Between 2019-2021, I blogged about the creative process and the business of being an artist. I did my best to cram-jam my posts filled with useful tools, tips and hacks and straight-up honesty from my own point of view.
My focus was figuring out how we can overcome our creative blocks, actually finish our projects and earn money from our art. I also shared the work of Black and Global Majority artists.
Take a look around or see the posts by categories: creative process, self-producing, artist life hacks, artist series. I hope you find something useful here.
I’ve been working on a new project about climate change (sounds awful but I think it’s going to be good 🤞). The research I’ve done, and the research I’m poised to do, is jet fuel for my creative process.
Today I wanted to share the beauty of research with you. Where it’s been a part of my work, how I conduct it, what the pitfalls are and why I recommend it so highly.
Read MoreFor years (years!) I’ve been promising to teach you what I know about commercial voice work – a career I’ve stumbled into, and which has changed my life significantly.
Read MoreBeing a voice actor has transformed my life. Here are 5 steps to help you get rolling as a voiceover actor, and open yourself up to a new, and potentially lucrative, revenue stream!
Read MoreA couple weeks back, my debut memoir ‘The Ex-Boyfriend Yard Sale’ hit the shelves in book stores all across the UK. So, let’s talk about how I ended up being a person who has published a book!
The idea that incited all of this came to me while I was on the phone with my credit card company.
I’m back in the fray with my new solo show, Age is a Feeling. I got a commission from Soho Theatre – such a dream, especially after literally trying to get them to notice me since 2016.
Every couple weeks I meet with their associate director Adam. He’s a great dramaturge and director and he’s working with me as an outside eye and frankly, accountability buddy. I share the material I’ve been working on and we talk about what I should focus before our next meeting.
I heard an apocryphal tale from a fellow writer, that when Ottessa Moshfegh, author of My Year of Rest and Relaxation, was broke and wanted to write a book that would make her money, she purchased a book about writing books and followed its method. That book, Eileen, won the Man Booker Prize.
Read MoreThe saving grace for me right now is the good weather in London.
Daffodils and crocuses have pushed through the earth. We've got daylight beyond until almost 8pm. And the temperature is above 10 degrees.
Sorry to open with a paragraph on the weather, but really it's having a HUGE impact on my mood.
In my forthcoming book there’s a scene in which I improvise a monologue about a bad date for an improv comedy show. My fellow performers pull some of the things I mentioned as fodder for scenes.
To quote myself, “Seeing my foibles reflected through this comedic prism makes me weep with laughter from the backline. They genuinely make light of it all, and this lifts my spirits tremendously.”
Read MoreI had a realisation recently.
I'd been rejected from a competition I'd applied to, where the winner would have had their one-person show turned into a Netflix special. What a dream! I'd love to do that with 'The Ex-Boyfriend Yard Sale.' I was feeling bummed.
Read MoreToday I want to talk about that moment in the life cycle of creative work when, after wanting and yearning and WORKING for it – we get what we want (the money, the studio time, programmed in a venue) – whatever it might be.
And after the briefest moment of celebration, a new shitty feeling sets in.
Before I moved to the UK I was seriously burnt out. I’d been gigging as a theatre actor almost non-stop for a couple years. Truly, living the dream I’d held for myself while I was in acting school. But I was exhausted.
And (perhaps more disturbingly) it struck me that I didn’t have much juice to bring to my work when the bulk of my time was spent in theatres, rehearsing and performing. I was lacking new outside experiences to draw inspiration from.
Read MoreYou know that tingly feeling of anticipation upon stepping into a haunted house? Having elected to freak yourself out can give such a delicious jolt.
That's the level of fear I think is useful to take into a project or for a new step in your career.
Read MoreNew year resolutions can often leave us feeling like a loser a few months in, and even more so when another new year rolls around and we realise we completely abandoned our well intentioned litanies of improvements.
I like to spend a little time on early in January meditating on what I want to focus on in the year to come.
I want to share some thoughts on something I'm in a constant push/pull relationship with: SILENCE.
My new year’s resolution for 2019 was to NOT put in headphones and listen to podcasts whenever I left the house, but instead to open my ears to the city.
Read MoreAre you fatigued? The experts are saying, the collective adrenaline has worn off and now we’re all just wiped. I feel it myself.
There is grief happening in the arts community; we are grieving our industry as we knew it. If you’re feeling really sad, you’re not crazy.
Read MoreI hope you’re doing alright, adjusting to our “new normal”. I’ve been dreaming scenes of wartime efforts – I think it’s my psyche trying to tell my conscious mind why I’ve found it all so destabilising.
Today I wanted to write about a new principle I’m trying to embrace.
Read MoreThis is the perfect time to ASK FOR WHAT YOU WANT and shoot for the moon.
Why? Lockdown has obliterated much of the work artists had lined up. This is especially true for artists who specialise in live performance. Artists want to be engaged in making art. And many have more bandwidth and availability at the moment.
Today I want to share a story about my trajectory as a voiceover artist and the perils of giving authorities too much credence.
Read MoreI'm gonna jump right in and say something bold:
You cannot make good art and have longevity in your career without self-care.
I’m learning this the hard way.
I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in July this year. I’m going to be fine, but it’s made me stop and take stock.
I was running on adrenalin for a decade, pushing myself so hard I couldn’t see that I needed a break. I didn’t even realise I was stressed or that I was addicted to being busy.
