Joanna Penn - The Relaxed Author Large Print: Take The Pressure Off Your Art and Enjoy The Creative Journey

J oanna: The definition of relaxed is free from tension and anxiety, from the Latin laxus, meaning loose, and to be honest, I am not a relaxed or laid-back person in the broader sense.

Back in my teens, my nickname at school was Highly Stressed. Im a Type A personality, driven by deadlines and achieving goals. I love to work and I burned out multiple times in my previous career as an IT consultant.

If we go away on a trip, I pack the schedule with back-to-back cultural things like museums and art galleries to help my book research. Or we go on adventure holidays with a clear goal, like cycling down the South-West coast of India. I cant even go for a long walk without training for another ultra-marathon!

So I am not a relaxed person but I am a relaxed author.

If I wanted to spend most of my time doing something that made me miserable, I would go back to my old day job in consulting. I was paid well and worked fewer hours overall.

But I measure my life by what I create, and if I am not working on a creative project, I am not able to truly relax in my downtime. There are always more things I want to learn and write about, always more stories to be told and knowledge to share. I dont want to kill my writing life by over-stressing or burning out as an author.

I write what I love and follow my Muse into projects that feel right. I know how to publish and market books well enough to reach readers and make some money. I have many different income streams through my books, podcast and website.

Of course, I still have my creative and business challenges as well as mindset issues, just like any writer. That never goes away. But after a decade as a full-time author entrepreneur, I have a mature creative business and Ive relaxed into the way I do things.

I love to write, but I also want a full and happy, healthy life. Im still learning and improving as the industry shifts and I change, too. I still have ambitious creative and financial goals, but I am going about them in a more relaxed way and in this book, Ill share some of my experiences and tips in the hope that you can discover your relaxed path, too.

Mark: One of the most fundamental things you can do in your writing life is look at how you want to spend your time. I think back to the concept of: You're often a reflection of the people you spend the most time with. Therefore, typically, your best friend, or perhaps your partner, is often a person you love spending time with. Because theres something inherently special about spending time with this person who resonates in a meaningful way, and you feel more yourself because you're with them.

In many ways, writing, or the path that you are on as a writer, is almost like being on a journey with an invisible partner. You are you. But you are also the writer you. And theres the two of you traveling down the road of life together. And so that same question arises. What kind of writer-self do you want to spend all your time with?

Do you want to spend all your time with a partner that is constantly stressed out or constantly trying to reach deadlines based on somebody else's prescription of what success is?

Or would you rather spend time with a partner who pauses to take a contemplative look at your own life, your own comfort, your own passion and the things that you are willing to commit to? Someone who allows that all to happen in a way that feels natural and comfortable to you.