Big Opener

Start where you are

The two most important parts of a show
are the opener
and the closer.

Oh - and everything in between is kind of key too.

But the opener is how you get them.
And the closer is how you leave them.

I mean, it’s like life.

We mark beginnings.
We mark endings.

The middle

is everything.

And yet somehow
it condenses into a line.
All the it’s a lotness.

Opener. Everything everywhere all at once. Closer.

So today
openers.

Why?

Maybe as a defense against all the end times energy.
Maybe because I’m releasing Pick Your Next Project
and thinking a lot about beginnings.

In my coaching group last night,
a writer who has already been working on a book for some time
asked:

When am I going to decide to write this book?

Sometimes we begin and then decide to.
Sometimes we decide to and then begin.

Sometimes we begin
and decide not to.

Abandon cart.

But then miss it.
And begin again.

“Decide” is connected to all the other -cide words:
homicide, suicide, fratricide…

There’s a violence to deciding.
The etymology comes from a word meaning to cut off.

And so sometimes we don’t decide.
We try to soften our lives.

But the violence we do to ourselves
with indecision,
with endless options

is sometimes worse.

We try to avoid severing
so we smother.

Because severing is severe.

There is no right way to begin.

Think about a pool.

You can dive in.
Sure. It’s splashy.
An actual Olympic event.
Even a bad dive is fancy.

Or you can sit at the edge.
Concrete snagging the lycra of your bathing suit
as you shimmy in.

Slowly.

Waiting for each inch of your thigh
to acclimate
before you go any deeper.

The charm of that way?

The awkwardness.
The laughter.
The way you chat and make fun of yourself
as you become one with the water.

Either way
you’re swimming.

Sometimes we dip a toe in
and go back to sunbathing.

(Obviously I’m talking about writing.)

What makes it easier to stay in the water
is choosing the water.

And admitting that you chose it.

Or, in some magical cases,
that it chose you.

I made Pick Your Next Project
to help with that choosing.

That deciding.

It’s a private podcast—9 episodes—
about how to pick the thing to make.

And sometimes,
how to pick the thing you’re already making.

It’s free.
There’s a workbook.
I made that too.

It’s a process I take you through—
tools, practices,
a system you can use over and over again.

Is it freeeee?

Yes, honey. It is.

And my hope is that you’ll feel a little more free too
after you move through it.

Start where you are.

👉 You can start here: Pick Your Next Project

In about two hours, you’ll have real clarity on what to make next.

Infinitely yours,
Beth