THE SYNCREATE PODCAST: EMPOWERING CREATIVITY
HOSTED BY MELINDA ROTHOUSE, PHD
WELCOME TO SYNCREATE, WHERE WE EXPLORE THE INTERSECTIONS BETWEEN CREATIVITY,
PSYCHOLOGY, AND SPIRITUALITY. OUR GOAL IS TO DEMYSTIFY THE CREATIVE PROCESS,
AND EXPAND THE BOUNDARIES OF WHAT IT MEANS TO BE CREATIVE.
SUBSCRIBE / FOLLOW US ON SPOTIFY, APPLE PODCASTS, YOUTUBE
OR WHEREVER YOU GET YOUR PODCASTS
HOSTED BY MELINDA ROTHOUSE, PHD
WELCOME TO SYNCREATE, WHERE WE EXPLORE THE INTERSECTIONS BETWEEN CREATIVITY,
PSYCHOLOGY, AND SPIRITUALITY. OUR GOAL IS TO DEMYSTIFY THE CREATIVE PROCESS,
AND EXPAND THE BOUNDARIES OF WHAT IT MEANS TO BE CREATIVE.
SUBSCRIBE / FOLLOW US ON SPOTIFY, APPLE PODCASTS, YOUTUBE
OR WHEREVER YOU GET YOUR PODCASTS
EPISODE 63: CREATIVE SPARK SERIES -
THE WRITING LIFE
WITH CHARLOTTE GULLICK & MELINDA ROTHOUSE
listen to the audio podcast here:
WATCH THE FULL VIDEO VERSION HERE:
In this installment of our Creative Spark mini-episodes, Melinda interviews Charlotte about her writing life, creative practices, and how creativity has made her a better person. Charlotte is a writer of both fiction and nonfiction, as well as a professor, Program Manager at Vassar College, and former Chair of the Creative Writing Department at Austin Community College. This episode, like the mini-episodes that preceded it, also includes insights from our book, Syncreate: A Guide to Navigating the Creative Process for Individuals, Teams, and Communities.
For our Creativity Pro-Tip, we encourage you to adopt a daily accountability practice, whether using an app or in a more analog form to support a regular creative practice.
Credits: The Syncreate podcast is created and hosted by Melinda Rothouse, and produced at Record ATX studios with in collaboration Michael Osborne and 14th Street Studios in Austin, Texas. Syncreate logo design by Dreux Carpenter.
If you enjoy this episode and want to learn more about the creative process, you might also like our conversations in
Episode 41: Creative Practice, Process, and Product
Episode 49: Creativity in Challenging Times
Episode 57: Accountability Partnerships
At Syncreate, we're here to support your creative endeavors. If you have an idea for a project or a new venture, and you’re not sure how to get it off the ground, find us at syncreate.org. Our book, also called Syncreate, walks you through the stages of the creative process so you can take action on your creative goals. We also offer resources, creative process tools, and coaching to help you bring your work to the world. You can find more information here on our website, where you can also find all of our podcast episodes. Find and connect with us on social media and YouTube under Syncreate, and we’re now on Patreon as well.
If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and leave us a review!
We’d love to hear your feedback as well, so drop us a line at [email protected].
For our Creativity Pro-Tip, we encourage you to adopt a daily accountability practice, whether using an app or in a more analog form to support a regular creative practice.
Credits: The Syncreate podcast is created and hosted by Melinda Rothouse, and produced at Record ATX studios with in collaboration Michael Osborne and 14th Street Studios in Austin, Texas. Syncreate logo design by Dreux Carpenter.
If you enjoy this episode and want to learn more about the creative process, you might also like our conversations in
Episode 41: Creative Practice, Process, and Product
Episode 49: Creativity in Challenging Times
Episode 57: Accountability Partnerships
At Syncreate, we're here to support your creative endeavors. If you have an idea for a project or a new venture, and you’re not sure how to get it off the ground, find us at syncreate.org. Our book, also called Syncreate, walks you through the stages of the creative process so you can take action on your creative goals. We also offer resources, creative process tools, and coaching to help you bring your work to the world. You can find more information here on our website, where you can also find all of our podcast episodes. Find and connect with us on social media and YouTube under Syncreate, and we’re now on Patreon as well.
If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and leave us a review!
