well if your last look at this thing, and if you’re feeling you know, you’re up against the cliff here too. We’ll take a look at this and analyze where you are and what direction you’re going. 

Melody
I love that.

KimBoo
That just came to me while you were talking.

Melody
14:54
Well, I love that too. And in fact, in Soul of the Seasons, I wrote about this being a map, because I love that analogy too. Some important things about having and using a map, a map helps you understand the terrain ahead, but one of the most important things is knowing where you are on the map. Both The Creativity Quest and the five seasons of the writing process help us understand where we’re at. That’s one of the most useful things I found out about The Creativity Quest is, Oh, here’s where I am. Here’s what’s happening. I mean, it just made sense of a lot of what I was going through, what I continue to go through.

Gina
15:49
Well, one of the things that we’ve talked about over and over and I can’t repeat it enough. I know you listeners who’ve been around for a while, you’ve heard this. But our journey is not linear. And even though for the purposes of this podcast, we had to talk about each of the stages in a particular order and when I’ve written about it, I’ve written about them in an order that spells out the word CREATIVITY with the first letter of the names of stages, there is no order. We experience this all in our own unique ways. We loop back sometimes to repeat certain stages. Sometimes, especially once we become a more seasoned writer, we may return to a stage that we’ve been to before and go, Wait a minute, I don’t need to repeat this stage. And so you might move beyond that to one of the other stages. I just want to re-emphasize that it isn’t a linear process. And I love the idea of the orienteer. How did you say that?

KimBoo
16:51
Orienteering, orienteering.

Gina
16:54
That’s a tongue twister, but I love that concept. And I do think that, at least when we know where we are, it gives us a grounded place from which to decide where we want to go. But there is also—especially in the climate of publishing and writing as it is now where everything seems to change on a daily basis—there is the need to lean into the adventure and the not knowing where something might lead you, which is kind of where I am right now with experimenting, with all these different ways of putting writing out there is, I don’t know where any of it’s going to lead. But just being able to lean into that experimentation and that adventure. And that’s what the quest is all about, I think. 

So I would love to know, from both of you all, first of all, based on our discussions over these oh, so many episodes—I guess 24+, if you count, the ones that we’ve added in for the seasons of the writing process discussion as well—how does what we’ve talked about match, or maybe not match, to your experience as a writer. Melody, you want to go first?

Melody
18:15
I would say it matches most of the time, my experience, I do notice both in, when I was writing and developing Soul of the Seasons and then further expanding on that, then writing the five seasons the writing process, there were certain phases or stages that were not as familiar to me or that I didn’t realize how important they were—Yielding to Mastery comes to mind—and recognizing how important it was to include that in the process. So most of it made a lot of sense, like I said. It was sort of lightbulb moments. Like, Oh, that’s what’s going on now. 

KimBoo
Yeah. 

Melody
It didn’t seem chronological, but oftentimes when I look back, it was kind of going in the way it was set up. It just doesn’t seem about it at the time. So I have to remember not to be too attached of, Should A and then it should B. It’s like, Where am I at right now? Right? Where am I at right now? And what do I need while I’m here? And the important thing is to remember to not be attached or stay in any one phase too long. That’s called getting stuck.

Gina
19:50
For sure. Thank you, Melody. What about you, KimBoo?

KimBoo
19:54
Well, I think we hammered a lot on, as you said, the fact that it’s not a linear process. But one of the things that really struck me as we worked through a lot of these stages is that the way that you structured it may not necessarily be linearly followed all the time, but say, a specific point where you’re at—whether it’s Carrying Inner Quiet or Releasing, or I’m looking into my cheat sheet next, Assessing and Acknowledging—they’re related to the ones before and after. So there’s this network. 

I mean, I think that was a big aha moment for me was realizing, okay, if I’m at the Assessing and Acknowledging stage, which was episode 25, is when we talked about that one, there’s lots of different ways you can go and you can skip around. But for me when I was looking, Oh, looking at the stage before it and looking at the stage after it kind of told me where I was. It was very interesting to me how that was set up. So I know that you didn’t mean for it to be used linearly. But those relationships are important in that kind of orienteering of where am I now? Where am I going? 

I really can’t say that I thought that anything didn’t match my experience. I think there were parts of it I didn’t relate to as much. But I think that’s on a per individual basis. 

Gina
Sure. 

KimBoo
Yeah, I think the Emulating and— I was, as we were talking about this, I was looking over the Emulating and Mirroring episode, which was episode 22. That one hit home for me. That’s the one I remember the best us talking about, because that is one where I get stuck. The two stages I get stuck at is Carrying Inner Quiet, and being able to put a name to that was incredibly helpful for me, I don’t think I’ve ever told you that Gina. But there’s been so many times where I just stew on a story idea until it just dissipates or until something else happens, and I never get to that story. It was because I was just Carrying Inner Quiet and not Releasing it and moving on to the next stage I needed to move on to. Being able to put a name to that was very important for me. So I can actually identify when it’s happening to me. 

