Libby Broadbent's Blog
August 8, 2019
Looong time, no write. Here’s the new direction…
Quite a while ago I posted about reading Liz Gilbert and getting all hot and heavy about manifestation. Well friends, I’ve gone and manifested myself a whole new writing world!
This will likely be my last post on this page (but… never say never) because I am now writing under the pen name of Mavis Williams.
Mavis Williams Blissfully Writing Studio
You can find me there, hiding, but writing with wild abandon.
If you’re interested, and if you would like a free book in celebration of my launch, come on over for a visit! I’d LOVE to see you there!
Manipulating matrimony and a meddling mother… what’s a poor girl to do but get fake married?
Zoe’s trust fund is restricted by her controlling mother, but without it, Zoe can’t buy the restored Lighthouse where she hopes to fulfill her dream of running her own yoga studio. The condition? Get married before she turns thirty.
After the death of his wealthy grandfather, Blake’s ex-wife is determined to sink her teeth back into his finances… and him! Luckily, a tricky little clause in their divorce offers deliverance from her claims to his assets. The condition? Get remarried.
Zoe has already been left at the altar by an opportunistic fiancé. Blake is convinced women are only interested in his wealth. Marrying for money confirms everything they believe about love… or does it?
April 8, 2018
Blissfully Writing: On Having Enough
There is a huge difference between being enough and having enough. If you are listening to this podcast, Maker’s Episode 4, if you are embarking on a creative project, if you are daring to express yourself in any way possible but you don’t feel that you are enough of a writer, artist, Maker… you need to reframe your self doubt into an understanding that you have enough of what you need to progress into more. Are you scared that your writing isn’t good, that your painting isn’t lifelike, that your yoga practice isn’t bendy? If you can embrace the thought that you HAVE enough already inside you, then you have enough skill to start, you have enough interest to explore, you have enough curiosity to pursue your project.
Having enough, as a starting point, allows you to begin.
If you are sitting at your page or your canvas or your mat… then you have enough. You have made it this far… you have the passion, the drive, the interest, the curiosity… you have enough to get you started on a bold and exciting creative existence beyond the limitations of your negative self-talk that tells you that you can’t. Sure you may have a long way to go, you may have a lot of work to do… but you have enough of what it takes to start.
To grow.
To become more.
April 7, 2018
Lily’s Valley – Episode 11
Episode 11 of Lily’s Valley is up on the Blissfully Writing Podcast. This episode has some strong language, apologies! Click on the image to listen.[image error].twitter: @LibbyBroadbent
instagram: libbybroadbent1966
Intro music “Back on the Road Again” provided by Scott Holmes
April 4, 2018
Lily’s Valley – Episode 10
Just uploaded Lily’s Valley Episode 10 to the Blissfully Writing Podcast!
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twitter: @LibbyBroadbent
instagram: libbybroadbent1966
Intro music “Back on the Road Again” provided by Scott Holmes
April 2, 2018
Lily’s Valley – Episode 9
Welcome to Episode 9 of Lily’s Valley! If you are looking for Episode 1 you can find it here as well as link to the Maker’s Episodes where we discuss creativity and the writing process. Thanks for listening! Click on the image to listen:
twitter: @LibbyBroadbent
instagram: libbybroadbent1966
Intro music “Back on the Road Again” provided by Scott Holmes
April 1, 2018
Blissfully Writing – Maker’s Episode 3
Believing in Idea
I think the question “where do your ideas come from?” is the most over-asked question of all time when famous creative people are interviewed. It’s an obvious question, because we are so in awe of writers like George RR Martin who can create incredible worlds and complex plots when we can barely write our way out of a haiku, but sadly the obvious answer is, duh, ideas come out of our heads.
Today’s Blissfully Writing Maker’s Episode is about IDEA. It’s about Writer’s Block, what it is and how it cripples us, and how to reframe your relationship with IDEA so you can enjoy your creative process and Get The Work Done.
Take-away points:
Welcome ideas to come and play with you
Believe that you deserve to play, and that you can create the ideas you invite in.
Be grateful when ideas appear.
Do The Work: only YOU can stop YOU from creating!
Check out Elizabeth Gilbert’s fabulous book: Big Magic.
Watch this short video with Neil Gaiman talking about ideas.
Listen to Lily’s Valley, starting with Episode 1.
Like, share, subscribe!
twitter: @LibbyBroadbent
instagram: libbybroadbent1966
Music credits: http://www.purple-planet.com
Just want to note that Camp Nanowrimo starts on April 1 if, after listening to Maker’s Two, you are inspired to leap into 1600 words a day or any other size of writing project and you’re looking for a little support and accountability. Check it out, Nanowrimo.org
March 31, 2018
Lily’s Valley – Episode 8
Here we are on Episode 8 of Lily’s Valley on the Blissfully Writing Podcast! If you have stumbled here by accident, you can begin with Episode 1 here: Lily’s Valley, Ep 1
Or, you can listen the Maker’s Episodes here:
Maker’s One: What Drives your Creativity?
Maker’s Two: Limits as a Path to Creativity
Thanks for listening!
