Welcome to season four of Creative Lift: Behind the Scenes of a Full-Novel Revision. We’re experimenting with an alternate format this season, not to replace what we do here at Creative Lift, but to offer another type of invitation for you.
Sometimes it’s helpful to be walked through an exercise, or presented with new ideas, the way we often do at Creative Lift. Other times, it’s helpful to hear those ideas applied. That’s why we decided to record a behind-the-scenes conversation that applies the tools that we explored last season: Design Thinking Tools for Writers.
One of the biggest ways that Design Thinking reframes the writing process is that it invites you, the writer, to consider how others might collaborate with you in your process. How might you invite feedback in a way that supports you and builds your creative confidence, while staying true to your personal vision for your work?
This season will be a case study for that kind of collaborative conversation. I’m thrilled that this season also allows me to introduce you to Alex Doherty, who is not only my collaborator and editor for both Creative Lift and our Writerly Play Skillshare classes, but also a fellow middle grade author. In this season, we’ll share a conversation that considers a number of full-novel revision strategies that Alex is working with in his novel, Audrey Gray vs. the PTA.
In today’s episode, we start by giving you a birds’ eye view of Alex’s novel and his goals for what he wants to work on with this revision. You’ll notice that the conversation is driven by Alex’s questions rather than my perspective as his feedback partner.
Here are the key questions we’re exploring during this season: How might a writer frame the feedback discussion in a way that supports their goals for their project, and also helps them see their work from an outside perspective? How might they maintain full ownership over the revision process rather than outsourcing that responsibility to their feedback partner?
This season offers tools and questions to support you in a full novel revision. The goal is that you’ll enhance your own desired effect while strengthening your unique writerly voice.
LISTEN IN:
A huge thank you to Alex Doherty, who records and edits Creative Lift.
The feedback approach we’ve used in this season references Design Thinking tools and mindsets. If you’d like to explore further how to apply Design Thinking to your writing process, check out our Skillshare course, Design Thinking for Writers: Create a Compelling Character at this link.
EPISODE LINKS:
Design Thinking for Writers: Create a Compelling Character
Find Naomi on Instagram: @naomikinsman
Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty
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