But the Emulating and Mirroring one was really, really important because I spent so much of my life emulating and mirroring that I wasn’t taking the next step of ownership of my own voice and using what I learned from emulating and mirroring. So it’s kind of like the dark side of emulating and mirroring, is you just start copying other people’s style and you start riffing on it and not finding your own voice, which is something that I got stuck in for I think decades. I was trying so hard to do it the ‘right’ way, and follow what other people were doing. I wasn’t taking the lessons that were being given to me, handed to me by the universe, and utilizing them for myself. So those were some of my big takeaways from us as we went through this whole process.

Gina
22:56
I’m glad you brought up Emulating and Mirroring because it’s not my favorite stage, but it’s one of my favorite ones to talk about because we don’t give that stage enough credit for the potentiality of it. I just finished reading a bio of the author, and he was a professor at UF (University of Florida), Harry Crews, and there are several examples in that, including Harry Crews himself who took novels, Faulkner, Steinbeck, and hand-wrote them as a way to learn about pacing and sentence structure and sentence length. That’s something that we don’t talk about enough in the writing arena. You’ve got dancers and pianists, they rehearse and they play the works of other people in order to learn the skills of whatever their craft is, and in writing, we don’t talk about that enough and I don’t think we give it enough credit. 

So that’s enough about that one particular stage.

KimBoo
You’ll save that for a future episode. 

Gina
Yeah, I just love talking about that one, because I think there’s so much value in it and people think of Emulating and Mirroring as a bad thing. You know, you’re copying somebody. And that’s not what that stage is really about. I mean, that’s an aspect of it, of course. 

One thing that came to mind in listening to both of you was looking back on our discussions and the writers that I’ve worked with, I think the linearity of the process is most likely to show up with newer writers. And I could be wrong about that. I’m still exploring this whole framework myself too, but it just seems like the possibility of traveling the quest in the way that we’ve talked about them in the order of the stages would be most likely for newer writers. And then as the writer gets more experience, and they start to go through this quest again, because we do repeat, there are going to be times when they’re going to skip stages or loop back and get stuck in a stage. I tried one time to map out the possibilities for each stage. Where is the writer most likely to go to next? And I ended up with this really complicated floral pattern,

KimBoo
25:37
Spiral gram. Remember the spiral gram things. Big circle, circle, circle.

Gina
25:43
Actually, if I could find a Spirograph, that might be a good thing to help me work that out. I don’t know if it’s possible, because we’re complex creatures, and our journeys are unique. So I don’t know if that’s possible to do that. But I’d love to try it. 

There are other models or frameworks. A lot of people are familiar with Joseph Campbell’s the hero’s journey [as described in The Hero with a Thousand Faces]. There’s also The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. Twyla Tharp has a book called The Creative Habit. There are a lot of other books that talk about creativity and the quest. I just want listeners to be aware that this is just another way that they can look at their own life and their own experience as a writer to see where they are and to support themselves in getting to the next step, and maybe The Creativity Quest is helpful to them. I’d love to hear about that if it is. But there are other models out there that writers can explore as well, that may match their experience a little better. I don’t want to presume that this is the perfect paradigm.

You touched on this a little bit already, KimBoo, in mentioning Emulating and Mirroring, but I want to know what parts of The Creativity Quest kind of spoke to you the most. And since you did talk about Emulating and Mirroring, KimBoo, I’m gonna go to Melody on this question. Melody, was there something in particular about this cycle, this process that spoke to you the most?

Melody
27:22
Well, I had a couple of ones that stuck out. But every time we talked about a particular one, I’d go, Oh, yeah, that one was really important. Oh, yeah, it was so valuable. 

KimBoo
27:40
That’s the nature of the thing, yeah.

Melody
27:45
Yeah, I would say Assessing and Acknowledging was really helpful to me, the part about finding my voice. I had this moment, Gina and I shared a moment when I was writing Soul of the Seasons where she said, You have found your voice.

KimBoo
Wow

Melody
It was actually quite emotional for both of us. I felt like I landed. It felt like a place of home. Because when I first wrote it, Soul of the Seasons is based on Five Element Medicine, part of traditional Chinese medicine, which is a very rich and complex and elaborate system that makes a lot of sense, but it’s very complex. And so when I was writing, I could just write forever, but we don’t want a 2,000 page book. So I threw in everything but the kitchen sink during my first draft. After the beta readers had helped me pare things down a little bit, I went through another iteration and another beta reader, which helped me really solidify and clarify what the strengths were and pare that out. And then, we both were like, exhale, this is it. This is the track I need to go on. So I found that phase extremely helpful to me. 

