When I started out in podcasting, I thought that the process of creating a narrative episode would be fairly straight forward. A four step formula I could follow again and again, with slight variations.

Step one was the idea. Step two was writing the script. Step three was recording that idea either with my own voiceover or through an interview with someone else. And step four was editing the audio a bit before I pressed publish simple. Right. It didn't take long to realize that the process for creating podcast episodes is less like a four-step formula and more like writing a novel,

novel writing was something I had a lot of experience with for my first creative writing workshop in college, through my MFA, uh, creative writing, Fulbright scholarship, and years of writing residencies

I'd spent 20 years trying to understand, not just what made a story. Great, but how to reach that illusive finish line. When you knew that you were finally done,

Go to any literary reading and someone in the audience will inevitably ask the author upfront. What's your process? What they're really asking is what's the secret formula.

Tell me how to do the thing you're doing.

I've heard hundreds of authors respond to that question. But their answer is always some version of the same thing. It's hard. There is no secret formula. Sure. You can develop healthy, creative rhythms and disciplines that will keep you focused.

But inevitably there will be a point in the process where you feel lost, where that idea that felt so clear in the beginning has suddenly become very. The language authors use to describe that point in the process is telling they'll talk about despair, defeat, losing their way, feeling lost, wanting to get. Breaking down, abandoning the project, putting it in a drawer,

no matter who you are, or whether you're working on a podcast episode or writing novels, it's normal to reach a point where you suddenly feel overwhelmed and unsure what comes next, or if there should even be a neck. You began with this great idea that seemed so abundant that suddenly you find yourself resisting the process, maybe even resisting that idea.

That seemed so great, but now feels unwieldy and sprawling. We're calling this module, the messy middle, a term inspired by Scott Belsky his best-selling book, the messy middle finding your way through the hardest and most crucial part of any bold venture.

We're drawing inspiration in this module from Belsky himself, but also from some well seasoned novelists because podcast, production, entrepreneurship, and novel writing all have one thing in common, no matter how seasoned you are or how many helpful structures you put in place. The journey from your beginning will inevitably take you through the messy middle before you get to the end.

We'll look at why we get into the messy metal, how to embrace it when we get there and how to get out of it. And finally cross the finish line.

So first, why do we get into the messy middle in the first place?

Our story isn't yet a story. One of the most common reasons we find ourselves in the messy middle is that our idea isn't as fully fleshed out as we thought it was. , and other words, we have a topic, but no story.

One of the best ways to recognize this is to ask yourself if you can clearly identify the conflict, character setting and resolution, if you can't, then you probably need to spend a little more time thinking about story structure, how you're going to create that narrative arc from conflict to resolution from beginning to end,

. If you can identify those storytelling elements clearly, and you still feel stuck, it may be that you simply don't have all of the information that you need. Maybe your idea requires more research. So you have some more inspiration to draw. Maybe there's someone you need to interview whose voice will lend personal experience and a unique perspective that would help to unlock your story.

But sometimes our reasons for getting in the messy middle can be more complicated and harder to solve. Maybe we were off to a great start and then life derailed us. Creativity doesn't happen in a silo. It happens in our lives, the death of a loved one, financial instability, relational conflict, anxiety, and depression, overwork, or even a negative interaction on social media are all things that can derail us and interfere with our ability to cast a clear vision for our story. One of the reasons we spend so much time in these modules, thinking not just about creativity, but life is that our ability to cope with the challenges of creativity and life often mirror each other.

If we've learned strategies to care for ourselves and know when to take a break in life. We'll be better prepared to do that in creativity too. So if life is bringing you a lot of pain and suffering right now, it's worth taking a step back from your project to ask how life and creativity are intersecting is working on your project, making you feel even worse about the challenges you're facing. if so, give yourself permission to stop for a little while, work on something else. If you have that option, and an equally helpful question in these hard times is to ask yourself if creativity can be a lifeline when you need it most. Looking back at those first hundred daily episodes of shelter in place.

I can see clearly now what I only had hunch about then in a time of my life, when our family was suddenly thrust into financial and relational insecurity. Those daily episodes kept me focused on finding hope and connection day after day in a time, when it would have been easy to slip into depression, the daily work of the episodes gave me something to show up for a tangible way to work through some of my deepest personal challenges.

So now that we've considered three of the most common reasons we end up in the messy middle our story isn't yet a story. We need more information or research or the challenges of life. Simply derail us. Let's look at how to navigate Some of the more subtle reasons we end up in the messy middle Maybe we've gotten off to a great start, but then our enthusiasm somehow shifts to overwhelm.

And we despair that maybe the idea wasn't any good to begin with, or we simply just don't have what it takes to finish it.

The novelists can teach us something here. Zadie Smith writes. It's such a confidence Trek, writing a novel. The main person you have to trick into confidence is yourself. This is hard to do alone.