We’d love to hear your feedback as well, so drop us a line at [email protected].
EPISODE-SPECIFIC HYPERLINKS
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
Melinda: Welcome to Syncreate, a show where we explore the intersections between creativity, psychology, and spirituality. We believe everyone has the capacity to create. Our goal is to demystify the process and expand the boundaries of what it means to be creative. We talk with visionaries and changemakers and everyday creatives working in a wide range of fields and mediums, from the arts to science, technology and business.
We aim to illuminate the creative process, from imagination to innovation and everything in between. I'm Melinda Rothouse and I help individuals and organizations bring their dreams and visions to life.
Charlotte: Hi, I'm Charlotte Gullick, and I'm a writer, educator, and writing coach. We are the coauthors of a book on the creative process, also called Syncreate.
At Syncreate, we're here to support your creative endeavors. If you have an idea for a project or a new venture, and you are not sure how to get it off the ground, find us at syncreate.org. Our book, also called Syncreate, walks you through the stages of the creative process so you can take action on your creative goals.
We offer resources, creative process tools, and coaching to help you bring your work to the world. We're offering a monthly coaching group starting in January 2025, and we'd love for you to join us.
Melinda: Hi everyone. Welcome back to the Syncreate Podcast. So happy to be here with Charlotte in person today in Austin. And so we wanted to try something a little bit different with our Creative Spark episode.
Charlotte: Because we're so radical.
Melinda: Because we're so radical! [laughter]. That we're going to interview each other. So in this one, I'm going to interview Charlotte, and then the next one, she's going to interview me, just about our own creative practice and kind of, you know, our creative process, what we've learned along the way, and maybe some best practices.
So, Charlotte, you know, you, in addition to being part of the Syncreate effort, you're a writer. You write both fiction and nonfiction, and you're also a teacher. And you've taught writing for many years. You were the head of the creative writing program at Austin Community College for a long time. And, so, you know, we've talked so much about creativity in the creative process and we've shared different anecdotes, you know, from our worlds.
But I'm curious, you know, maybe kind of what you've learned, you know, in your sort of journey in your life as a creative, as a writer, and then as a teacher teaching creativity to others. You know, like what are your words of wisdom for others and what stands out to you most about your journey?
Charlotte: Why thank you for the question. I've been waiting my whole life. [laughter]. I think that the, I guess the kind of nutshell version of this is that, being a creative person has allowed me to connect to my best self.
Melinda: I love that.
Charlotte: And so, and of course, it's not a linear or a smooth process, but I feel like because I became a writer and it allowed me to keep some of the very important things that I grew up with, some of the best of what I grew up with, and to examine the harder parts of it.
And so I feel like the little person that I was that grew up in a town of 200 people in a very, very, very rural, rugged fringe place and a fringe religion is that that person is still with me, and it's creativity that has allowed me to bring her along the way and stay connected to her and help her evolve and grow.
So I would think, and I don't, I'm not as someone who writes all the time. I write sporadically. And, as we've talked about in another quick episode is that we can, we're always moving through the world as a creative person, and that's helped me. But I think that when I ground myself in my creative practice of writing and whether that's journaling or whether that's actively creative fiction or nonfiction, I, the rest of the day is better.
I show up in the other parts of my life more grounded. More connected. And that's not why I got started in, I'm like, you will be a better person because… I felt like it was how I was going to make sense of the world that didn't make sense to me. Leaving where I grew up from and, you know, that kind of stuff.
So I think it is, creative practice has allowed me to grow.
Melinda: Yeah. So I'm curious kind of to dig into that a little bit more, just like what the kind of mechanics of that. Like how can creativity make us better?
Charlotte: Well, I think the first, we talked about it in another, quickie episode, is this, like, we pay attention to the world, we're not moving through the world, on a superficial level. And not to say other people are, like I don't mean it as a deficits thinking, like this is the best way to be in the world.
But for me, and I feel like other creative people, I feel like my creative practice allows me to stay connected to really the physical landscape, the earth, the other people I share the planet with. And it helps me build deeper relationships because I'm observing and trying to connect rather than just skimming the surface of things.
Melinda: Yeah. So would you say there's a connection of empathy, compassion?