The other one: Inviting Authentic Existence, which I feel like is part of the Soul of the Seasons the five seasons process as well. Both my personal life which reflects in my creative writing life, to be more authentically myself has helped enable me to write more authentically.

Gina
29:52
Yeah, we talked about the first one you mentioned, Assessing and Acknowledging, which I also call Assessing Growth—and the listeners should be aware that as we’ve talked about this and as I’ve written more about it since we began these podcast episodes, I’ve refined my own understanding of these and I’m working on what I’m calling each of the stages. So Assessing and Acknowledging I sometimes also refer to as Assessing Growth. But the acknowledging part is a really important aspect of it, because it’s really a time when you review what you’ve learned and you recognize the growth that has occurred. 

I think that that was what happened in that moment where you and I went, Ah, you found your voice. And it’s also about recognizing what you still have to learn. And so those beta readers were helping you recognize where else you needed to take that book. So we talked about that in episode 25. 

Then the other one that you spoke about, Inviting Authentic Existence, I also call Inviting New Perspectives because that’s on the side of the cycle where we have more external interaction. In that stage of Inviting Authentic Existence is where you’re stepping even further into being the authentic you, and into the opening that’s been offered by all of these previous guideposts that you’ve been through, and where you’re really starting to recognize your autonomy in your work. You’re not doing the Emulating and Mirroring and relying on your mentors as much as you have in the past, and really being willing to step into even more of the exploration and risk-taking to be yourself. And we talked about that one in two episodes, because it was such an involved one, we ended up breaking it up into two parts. So we talked about Inviting Authentic Existence in episode 29 and episode 32. 

Thank you, Melody. That’s helpful. I appreciate that. KimBoo, was there anything you wanted to add beyond the Emulating and Mirroring stage?

KimBoo
32:05
All of it. Every time I look at one, Oh, yeah, that one. That one. Yeah, that one. I want to point back to episode 38, which you originally used to call it Three Feet from Gold, and then you put into Trusting the Process. And I invite listeners to go listen to that episode, particularly because you will hear me have a mini breakdown—it’s fun—because it’s so often something I’ve had to battle with, and understanding that it’s not just something a lot of authors deal with but it’s often part of the whole process of writing, is that we get to this point of fighting our way through those last three feet to get to the gold of our story makes for a better story. 

But it’s very easy to fall into the trap of thinking, Well, it’s hard and therefore that means it’s not supposed to happen, or it’s not supposed to be written about. Yeah, that one hit home for me in a lot of ways—as you know, Gina and Melody, because you were there for me through all of that in a lot of ways. But I do that to myself a lot. So that particular episode, I remember as well. And that’s something I constantly tell myself every day is trust the process. 

Gina
Yes, yes. 

KimBoo
In my creative work, not just in life, in general, but like in my creative work, trust the process. 

I think one of the things you said earlier about newer writers versus experienced writers, is I think more experienced writers have that intuition to fall back on, that they’ve developed going through this cycle, through these different stages and whatever order they went through, so that at the point where we can come back to them we can identify, Oh, yeah, I am stuck in Emulating and Mirroring. Oh, whoops, maybe I should try to find my own voice in this story. I think that’s an important part of it. And when you get to three feet from gold, it’s trust your intuition. Trust your intuition.

Gina
34:16
Yeah, so for myself, so I’m gonna be really vulnerable here. And you know, I’m the timekeeper, so I’m watching the time, so I saved this for the last minute for a reason. I am also . . . I am . . . I don’t even want to say it. I have been . . . 

KimBoo
34:44
Oh my gosh, Gina. Come on. We’ve got you here. We’re here for you. 

Melody
This must be good. 

KimBoo
I know right.

Gina
34:49
I’ve started writing about The Creativity Quest on Substack, and I will be honest that my intention was to write about each one of the stages each month and, y’all, I got stuck on Releasing, which is right at the beginning of the cycle. And it’s really been an interesting examination. Now, to be honest, I’ve had a lot of stuff go on in my life in the last couple of months, so that plays into it as well. But if I’m being truly honest with myself, the perfectionism and the imposter syndrome that I need to let go of has had me in its clutches in terms of talking about this, writing about this, which I find really interesting because we’ve been able to talk about it on the podcasts. But when I sit down to write about . . .

KimBoo
35:38
And you’ve made worksheets. You made worksheets for every— Listeners, go back and listen to episodes because there are worksheets for them on our website. You’ve done the work. 

Gina
35:47
Yeah, but for some reason, when it gets down to writing about each one of the stages, I feel blocked. And I know, because I’ve observed myself for so long, and this stage of Releasing requires a lot of self honesty—the whole dang cycle does—but it’s the imposter syndrome and the perfectionism that’s held me back. 

Having said that, it is my intention to write more about this, to explore this more. Once again, I’m going to circle back to what I said at the beginning. I thank you, ladies so much for giving me the opportunity to explore all of this through this podcast, because it has helped refine it, so many ways. Thank you so much. 