Put another way we all face imposter. Especially when we're learning something new or pushing ourselves beyond what we've done before so that we can level up in some area of expertise. It's very easy to slip into feeling like we just don't have the skills or experience to see our way to the end.

When I find myself in this particular messy, middle, one of the most helpful ways of accepting where I am is to remember that I'm in the company of every great creator, whoever leaves. It may seem basic, but just reminding yourself that getting stuck creatively is a normal and even expected. Part of the process can go a long way to helping you accept and even embrace that the messy metal is a place to learn and grow.

All of us have imposter syndrome, sometimes finding people in your life who understand this process and can sit with you in it is crucial. If you don't already have these people in your life, it's worth seeking out those relationships. People who understand the messy metal, we hope that in this course you'll feel some solidarity. And knowing that we are right there with you

Reframing imposter syndrome can also help. If you never reach a point, when you realize that you have more to learn, then you probably aren't challenging yourself enough. Instead when you get stuck or feel discouraged.

See, if you can identify it as an opportunity to learn something new that will make your work more thoughtful and nuanced. See the struggle as part of the story. Remember that conflict is what makes a story interesting, and that your struggle with the messy middle is part of the story that you'll tell about how you completed your episode.

Another subtle but significant way that we can find ourselves stuck in the messy middle is whenever we face emotional blocks in the work that force us to confront something uncomfortable about ourselves.

Ursula, Gwen once said, I don't believe that a writer gets an idea from somewhere and then turns it into words and writes them on paper. At least in my experience, it doesn't work. The stuff has to be transformed into oneself. It has to be composted before it can grow into a story.

I think what Ursula Gwen is getting at here is the way that ideas have to creep into our subconscious for awhile before they can emerge as carefully crafted stories. There might be a lot of false starts or moving things around or rewriting that beginning it dozen different times before we finally find the one that feels right, when an idea is transformed into oneself as Liquin puts it, it becomes personal and often getting personal means we're faced with some internal discomfort, a part of ourselves that we're not sure we're ready to deal with. Again, recognizing this as a normal part of the process can help a lot, especially when we're dealing with painful emotions or difficult topics, it's understandable that we might feel defensive, protective, and even panicked.

The first question I always ask myself, whenever I notice resistance or discomfort is where those negative feelings are coming from. If I can identify the specific part of the story that's bothering me or that I find myself avoiding, it might give me some insights into where I need to go. Next. The next thing I do is ask myself what assumptions I'm bringing to my story. Let's say I'm dealing with an interview where the person I've spoken to has some ideas that I disagree with. Or maybe I'm working on a project with someone else who thinks that the story should go in a different direction than I'm taking it.

Maybe things are getting touchy in the collaborative process because I'm feeling territorial about what I've written for any of these very messy moments in the creative process. It helps tremendously to take a step back and ask a series of questions.

What if the thing this person is saying to me, we're true. What can this person or idea or experience teach me? What emotion am I afraid to let myself feel? What topic am I afraid to talk about? Where does this challenge me? Can I reserve judgment and resist the urge to convince or argue? And instead, ask how engaging in this could be helpful both to myself and to others.

Can I see conflict, not as a problem, but a gift, a chance to grow and do better.

If I can remember to spend some time with these questions, maybe journaling about them or having a conversation with someone else that I. then almost always the finish line starts to emerge from the haze of the messy metal.

And then there are those times where you just need to take a completely different approach. Sometimes getting out of the messy metal requires getting into your idea through the side door or the back door, instead of taking it head on

and the exercises for this week, we'll give you some tools to help you do just that you'll identify the places where you feel most stuck, and then you'll use a mind mapping exercise to help yourself come up with ideas, to move away from that feeling of being stuck.

towards solutions that you may not have considered before.

And by the way, you can use those exercises, not just for your episode idea, but for your life. I've used those two exercises. When I was feeling stuck with project management finances, the ever-growing to-do list of house projects and parenting duties. And even when planning for the future, it can be incredibly freeing and even fun to let ourselves draw and dream in this very different way.

In his book, the messy metal Scott Belsky. What determines whether you succeed or fail is grit a special blend of passion and perseverance directed at accomplishing longterm goals.

It can be easy to lose sight of the finish line when you're in the messy middle. It takes a lot of grit to keep going, especially when life or work has knocked you down, but getting through it can be one of the most rewarding experiences that I know.

When I have tried all of the strategies I've mentioned here and still come up short, I return always to scene. I asked myself what this story is really about, and I try to imagine a scene that could bring that idea to life.

Maybe it's a memory or something I heard in the interview.

maybe I dreamed it or that scene is fiction. I have yet to write

often if something comes to me and I let myself put that scene on the page, the messy pieces of my story, start to fall into place. My scene begins to cast a vision for what will come next as the great novelists, Anton Chekhov.

Don't tell me the moon is shining. Show me the Glint of light on broken glass.