A Grown Up’s Gap Year – The Newsletter #25

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HELLO – HAPPY SUNDAY!

This week I was interviewed on the Easy Peasy Books podcast by Gillian Whitney — a publishing powerhouse and generous force of nature who helps everyday writers become published authors.

We first connected when I was looking for LinkedIn guidance post–A Grown Up’s Gap Year launch. (She’s brilliant on that platform, by the way — and if you’re in the business of business, LinkedIn is where it’s at when it comes to connection.)

Yes, we talked about turning real life into a book. But mostly, we talked about returning to yourself. About finding your voice – and yes, learning to lean into curiosity again. 

Like Michelle Cox, a contributor to A Grown Up’s Gap Year, whose ceramic journey began with a simple thought: I know, I want to make my own dinner set! She now balances a professional life as a Board Director with her creative life as a small-batch ceramics studio founder — proof that sometimes curiosity leads us somewhere entirely unexpected.

To my end; about fifteen years ago, I signed up for a short Freelance Writing course at the Australian Writers’ Centre — no agenda beyond: let’s see where this takes me. It took me ‘all the way’ as it happens, yet as I reflect, if I had begun with this thought in mind I may well have ended frozen by the weight of self-imposed expection. A dreadful shame indeed.

It is not dramatic to state your health may just depend on your creativity, certainly your wellbeing does.

It might seem a stretch to link solo travel to this. But how do you find space in a packed life unless you deliberately remove yourself for pockets of time?

My best writing flows swiftly after I’ve returned from periods of seemingly mindless (or arguably mindful) flânerie. Walking. Wandering. Talking to strangers. Para jumping once, for reasons still unclear. (Ha — no, it was fun. Feckless. And it shook me awake).

And then — finally — I commit to the page. No pressure to perform. Just a messy first draft with a rough outline. Per Liz Gilbert, this is precisely where the magic may happen.

And if it doesn’t? There’s always tomorrow.

All this to say, creativity needs only space. Not permission. Not pressure. Just a nudge.

For you, start finding space for to spark ‘something’ and see where you end up.

Hugs for a super (and creative) week,

Monique x

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Q:
“My creative muse left the building long ago. Now I just want a lie down with Netflix — and you’re telling me I need to get curious and DO something? Help.”

A: 

Begin with movement. Go for a walk with no destination. Visit an art gallery and don’t read the descriptions. Shoo the household out for a few hours, put on some music and dance. Or get a colouring-in book and do that while you Netflix. Creativity loves to sneak in sideways.

Worth repeating…just see where you end up.

Here’s a short list of small moves to stir your curiosity;

1. Book into a class you’d usually scroll past
   
2. Write a letter to yourself from the future
   
3. Make a mini playlist for a very specific mood (e.g., “sunset solo walk”)
   
4. Pick three objects at home and create a still life — draw it, photograph it, rearrange it
   
5. Use public transport to visit a suburb you’ve never been to, and a gallery you have never visited
   
6. Book into a fragrance-blending class
   
7. Go down a YouTube rabbit hole for ‘creative pursuit ideas that are utterly without a point, yet heaps of fun’
   
8. Start a curiosity journal — write down one thing a day that catches your attention, keep for future ponderance of future pursuit
   
9. Set a 10-minute ‘curiosity timer’ sit still and just observe what floats up. No agenda.
   

Bonus: Here’s a Spotify playlist to soundtrack your creative experiments. It’s called Creative Focus — Just press play.

A few reminders I keep close.

• Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way — “Serious art is born from serious play.”
  
• Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic — the muse doesn’t visit unless you’re already at the desk (or the kiln, or the trail, or wherever your thing begins).
  
• Eve Rodsky, Find Your Unicorn Space — creative pursuits are essential to our wellbeing. They help us reclaim identity outside of being a partner, parent, or professional.
  

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Want to stay sharp?

Keep learning. Get creative.

Pick up a pen and start writing. A brush and start painting.
You do you. And if nothing comes to mind — look back.
What absorbed you as a kid? Guitar chords? Lego? Stamp collecting?

Nothing’s too daggy. Or too uncool. Or too youthful.

Just. Try. Something.

Still stuck?
Leave the house for ten minutes, alone, in your own thoughts.

Stillness is lovely.
Stagnation is not.

With love from us. x

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