March 28, 2018
Blissfully Writing: new Lily’s Valley episodes!
Blissfully Writing just uploaded Lily’s Valley – Episode Five
AND
Lily’s Valley – Episode Six !
If you are just discovering the story, start here with Episode One
And check out the Maker’s Episodes here and here!
Each podcast is about 30 minutes long… perfect for your commute, or walking, or just taking time to hear a story.
Let me read to you!
March 26, 2018
Limits as a Path to Creativity: Podcast
Blissfully Writing Podcast, Maker’s Episode 2!
I am LOVING recording these things! It’s a whole new way of creating and connecting. The Maker’s Episodes are about the process of Making The Things, and the Lily’s Valley episodes are a reading of that novel in 20 – 30 minute segments.
Listen here: Maker’s Episode 2: Limits as a Path to Creativity
In our second Maker’s episode we are exploring Limits. Structure. This is all about how to take that expansive creative drive that gives you the ideas and the epic excitement about your project…and helps you figure out how to actually make it appear in the world!
I write in the early hours of the day. We’re talkin’… early! In a busy life, how can you carve out a schedule that works for you? What can you remove from your life… hint: scrolling… or add to your life to accommodate your creative necessity?
Time
Is it possible to work on your project for eight hours straight? Only if you are blessed with that kind of time! JK Rowling tells us to “be ruthless about protecting your writing days” but most of us only have moments, snatched on the go – in between This, That and the Other Thing. I say, “be ruthless about carving out your structure and your limits and sticking to them!”
Goal
How do you evaluate your productivity? How do you know you’re making headway on a project? We take a look at the Nanowrimo premise of 1600 words a day. Create a goal and stick to it, and the results will follow.
Listen here: Maker’s Episode 2: Limits as a Path to Creativity
Neil Gaiman, my author-crush, says:
“This is how you do it. You sit down at the keyboard and put one word after the other until it is done. It is that easy. And that hard.”
Your take-away points:
Create a schedule that works for you by sacrificing screen-time, or sleep-time, or vacant-brain-time.
Carve out thirty minute time blocks to Make The Things. Those blocks will add up and your project will grow!
Set a goal to track your productivity. Mine is 1600 words a day for a writing project. How can you create a structure that will motivate you to make progress?
I hope this helps you the Make The Things! If you would like to listen to Lily’s Valley in short episodes, you can start with Episode 1
Like, Share, Subscribe
March 22, 2018
Blissfully Writing Podcast launch
I am in love with podcasts… so much so, that I have created one myself!
My delight with podcasts began in the summer when I would take my creative urges outside and I would mache in the sunshine in the back yard. I’d download a podcast, pour a glass of iced tea and blissfully listen and paint and mache as the river rolled by. (I’ll do a post soon on some of my favorites, in case, like me, you are always looking and wondering what’s good in the plethora of choices available on itunes.)
I created my own, because I have been looking for a podcast that is purely narrative… an audiobook, really. I like informational podcasts, but sometimes I just want a story, and I want it to last for days. If you are new to the podcast world, most of them offer episodes of anywhere from ten minutes to an hour or more in length. Some are one person, some are interviews, some are artistically produced with lots of bells and whistles, while other are bare bones content. You do have to comb through to find ones that speak to you, but if you commute, or walk or run or make art in the back yard, a good podcast can be your new best friend! You can find them on itunes, Stitcher, GooglePlay…
I have created Blissfully Writing to serve two purposes… first, to read my novels, aloud, complete with voices and intonation and vigor! I cannot read aloud without using different voices for the characters. I think it comes from years of reading “A Christmas Carol” to my children every December, and Franklin the Turtle stories where Franklin sounds like he has a throat full of mud… as a good turtle should.
BUT…
Blissfully Writing is NOT just an audiobook broken down into half hour episodes. Although, if that’s your pleasure, you can totally listen to it exclusively for the story. BUT, it is also a podcast about creativity, and Making All the Things!
I offer extra episodes call the Maker Episodes, where I discuss this madness that is the creative drive… where does it come from, how can we nurture it, what does it mean? … because I am driven… like a madwoman sometimes… to Make All The Things. Right now, it’s pretty much just me, but I am hoping to soon do some interviews with other creative people who are willing to share their process and their motivation. As soon as I figure out how to do that… technologically speaking…
Toni Morrison said that she wrote her novels because they were the stories she wanted to read. (Hey! There’s a source of the creative drive… artists you admire and how they do their thing!) So I have created a podcast because I wanted to listen to someone read to me. I have three novels published, and three more manuscripts languishing on my computer, and I hope you will take a chance and let me read to you!
(I think this is actually a knee-jerk reaction to empty-nesting and realizing that I have no one at home to read to anymore… please, someone, ANYONE, let me read to you!)
I have no idea how this will go… that’s the beauty of Making Things! I am a die-hard pantster… meaning I never know where things are going, flying by the seat of my pants every minute of every day… as opposed to a plotter who plans everything out before hand. Pffft! Planning!
Give Blissfully Writing a whirl, if you’re looking for some light entertainment to get you through your daily!
Thanks! (Click the picture!)
