148 episodes
Stepping Off Now: Lessons in the Art and Craft of Creativity Kendra Patterson
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5.0 • 31 Ratings
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Stepping Off Now is a podcast about how to live your creative best life. I’m Kendra, a social scientist and writer. I spent decades feeling creatively unfulfilled while I pursued conventional life goals, culminating in severe burnout that took years to recover from. This podcast chronicles my journey in real time as I find my way home to my essential creative self. I discuss topics like harnessing the intuitive creative process, using creativity to manage mental health, and sorting through all the external pressures and expectations to figure out what YOU really want. My hope is that you’ll find inspiration and solace here. You are not alone, and you are stronger and wiser than you know! You can find out more by visiting my website, kendrapatterson.com.
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E145. Re-Envisioning the Creative Journey through the Kishotenketsu Lens
Last episode I discussed the "conflict free" Japanese Kishotenketsu storytelling framework as a gentler alternative to the Western-style Hero's Journey. In this one I contrast the two as lenses through which we can interpret our creative lives. The Hero's Journey, though it may make for compelling entertainment, can be toxic when used as a way of understanding our own progress and successes. The Kishotenketsu lens provides a more realistic and less competitive perspective that suits those of ...
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E144. Special Release: The Calming Effects of Kishotenketsu Narrative Structure
I'm dealing with some personal life stuff right now and so dug into my Patreon archive for an episode for you all today! In this one I discuss the Japanese (and more broadly Asian) narrative structure called Kishotenketsu. This is generally seen as being a low-conflict or even conflict-free form of narrative, and it's a balm to the soul for those of us who have highly sensitive nervous systems. I compare Kishotenketsu to the typical Western Hero's Journey/three-act narrative structure using t...
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E143: The Writing Conference and Live Pitching Experience
Last week I made the trek down to Tampa to attend a writer's conference and live pitch my novel to two agents! This type of experience can be overwhelming for creatives who are highly sensitive or have other types of sensory processing conditions--or for those who struggle with anxiety and/or mental health challenges. In this episode I discuss all the special accommodations I made for myself so that I was able to get through it successfully, plus how I am dealing with the emotional afte...
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E142. Handling Rejection Sensitivity for Neurodiverse and Highly Sensitive Creatives
Rejection sensitivity is one of the primary challenges neurodiverse and highly sensitive creatives face in reaching for their dreams. It can cause us to isolate, not seek out opportunities to share or showcase our work, or even keep us from doing creative work in the first place. If we do put ourselves out there, we risk severe mental health consequences when we experience real or perceived rejection, even of the mild kind (and rejection is inevitable on any creative journey!) How can we purs...
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E141. Following What's Alive in Your Creative Work
This episode begins with an update on my preparations for the writers' conference I'm attending in Tampa on April 12. You can skip ahead to the 10:36 mark for the topical discussion.We're often counseled to follow our own vision or intuition in our creative work, but what does that actually look like in practice? How do you do it? In this episode I discuss a new lens that I'm finding useful right now: you follow what's alive. You'll hear about when following our internal impulses and rejectin...
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E140. Update Episode! Plans for Pitching My Novel
At loooooooong last, I am (nearly! almost!) ready to start querying my novel to agents, so I decided it was the right time to do an update episode on where things stand and my plans going forward. I touch on topics such as what it feels like to be done, preparing for querying, and finding opportunities for professionalization as a prospective author.Writing Day Conference info (Tampa & Orlando)Jane Friedman classesMary Kole resources
Customer Reviews
New fav podcast!
This podcast is such an antidote to our culture and exactly what I need at this stage in my life. What a gift!
A message for everybody
This is a great and wonderful podcast. I’ve been following it since it’s inception, and I always look forward to a weekly episode. I am not a writer, I consider myself an amateur theater artist, but I am a finance manager, and I try to do the best with my life and with the resources I can get.
Kendra has a sweet and smooth style, which she uses to provide helpful hints and suggestions about every day life situations, which apply to everyone. Not only to creative people but people like me who are not on the creative side but who are tied up with conventional processes.
Kendra’s valuable insights come from her own experiences as well as research done in different fields. She’s very practical and her messages has been very inspirational to me. Her suggestions to dealing with burnout are fantastic and very applicable.
Thanks to her, I found out that I am a creative person after all and she has helped me discover my hidden, artistic passion for theater. I truly appreciate Kendra’s humility, frankness, wisdom, and honesty that she shares with her listeners in order to help us walk through this life.
An inspirational, relatable, grounding voice
Stepping off now has become a routine listen for me as a creative freelancer. Kendra’s perspective is often just what I need exactly when I need it to keep going. She’s encouraging, thoughtful and gives voice to many of the issues creatives face: how to take feedback, reclaiming “being sensitive” as a positive trait, how to stay motivated in creative practice. Great for HSPs and INFPs.