Blisscraft Life With Christina Katz

One thing I do that sets me apart from many writing coaches is I work with writers on an ongoing basis in private groups I call Dream Teams.

Have you ever wished you could have someone behind your writing career, who cared about your success almost as much as you do?

If so, you should definitely check out my four levels of Dream Teams that begin August 1st and run through December 30th.

This fall I am celebrating five years of working with my Dream Teams. Time has definitely flown because I have thoroughly enjoyed working with writers on an ongoing basis on all three level teams.

In fact, last winter I added an Essay Writing Dream Team which can be taken by Intermediate and Advanced DT members.

The writers I work with on an ongoing basis are mom writers who are gradually building their skills and growing their writing careers with my ongoing instruction, support, and encouragement.

I have written and shared many tools for building writing career skills, but there is really nothing else like working with me on an ongoing basis.

I high level of trust and respect is something that I have been working on establishing in my teams for the past five years, and I am confident when I say that you cannot experience anything like it elsewhere.

Because there is only one Dream Team experience with me, and it begins on August 1st.

So, what do you say? Don’t you owe it to yourself and to your writing career to actually work with someone who cares about you and your career?

If you have taken Writing & Publishing the Short Stuff, I hope you will join us. If you are planning on it, and you have not registered yet, please register now.

Returning DTers receive a $25 discount the after their first team, because I want to keep coming back and because I love nothing more than working with hardworking writers on an ongoing basis.

Hope to have the opportunity to work with you in a fall Dream Team!

I meant to write this blog post this morning, so I’m just going to go ahead and extend my Etsy Shop sale until noon PST on Monday, July 7th.

As I’ve been figuring things out over on Etsy, I’ve been sharing little bits and pieces with you here and in my e-zine and on social media.

If you’ve been keeping up, you may remember that we have kept the poster prices half-price while we’ve been launching the shop.

And now, finally, tomorrow is the big day. We’ve reached our initial goal of ten posters. So tomorrow at noon the prices will double and all posters will be priced at $4.99 from here on out.

Here’s a little preview of what we’re offering so far. Click here to visit the shop and get your posters at half-price until tomorrow at noon.

As creatives, we need each other. Of course we do. You won’t find me writing or posting anything to the contrary.

But I would be lying if I said that my creative independence and individuality were not important to me.

Sometimes I do things because my gut tells me to, not because it is the popular advice du jour.

Frankly, the amount of  advice for writers online has skyrocketed way beyond the over-whelming mark.

I also find scant advice that rolls into my inbox to be all that applicable, helpful or encouraging to me.

So part of celebrating my creative independence and individuality means writing, publishing, and creating in ways that are as immediate and helpful to me as possible.

Often, I find “my work” means stepping back from the status quo and coming up with fresh approaches and messages.

It means carving out a body of work that is “me” in a world of works that are not by me.

It means owning and producing and sharing my words and work as honestly as possible, without worrying if I’m doing it right.

It means forging new paths and exploring new options and playing around with my ideas.

It means making the most of summer hours and family vacation and letting the ideas drive me instead of being the one who drives the ideas.

It means handing over the reins for a bit and letting the creativity write me instead of being the author all the time.

It feels good to let go of have-tos, shoulds, and schedules once in a while. My creative heart craves a break. My mind welcomes a rest. I can let summer envelop me and cradle me in its lazy arms.

If I can sit and daydream and read a book and do nothing without noticing the time, then I know I am succeeding in resetting my creative clock.

I’ll be raring to go in August, if I keep this up.

How about you? Are you taking time to reset your creative clock? Are you inviting in time to daydream? Are you surrendering to life?

Impatience is a common attribute among writers.

Unfortunately impatience can lead writers to be very hard on themselves…and possibly even on others.

But celebrating the success you already have, including how much you enjoy what you do is a good way to make your writing career success multiply.

And that’s why I wrote this chapter from The Writer’s Workout. Hope you enjoy it!

Succeed Eventually (Chapter 149, page 153)

Have you had a chance to stop by my Etsy shop yet?

If you could click on over and favorite my shop and follow me, I would love it.

It’s called, Words, Glorious Words!

Over the past two weekends, Jason and I worked on a poster together that has been a long-time coming (and then we redid it just to make it take a little longer).

See what you think…

All of my inspirational art posters are rolling out in my new Etsy shop! Please come on by. More cool stuff coming soon! Search for "Christina Katz" or "WordsGloriousWords."

Setting up anything online takes time and energy, so my blog might be a bit slow this summer. But don’t worry, I’m not going to stop inspiring you to grow your writing career. Etsy is just another great way to do it.

