17 | Poet Maggie Smith: How To Be Honest In Your Creativity

Create Out Loud With Jennifer Louden

For bestselling poet and author Maggie Smith, sometimes the secret behind making her poetry interesting, unexpected, and surprising comes to "making it weirder." Maggie's unapologetic, unabashed approach to her work is the reason her work has been read by everyone from Meryl Streep to Dr. Jill Biden.

Maggie hits on something essential about successful creativity. How do we be truly honest in our work? Sometimes it means admitting that we DON'T want to write every day. Sometimes it means making sure you don't miss that therapy appointment. Being honest with yourself is the only way you can be certain to be honest in your work.

In this interview, Maggie and Jen also discuss:

- What if feels like to have written a poem that goes viral when there is a mass shooting or other horror

- How to incorporate our everyday experiences into our writing

- The art of paying attention

- How to unlock a good metaphor

- How Maggie navigated her divorce in public and how it became her best-selling book Keep Moving

Visit https://jenniferlouden.com/podcastkit/ to get instant access to a collection of audios that will:

• help you with some of the most common struggles we creatives have to manage including fear of choosing,
• falling into compare and despair, managing the inner critic (s),
• and feeling too exposed and vulnerable when you put yourself or your work into the world.

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