Charlotte: Empathy, compassion, connection, and, like, a universal experience. Like your grief and my grief, they're very different. But that's also part of being human. So I think it's a way of, in addition to connecting to place, but it connects me to people because I'm recognizing that the human experience is challenging and rewarding and beautiful. And I think that creativity has allowed me to open up to that.
Melinda: Yeah. And while we each have our unique kind of life situation and story and biography, I think part of the drive to express in whatever medium is to kind of share our unique experience, but in a way that connects to that universal experience.
Charlotte: Absolutely.
Melinda: Right. Like we hear a song and we resonate with it, and we feel like that person is speaking like straight to our soul or whatever that might be.
Charlotte: I also think there's a part of me that feels like creativity is like the highest expression of human consciousness. And to engage in it is like, you know, to be fully human, the best fully human self we can be.
Melinda: Yeah. That's beautiful. So for our kind of Pro Tip with this, what would like, what would you share as kind of, you know, a best practice or kind of personal creative habit that has worked really well for you?
Charlotte: There’s an app called Don't Break the Chain, and I use it off and on. Right. I think I'm on day 45 of writing 30 minutes a day.
Melinda: And what does that app do specifically?
Charlotte: It allows me to build a habit. And I'm someone who needs that kind of visual. I think my ADHD is like, I need the dopamine hit of yes, I completed today.
Melinda: Kind of like with Duolingo or something like, where you get, you know, a little incentive to do something every day.
Charlotte: I also think there's the incentive, there's the chain of habit, which is really important. And then I'm grounded in my creative practice. But it also makes it feel like I'm touching into my creative self daily.
I mean, there might be periods where I'm not doing that. But it seems like the last five years I come back to that app, and return to it and like, oh, I think this is the day I'm returning to it. And then I start to build that, and then I have a reward. A massage. After 100 days, I get a massage.
Melinda: Right. That's great.
Charlotte: I will also tell you that I'm on day 1677 of Duolingo.
Melinda: Amazing. Congratulations.
Charlotte: My Español es muy bueno. [laughter]. No, it's not.
Find and connect with us on YouTube and social media under Syncreate and we're now on Patreon as well. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and leave us a review.
Melinda: And again, please join us for our Syncreate monthly coaching group starting in January of 2025. We're recording today at Record ATX Studios in Austin in person together with Charlotte, which is so wonderful.
And the podcast is produced in collaboration with Mike Osborne at 14th Street Studios here in Austin. Thanks so much for being with us. And see you next time.
We aim to illuminate the creative process, from imagination to innovation and everything in between. I'm Melinda Rothouse and I help individuals and organizations bring their dreams and visions to life.
Charlotte: Hi, I'm Charlotte Gullick, and I'm a writer, educator, and writing coach. We are the coauthors of a book on the creative process, also called Syncreate.
At Syncreate, we're here to support your creative endeavors. If you have an idea for a project or a new venture, and you are not sure how to get it off the ground, find us at syncreate.org. Our book, also called Syncreate, walks you through the stages of the creative process so you can take action on your creative goals.
We offer resources, creative process tools, and coaching to help you bring your work to the world. We're offering a monthly coaching group starting in January 2025, and we'd love for you to join us.
Melinda: Hi everyone. Welcome back to the Syncreate Podcast. So happy to be here with Charlotte in person today in Austin. And so we wanted to try something a little bit different with our Creative Spark episode.
Charlotte: Because we're so radical.
Melinda: Because we're so radical! [laughter]. That we're going to interview each other. So in this one, I'm going to interview Charlotte, and then the next one, she's going to interview me, just about our own creative practice and kind of, you know, our creative process, what we've learned along the way, and maybe some best practices.
So, Charlotte, you know, you, in addition to being part of the Syncreate effort, you're a writer. You write both fiction and nonfiction, and you're also a teacher. And you've taught writing for many years. You were the head of the creative writing program at Austin Community College for a long time. And, so, you know, we've talked so much about creativity in the creative process and we've shared different anecdotes, you know, from our worlds.
But I'm curious, you know, maybe kind of what you've learned, you know, in your sort of journey in your life as a creative, as a writer, and then as a teacher teaching creativity to others. You know, like what are your words of wisdom for others and what stands out to you most about your journey?
Charlotte: Why thank you for the question. I've been waiting my whole life. [laughter]. I think that the, I guess the kind of nutshell version of this is that, being a creative person has allowed me to connect to my best self.