Oh, and about the prices. I am committed to keeping my Etsy shop prices super-low until I get at least ten items in my shop. Once I do the prices will go up.

I’m also committed to the idea of my work being available as instant downloads. Eventually I may add shipped prints, but in the meantime, I’m going to focus on instant downloads you can print yourself.

So if you are interested in rock-bottom prices for writing inspiration, please take advantage of these low-low summer prices!

And if you have not had a chance to check out Etsy in general yet, summer is a perfect time to do it. Download the app onto your phone and do some window shopping. I promise you will be inspired.

Happy summer and happy writing!

One of my new Dream Teamers from this past season paid me a very nice complement the other day. She said, my writing classes have helped her fall madly in love with her writing career.

She even used an exclamation point.

I think the reason I get compliments like this is because helping writers fall madly in love with their writing career is my objective.

It’s also my goal to help writers to fall madly in love with themselves.

Because when you love your work, you can’t help but love yourself a little more.

There seems to be a whole movement out there geared towards teaching writers how to become marketing machines working overtime trying to persuade people to fall in love with them.

That’s backwards. When you love what you do, you are automatically more productive, and your work is automatically more alluring to others.

You should never have to act like a machine. And acting like a machine will only cause you do feel like machine, which doesn’t feel very good.

When you love what you do, you are eager to share your work with others, but not in a pushy, salesy way.

When you love what you do, and you do it consistently, you create more success than the average person.

When you love what you do, you work for love and money. You focus on building a solid foundation for your career and you feel less impatient and greedy than the average aspirant.

When you love what you do, you are perfectly happy with slow and steady wins the race because you are engaged by your work and you feel great about doing it. You don’t mind if it takes a bit longer to get it right because it almost always takes longer than you think it will.

When you love what you do, you know that the cure for the blahs or discouragement or distraction is simply to get a little work done and then everything feels right with the world again.

When you love what you do, you are aiming to build a legacy, not trying to be a one-shot wonder.

When you love what you do, you don’t look towards other people’s value and lust after it. You realize that you already have everything you need within yourself. You recognize that happiness comes from activating your potential and reactivating it on a daily basis.

There are plenty of poor examples out there, my friends. We’ve all seen them with their funnels and their squeeze pages and their long, tedious sales pitches that never cease to invade your inbox.

But just because they exist does not mean that you can’t be a positive, prosperous example of a writer on fire with good intentions and hard work.

Get back to YOUR work. Don’t let other people’s’ agendas throw you off your game. Your writing matters. You matter. We all have so much to offer when we do our own work.

So if you are feeling out of sorts, and like you just don’t have enough success to suit you at this moment just sit down and do a little bit of work that you love. You will become like my dream team participant—overcome with a feeling of personal satisfaction and self-love. And everything will instantly fall back into place in your career.

So much inspiration, so much time! Visit my online creative confidence school and start expressing yourself afresh right now. Join the creative confidence club: subscribe to the Christina Katz blog and sign up for The Prosperous Creative ezine for a free gift, the latest news and exclusive discounts you won’t find elsewhere. Need more encouraging words in your life? Check out my Etsy shop. And have you seen all of the helpful offerings in my online shop? Be sure to check them out before you click away. Thanks for reading and thanks for sharing my work with all of your creative friends!

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I am very pleased to announce my latest product and my first inspirational poster for writers.

Introducing the newly updated 52 Qualities of Prosperous Writers poster!

Above is a low-res image of the high-res JPG poster that can be delivered to your inbox for only $2.49.

When you purchase this poster from my Etsy shop, you will receive it in two sizes: 8 x 10 inches and 8.5 x 11 inches.

You can then print your poster onto whatever kind of 8.5 x 11 inch paper you like. For a full bleed, I recommend you use a bright-white matte photo paper and choose the “borderless printing” and “quality” options on your printer.

Once you purchase the poster, you can print as many copies for personal use as you like, but please refer friends and colleagues to my Etsy shop so they can buy a copy of their very own.

Those of you who subscribe to my newsletter may remember how I created this list. I wrote about each of the 52 qualities weekly in The Prosperous Writer newsletter throughout 2010.

Read more about the 52 Qualities of Prosperous Writers poster here, or go ahead and order your copy right now.

I hope you find the 52 Qualities of Prosperous Writers helpful and inspiring for your writing journey!

Okay, so June 1st is your last chance to take a writing challenge with me until August 1st.

If this statement is not inherently dramatic, just remember, you will likely do a whole lot of summering between now and August 1st and you know what? My challenges actually lend themselves really well to summer. The reason is because you can undertake a short writing challenge each day and feel like you are accomplishing some writing of substance, so you then feel free to take the rest of the day off!

