DEAR WRITER: Why knowing your archetype makes your creative life so much better
Get honest about what lights you up.
What turns you on?
What delights you?
Because if you want writing your book to feel chill, kind, and sexy—you must CLEARLY identify what turns you on (and off).
No more forced actions and unsexy, unrealistic standards. No more forcing yourself into shapes and vibes that just don’t speak to your soul just because “it’s what writers do.”
It’s time to stop following the crowd. It’s time to get honest enough to tune into what kind of creative life and writing identity feels good to you.
List the real humans, cartoon characters, artists, books, outfits, movies, writers, songs, tastes, sounds, touches, sights, and smells that make you feel good. These seemingly disparate energies speak to your Writer Archetype. Archetypes are part of the universal unconscious and speak to instantly recognizable and mythical understandings of the human. Think archetypes like the Witch, the “Bad Boy”, the Mother, The Boss Woman, etc. I’ve long been a fan of archetypal magic and Jungian influenced psychology (Black Feminist Nerd Interjection: Unfortunately, like many a Victorian Age-adjacent European, Jung’s theories of the unconscious were limited by an inability to complete his own shadow work. He projected the same ignorant assumptions onto the “dark continent” and the people who lived there, cementing rather than interrogating commonly held understandings of Africans as “alien” and “primitive”. One can only imagine the metaphysical opportunity of delving into whiteness as the ultimate shadow….)
Back to you.
Put on your favorite Spotify playlist. Make yourself a cup of dandelion tea or smoke or go put your bare feet into the grass and let yourself dream….
What does it look, feel, taste, sound, and smell like when you feel good?
Dream up your Writer Archetype….
When you are done with this (take all the time you need…you’re never really done anyways as your archetypal energy can/will change) you will have now created a “mood board” for your Writer Archetype. If you could give this Writer Archetype a name, what would it be?
Feel free to go all Pinterest with it and/or create your own vision board.
Use Chat GPT to create fun images :)
This is your guide for how you want to show up in the world—on and off the page.
When you identify what feels sexy to you, your senses will be primed.
You will move closer to those experiences, practices, audiences, and places that feel good. Which means you’ll be more likely to keep going even when the writing life gets hard (and it is hard sometimes). It also means that you won’t be saving your pleasure or reward for any sort of prize or external validation because you’ll be filling your own cup first. It means your writing life will feel like you. You’ll get unstuck sooner. You’ll know how to romance yourself.
You’ll know what bookstores to frequent. What notebooks to buy. What coffeeshops and hotel bars to write at. What writing groups to join. What magazines to submit your work to. What editors to work with.
And you’ll better know what feels decidedly miserable to you. And when you find yourself drifting to these places, you’ll know that you’re going against your own distinct inner psychology and will course correct sooner not later.
Feel free to come back to this Writer Archetype exercise whenever you sense a slump or desire a change in how you approach your creativity. .
Love,
Hannah
P.S. I am a book coach and the Writer Archetype is one of the foundational aspects of my work. I do not cosign the Struggling Writer Narrative or the Self-Sacrificial Woman Writer Myth. Nope. In my neck of the woods, it’s all about living as if our bliss and our creative life is the seed of our liberation (because it is). I will be offering 1:1 book coaching in the Fall and Spring. 4 months. Deep work. Perfect for all of you who desire accountability, support, and a space that really gets you. This offering is strictly for the writers who are serious about writing a book in the next year. Keep your eye on this space and on my IG (@hannah.eko) for announcements and waitlists and dates.
In the meantime, I’m hosting The Lit Club (think book club + writing circle + weed) every month and Flower Hour (cannabis-friendly coworking, co-creative lab, and writers’ café every Wednesday at The Artist Tree in WeHo, and writing a newsletter every week. Hope to see you there.