Author: Andrew Zahn

I'm a son, husband, dad, business owner, actor and good sleeper/eater. On this blog, I pave a highway for creative growth by providing food, water, and shelter for those wishing to live, work, and play with creative zest.

How to Enjoy Your Day Job

I’m an artist.

I love creating. I love those who create. I love the whole vibe from creative people.

This past weekend I got to do 24 Hour Plays, where a play is cast, written and performed all the course of 24 hours. Awesome and challenging. It was such a thrill to experience that creativity explosion with other writers, actors and directors (here’s my 24 Hour Play experience from last year).

On Monday, it was back to my day job which isn’t always creative. Like most day jobs, there’s a lot of redundancy, e-mailing, spreadsheets, meetings and numbers.

But…

I love my day job.

  • I love that my employers know I’m a creative person and allow me to do creative things that benefit the company.
  • I love that my day job doesn’t rule my life–it simply borrows me for 1/3 of my Mondays thru Fridays.
  • I love that my day job fuels my creative projects like this blog or writing this book to help other creative people.
  • I love that my day job is teaching me things about business that I wouldn’t know otherwise. Continue reading “How to Enjoy Your Day Job”

6 Reasons You Don’t Blog

1. The “I don’t have the time.”

No one does. Seth Godin doesn’t have time either, but he blogs consistently. The “I don’t have the time” should be “I won’t make the time.” Pull a Nike and just do it.

2. The “I don’t know what I’d say.”

You’re passionate about something. Food. Crayfish. Not talking. Talking. Chances are you do have something to say, you just need to find out what it is.

Two Bloggers, after Norman Rockwell
3. The “someone is already saying what I’d want to say.”

Say it in your voice. It’s completely different from someone else’s voice. Dare yourself to say it better. Continue reading “6 Reasons You Don’t Blog”

Your Creative Work: Sell Without Selling Out

Everyone sells something to someone each and every day.

Moms and Dads sell to their kids. “If you finish your peas you’ll get to watch the Happy Squirrel show.”

Kids sell to their parents. “But I neeeeed this! I want it! Can I have it?”

Spouses sell to eachother. “Honey, we really need a bigger/smaller/older/newer house. It’s time.”

We’re all salespeople–though many of us don’t want to admit it.

Even creatives sell.

The Artist as Salesperson

Many creatives despise having to sell.

We feel it may compromise our creative process–that it may cheapen our approach our work. Continue reading “Your Creative Work: Sell Without Selling Out”

Go On A Journey with Eastbound Sailing: 14 Things I Loved

We all love a journey.

We don’t all love a ‘process.’

The ‘are we there yet’ syndrome sometimes overtakes me from the backseat of my life, robbing me of present joys, wonders and explorations.

Luckily, there’s help…

In his first novel, author and editor (and a great friend of mine) Todd Foley invites you to process the journey with the main character, Aiden Lawrence.

Eastbound Sailing synopsis:

Aiden Lawrence has itchy skin that he can’t scratch–he won’t allow others to scratch it either. Forced to start confronting some of his insecurities, what will Lawrence choose? Community or isolation? Acceptance or rejection? A critical spirit or a compassionate spirit?

14 Things I Loved in Eastbound Sailing

  1. I empathized with Aiden.
  2. The descriptions Foley made about food. Boeuf bourguignon anyone?
  3. The honest irreverence.
  4. The honest reverence.
  5. The honesty.
  6. The feeling of the island–a blend of the Pacific Northwest and heaven.
  7. The readability.
  8. Warmth amongst a sometimes cold world.
  9. Compassion.
  10. Hope.
  11. Freedom.
  12. The beginning.
  13. The middle.
  14. The ending that left me pensively hopeful and satisfied, like I’d just eaten a Thanksgiving feast!

[box options]The learn more about Eastbound Sailing check it out on Kindle or the paper version. While you’re at it, head on over to Todd Foley’s blog. You’ll be glad you did![/box]

 

CCC (Creative Caption Contest) to Win an Amazon Gift Card

Yup, this recently happened at an airport.

Caption?

This dude was snoring so loudly I thought it only appropriate to snag his picture, post it on Instagram and now on my blog.

Write a creative caption in the comments below to win!

What do I win?

An Amazon gift card e-mailed to you.

How much is is for?

It’s for free. I’ll give it to you.

That said, I’ll be forking out a smashing $5.00! Enough to let you buy my e-book AND some candy.

When’s it over?

Soon! No more questions compadre… leave a creative comment and I’ll announce the winner on a post later this week!

The Recipe for Creating Interesting Characters

  • A dash of happiness and joy blended with a half-cup of artsy-fartsy melancholy…
  • An insatiable urge to create something new kneaded into the dough of apathy and procrastination…
  • A hunger for sharing and creating beautiful art with the world chopped up and sprinkled into a hermit-esque lifestyle…

 Happy/sad + Hungry/full + Content/restless = An Interesting Artist

Artists are a complicated bunch, aren’t we?

These complexities of thoughts and feelings that are in opposition to one another form the basis of who we are and how we create. These same personality patterns also reveal a recipe that helps us create interesting characters in our creative works. Continue reading “The Recipe for Creating Interesting Characters”

Your New Script

Old Script…

I don’t have the the time…

I never finish…

I always fail…

New Script…

I now create space, time and energy for my creativity.

I now set a goal to complete my                                              creative project by                                        time.

I believe failing makes me better. Therefore, I’ll enjoy the failures to learn and grow.

I have everything I need right now.

I believe I have what it takes.

I am creative.

I am an artist.

I will never give up. 

Time for a new script?

Frustration to Creation in Three Steps

My wife and I were listening that “not-gonna-write-you-a-love-song” catchy tune the other day on the radio.

You know it right?

If not, here it is…

Wanting to know the song’s meaning, I did a little digging about why and how Sara Bareilles came up with they lyrics to “Love Song.” Here’s what she said:

“[referring to her music label] They had encouraged me to keep writing, and I just wasn’t having any luck, and I was turning in the beginnings of ideas and snippets of moments of a song, and I was just getting a really sort of blasé reaction to everything. I started to get really insecure about it, and then I got really pissed off at myself for caring what anybody thought…. I went to a rehearsal space one day. I sat down and wrote something for me. And ‘Love Song’ basically wrote itself. It’s totally honest, and I’m very lucky the label liked it as well.”

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1583067/sara-bareilles-love-song-basically-wrote-itself.jhtml Continue reading “Frustration to Creation in Three Steps”

Inspiring People

Until I die, I must live an inspired life.

I love to be inspired. I love to be inspiring.

That’s why I write this blog.

That’s why I read, write, speak, act, sing, dance…it’s all because there’s more to life than going to work, eating, sleeping and then repeating it all forever.

To be inspiring, we must be inspired. 

Some wonderful, inspiring people who’ve given me fuel for my creative projects are my friends Susanne and Jason Mundok. Continue reading “Inspiring People”