KimBoo
36:28
It’s been a journey for us as well, you’re so welcome. 

Melody
36:30
Absolutely. And thank you for saying that. Because I often get stuck with that too. I got stuck with that a lot with Soul of the Seasons, and why it took me nine years to write it, because it is intricate and complex. We could expound on each one of these steps, or even one segment of each one of these steps, for literally ever. It’s like, oh my God, how do I include, where, how does this make sense? This is so big. How do I— You know. It is incredibly easy to make something simple, complex, but it is really challenging to make something complex, simple.

Gina
37:19
Yes. Oh, yes, you said it, girl, but I’m trying so y’all bear with me. Have patience with me. I will continue to work on this because it’s something that I truly believe can be helpful to authors. And I’m refining the additional resources and some exercises for each one of the stages. It’s a work in progress, and it’s gonna take me some time, but thank you for being along the journey with me. I really appreciate it. 

Melody
37:48
Oh, you could go to that step, trust the process. Isn’t that one of those?

KimBoo
37:57
Well, it’s been good to be here with you for this journey. Because yeah, I remember when you first started talking about this. You’re very passionate about it. I listeners, if you haven’t gone look at our credentials, Gina has many, many years of writing credentials, editing credentials, creativity coaching credentials, and experience to back it up. She talks about imposter syndrome and I’m just like, Who? Why did you? Why? How could you possibly feel that way? Because you do have the experience to back up the advice and the insights that you have in this. So, I for one, I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes. 

Gina
38:45
Thank you. KimBoo, do you want to wrap us up because we’re hitting on the 40 minute mark? 

KimBoo
38:49
Oh, yeah. Okay. I guess we could just keep talking.

Gina
38:53
I know. We could. Easily.

KimBoo
38:56
But thank you so much, listeners, for joining us for this episode. We’ve got more interesting episodes up ahead. One of the things I’m looking forward to is, I’m actually going to be doing one-on-one interviews with both Melody and Gina. Take us out of themes and take us out of topics and really dig down into y’all’s processes as writers. So I’m going to put you both on the hot plate. I’m looking forward to that. We’ve got more interviews coming up. Melody, you’ll be doing an interview here with our next episode, I believe. Correct? Yeah, yeah.

Melody
39:29
My dear friend and writer and creative person extraordinaire, Karla Refojo. She is a fellow plant spirit medicine colleague. And we are going to talk about the book she created to go with her companion oracle deck and what that process was like for her. So I’m really excited about that interview.

KimBoo
39:53
That’s gonna be really good. And listeners, you’re going to be getting more interviews like this coming forward with future episodes where we talk to other people about writing and their experiences. So definitely subscribe. Hit the Like button, blah blah, hit the little heart, whatever on your app. We are on Spotify. We’re also on YouTube. So check us out anywhere. But if you want the worksheets that go with all The Creativity Quest and you want to listen to older episodes, go to our website, AroundTheWritersTable.com, all one word AroundTheWritersTable.com. 

With this episode, we will have a short guide listing out all the different previous episodes. It’s a lot. Maybe we could make that into like a little download instead, Gina. Yeah. Instead of having like 5,000-word show notes. Yep. So we’ll have that as a handout which you can look at to use as a guide to previous episodes on this topic. 

We also have a comment—Melody’s always reminding me. She’s pointing to me. We have a comment section there. You can leave a comment for us. Tell us who maybe you want us to interview. Thoughts on The Creativity Quest.

Melody
I like that. 

KimBoo
If you go to our website, also links across the top to all of our own individual websites and the work that we do. So we appreciate you listeners tuning in, and we will talk to you again here around the writer’s table. Thank you so much. And bye.

Gina
41:14
Bye. 

Melody
Bye, everybody.

Gina’s Pop
41:19
Thanks for joining us around the writer’s table. Please feel free to suggest a topic or a guest by emailing info@aroundthewriterstable.com. Music provided with gracious permission by Langtry. A link to their music is on our homepage at AroundTheWritersTable.com. Everyone here around the writer’s table wishes you joy in your writing and everyday grace in your living. Take care, until next time.

Copyright / Terms & Conditions

Around the Writer's Table and its co-hosts, Gina Hogan Edwards, Melody, A Scout, and Kimboo York own the copyright to all content and transcripts of the Around the Writer's Table podcast, with all rights reserved, including right of publicity. ​​You ​are welcome to share an excerpt from the episode transcript (up to 500 words) in media articles​, such as ​​The New York Times, ​Miami Herald, etc.; in a non-commercial article or blog post (e.g., ​​Medium); and/or on a personal social media account for non-commercial purposes, provided you include proper attribution and link back to the podcast URL. No one is authorized to use the Around the Writer's Table logo, or any portion of the transcripts or other content in and of the podcast to promote themselves.