Melinda: I love that.
Charlotte: And so, and of course, it's not a linear or a smooth process, but I feel like because I became a writer and it allowed me to keep some of the very important things that I grew up with, some of the best of what I grew up with, and to examine the harder parts of it.
And so I feel like the little person that I was that grew up in a town of 200 people in a very, very, very rural, rugged fringe place and a fringe religion is that that person is still with me, and it's creativity that has allowed me to bring her along the way and stay connected to her and help her evolve and grow.
So I would think, and I don't, I'm not as someone who writes all the time. I write sporadically. And, as we've talked about in another quick episode is that we can, we're always moving through the world as a creative person, and that's helped me. But I think that when I ground myself in my creative practice of writing and whether that's journaling or whether that's actively creative fiction or nonfiction, I, the rest of the day is better.
I show up in the other parts of my life more grounded. More connected. And that's not why I got started in, I'm like, you will be a better person because… I felt like it was how I was going to make sense of the world that didn't make sense to me. Leaving where I grew up from and, you know, that kind of stuff.
So I think it is, creative practice has allowed me to grow.
Melinda: Yeah. So I'm curious kind of to dig into that a little bit more, just like what the kind of mechanics of that. Like how can creativity make us better?
Charlotte: Well, I think the first, we talked about it in another, quickie episode, is this, like, we pay attention to the world, we're not moving through the world, on a superficial level. And not to say other people are, like I don't mean it as a deficits thinking, like this is the best way to be in the world.
But for me, and I feel like other creative people, I feel like my creative practice allows me to stay connected to really the physical landscape, the earth, the other people I share the planet with. And it helps me build deeper relationships because I'm observing and trying to connect rather than just skimming the surface of things.
Melinda: Yeah. So would you say there's a connection of empathy, compassion?
Charlotte: Empathy, compassion, connection, and, like, a universal experience. Like your grief and my grief, they're very different. But that's also part of being human. So I think it's a way of, in addition to connecting to place, but it connects me to people because I'm recognizing that the human experience is challenging and rewarding and beautiful. And I think that creativity has allowed me to open up to that.
Melinda: Yeah. And while we each have our unique kind of life situation and story and biography, I think part of the drive to express in whatever medium is to kind of share our unique experience, but in a way that connects to that universal experience.
Charlotte: Absolutely.
Melinda: Right. Like we hear a song and we resonate with it, and we feel like that person is speaking like straight to our soul or whatever that might be.
Charlotte: I also think there's a part of me that feels like creativity is like the highest expression of human consciousness. And to engage in it is like, you know, to be fully human, the best fully human self we can be.
Melinda: Yeah. That's beautiful. So for our kind of Pro Tip with this, what would like, what would you share as kind of, you know, a best practice or kind of personal creative habit that has worked really well for you?
Charlotte: There’s an app called Don't Break the Chain, and I use it off and on. Right. I think I'm on day 45 of writing 30 minutes a day.
Melinda: And what does that app do specifically?
Charlotte: It allows me to build a habit. And I'm someone who needs that kind of visual. I think my ADHD is like, I need the dopamine hit of yes, I completed today.
Melinda: Kind of like with Duolingo or something like, where you get, you know, a little incentive to do something every day.
Charlotte: I also think there's the incentive, there's the chain of habit, which is really important. And then I'm grounded in my creative practice. But it also makes it feel like I'm touching into my creative self daily.
I mean, there might be periods where I'm not doing that. But it seems like the last five years I come back to that app, and return to it and like, oh, I think this is the day I'm returning to it. And then I start to build that, and then I have a reward. A massage. After 100 days, I get a massage.
Melinda: Right. That's great.
Charlotte: I will also tell you that I'm on day 1677 of Duolingo.
Melinda: Amazing. Congratulations.
Charlotte: My Español es muy bueno. [laughter]. No, it's not.
Find and connect with us on YouTube and social media under Syncreate and we're now on Patreon as well. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and leave us a review.
Melinda: And again, please join us for our Syncreate monthly coaching group starting in January of 2025. We're recording today at Record ATX Studios in Austin in person together with Charlotte, which is so wonderful.
And the podcast is produced in collaboration with Mike Osborne at 14th Street Studios here in Austin. Thanks so much for being with us. And see you next time.