Since the challenge starts on a Sunday, please register this week if you want to participate in any of the eleven challenges being offered. Keep reading for links.

If you are thinking about NaNoWriMo, June is a great month to test drive your novel (or whatever) idea that you plan to tackle in earnest in November. Once you’ve written on your topic 21 times, you can turn that project on over to your subconscious for the rest of your vacation and see what it can dream up for your project. I bet you won’t even feel like you are doing any work — but you will be, deep down, where it counts.

Another idea, if you are already a challenge-lover, is to try reading the prompt at night before bed then sleep on it and tackle your writing response the next morning.

This is a fun twist for those of you who are morning people and always do your writing challenge first thing in the morning. See what happens when you try it at night instead.

If you are a die-hard morning person, then why not read your prompt first thing, and carry a small pad or note card or phone around with you during the day, to try capturing your response moment on the fly?

All of these methods work well for folks who have already started summer vacation or who are about to start it.

Finally, I have already announced, but please remember that this is your last chance to take both a 21 Moments Challenge and a Platform Bingo Challenge for the foreseeable future because all eight challenges are going “into the vault” for a break for an undetermined amount of time.

Will they come back out?

When will they come back out?

Will they be the same when they come out?

I’m not sure yet. But I know I’m ready to give them a rest to free up my creativity for new projects.

So don’t miss your last chance to take 21 Moments or Platform Bingo Challenge. They both get rave reviews from participants.

If you’ve taken all of them, I hope you will check out my Freelance Writing Challenges. There is always something new to learn for eager-to-learn writers who work with me.

Here’s the complete list of registration locations for the June Challenge. Don’t miss it!

21 Moments Writing Challenges

Learn more

21 Moments Monthly Writing Challenge: Round One Register

21 Moments Monthly Writing Challenge: Round Two Register

21 Moments Monthly Writing Challenge: Round Three Register

21 Moments Monthly Writing Challenge: Round Four Register

21 Moments Monthly Writing Challenge: Round Five Register

Freelance Writing Challenges

Learn more

The Christina Katz Article Writing Challenge Register

The Christina Katz Grammar & Punctuation Challenge Register

The Christina Katz Essay Writing Challenge Register

Platform Bingo Challenges

Learn more

Platform Bingo With Christina Katz: Level One Register

Platform Bingo With Christina Katz: Level Two Register

Platform Bingo With Christina Katz: Level Three Register

Nature is whole and yet never finished.

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The first time I experienced the feeling that my writing career was similar to a garden, I felt a tremendous amount of relief. I was juggling a lot at the time and also learning a lot, as usual, and the concept of “garden” made me realize that no matter how wild and unwieldy my career seemed to be growing, I’d be able to handle it if I just kept nurturing it and stayed focused on the moment. If you conceptualize your career as a garden, you’ll be able to manage the growth process better, as well.

Process Claimed

If you have gotten this far in this book, you have actively claimed a space for your writing both internally and externally. You have gotten into the habit of creating fertile ground for your self-expression on the page. Once you have this habit down, plant an idea, nurture it, and flesh it out fully, the habit is yours for good.

Ritual As Creative Context

Just as a garden may be a raised bed with copper wire to discourage slugs and a tall fence to keep out deer and other animals, you are cultivating a space that nurtures your most high-minded aspirations, because once you activate your creative “place,” whatever comes into it will be amplified. Therefore, treat your real and virtual creative spaces as you would sacred spaces. Recognize that if you stop showing up, everything will grow wild with neglect. Visit your creative garden in a committed, devoted fashion.

Preparation As Fertile Soil

You recognize that your mind is only as fertile as what you put in it. Therefore, be particular about what will fertilize your best ideas. You are methodical, yet selective, just as you would be in nurturing a child. You keep your mind receptive and enriched along the entire journey because you understand that your creative process needs healthy choices. You read books, take classes, and participate in events that will give you the key growth ingredients your garden needs.

Idea Protection

You have learned that talking about and dissipating your ideas only weakens them. You’ve noticed that premature exposure may pollute your ideas and make them become what others conceive instead of helping you exercise and develop your own perceptions. You want to take your ideas all the way from seed to result. The same way slugs are not welcome in a garden full of fresh sprouts, keep your mental space clear of “predators” that would mow down your dreams and make a feast of your hard work.

This post from chapter 89 of The Writer’s Workout. Tune in for part two next month…

Christina Katz is a writing career coach with thirteen years of coaching experience. Her work appears in national, regional, and online publications. She is also the author of many books and e-books for writers. She teaches writers to prosper by building solid, saleable, life-long career skills via classes and training groups that work even in a rapidly evolving publishing marketplace. Learn more about The Writer’s Workout.