: Anna Lovind
: The Creative Doer A brave Woman's Guide from Dreaming to Doing
: Books on Demand
: 9789181340389
: 1
: CHF 6.10
:
: Angewandte Psychologie
: English
: 232
: Wasserzeichen
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
A path for female creators, activists and magic makers. The Creative Doer offers a roadmap for women who are hungry for a more creative life and who are willing to ask a few burning questions. What if we stopped trying to follow in the footsteps of the Male Genius? What does devotion look like if it doesn't mean forsaking everything and everyone, including your kids, for your art? What would happen if we granted ourselves the permission we're waiting for and started doing our work, our way? In this insightful, no-bullshit guide you'll learn how to: Redefine creative work and bust the old myths about The Artist: Zoom in on your dream until it's doable. Claim the time and space you need to do your work. Understand fear and how to flow with it. Do self-care in a way that will change your creative life forever. Share your work, truthfully, tenderly and courageously.

Anna Lovind is a feminist writer who believes in women's creative freedom and the power of our voices and stories. Anna left a career as an editor at a major publishing house, moved to the countryside and set out to build a business that supports her own and other women's pursuit of a meaningful and sustainable creative life. Since then, she has published her book The Creative Doer - A Brave Woman's Guide from Dreaming to Doing, she has coached bestselling authors, helped launch solo entrepreneurs into orbit, and guided creatives from all over the world to go from dreaming to doing through her courses and workshops. Anna lives with her two daughters, three cats and a dog in the deep forests of Sweden.

“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”

ARUNDHATI ROY

Why a woman’s guide?


WHEN WE TALK about creativity we talk about universal truths, right? Yes, and no. The deep truths of creativity are universal. But the stories about the artist in our culture are not. They’re stories about the male artist. The path of the lone genius, the starving artist, the irreverent rebel. All male. Not available to women, or only available at a great cost.

I want to talk about a different path. I want to take into account all the specific circumstances and challenges we face; not just because we are artists, but because we are female artists, living and working in a patriarchal world.

I believe gender is a sliding scale and that all of us find ourselves somewhere along it; sometimes in accordance with traditional conceptions about what it means to be male or female, sometimes contrary to those conceptions.

I’d love a world where it doesn’t matter whether I’m a man or a woman, where the feminine and the masculine in me can blend in whatever proportions and I won’t be labelled because of it. But that’s not the case. From the moment we are born we are categorised as either or. Should we find ourselves somewhere in the middle, we are pushed – sometimes forced – to adjust. Should we find ourselves unable to adjust, we will find ourselves marginalised.

I believe that gender shouldn’t matter, just as I believe race or class shouldn’t matter, but we live in a world where it does matter. I’ve been raised a woman in a world where being a woman means doing and being certain things and not others. I’ve been raised in a world where men structurally hold the majority of power – politically, religiously, financially, militarily, as well as in the family.

This doesn’t mean that all men hold actual positions of power, or that all women start on an equal footing. Cultural and societal power structures make up a complex web of intersecting identities and privileges. I can’t assume that my experience is exactly the same as that of every woman. But what I can say is that regardless of our individual experiences as women, the qualities and traits we associate with the feminine are less valued than the qualities and traits we associate with the masculine. And since we have equated the feminine with woman, and the masculine with man, women are less valued than men.

To ignore this is to ignore my reality. If I wrote a book about the creative life without taking into account the circumstances and challenges that make my path different from that of my male peers, I would leave out the truth of my actual experience. I want to address those challenges and obstacles and I can’t do that if I don’t bring them into the conversation.

What are those challenges and circumstances? Well, where to start?

For women, it has been a long and arduous journey, even to be recognised as artists to begin with. It’s a fairly recent thing for us to be allowed into the public creative arenas. In the 17th century, actors playing female