Creative Living: Marked by the Muse gets Twisted with Tracey Selingo

If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything. -Mark Twain

Marked by The Muse™ is Creative Living. It employs art and the creative process in navigating the highs and lows of living an inspired artistic life.

Being Marked by the Muse™ is the fancy-pants motto to living creatively – to experiencing your full potential throughout Life. When we give way to inspiration strength, conviction, and light heartedness a feeling of invincibility emerge.

Welcome Muse Tracey Selingo! I'm thrilled that she is part of the Marked by the Muse™ Creative Living series. If you haven't met Tracey you're in for a treat for she lives her inspired life by making twisted promises that are worth making as you journey through your artistic life. She inspires you (and me) to do the same and mama once you start - it's an intoxicating ride into a thriving life.

Though she claims she never received the memo as to where to pick her Muse up, reading her words and visiting her site uplifts your spirit immediately. It infuses the energy of determination into your heart and inspires you to live your best life, if that's not a sign of the Muse I don't know what is!

I believe Tracey is a Muse incarnate and that's why she can't claim her Muse - she is the Muse.

Don't you think? Read our conversation below and decide for yourself.

Tracey, please introduce yourself to us.

Hi. I'm Tracey. Some days I live to write, other days I write for a living.

When and what made you start blogging? 

I started blogging, appropriately enough, on April Fool's Day, 2009. I felt like a fool hitting "publish," but I certainly didn't let that stop me.

My career was in a bit of flux. In January, 2009, I decided to close a greeting business that I launched only nine months prior at the National Stationery Show in NYC. This decision was difficult and devastating. I owned and operated an advertising agency for eight years before deciding to risk everything and launch the card business. Unfortunately, launching a new business in the midst of the recession wasn't the greatest idea I ever hatched. As it turns out, closing the business was.

I shut down from January through March. I didn't work. I didn't read email. I just took the time to take care of myself—to think, to plan, to decide what should or could happen next. During this time, a very dear friend, Anneliza, urged me (relentlessly) to start writing a book. Terrified by that notion, I wrapped my head around blogging, instead, and Twisted Pinky was born.

During this time I realized that I was so willing to make promises with the world, yet so reluctant to make promises to myself. That's the core message of Twisted Pinky: promises worth making as you journey through life.

What do you hope people receive when visiting Twisted Pinky?

Bite-size, actionable ideas on how they can improve their journey. Over the past year, I've identified seven categories where I think we usually leave ourselves hanging: faith, hope, joy, love, trust, moxie and kindness. These are seven areas we so freely give to others, but rarely ourselves.

What are three posts that illustrate this message?

Identify your lifeline: You don’t need a ticket to Who Wants To Be A Millionaire to identify your lifeline. After all, this is the person guaranteed to save your butt, right? Don’t you need to know at all times who that person is?...
Sit, stay, but don't be a heel: This is Duncan. He’s a 16-month old Tibetan Terrier. As I sit here typing he’s doing what he does everyday: he’s chewing something....
Church yourself: Worship the ground you walk on...

What do you have to say about 'blogging'? How it has helped you to grow personally as well as professionally?

Pull up a chair.

Blogging is one of the most interesting forms of "writing" I've ever performed. I put the term in quotes because I believe writing is just a part of blogging. When I first started I was just writing. The visual impact was elementary, the pages not well conceived, the categories, meaningless. I really had no idea what I was getting into. The only thing I did know was that I enjoyed it.

With that I started doing more research, attending webinars, trying to find and absorb as much information as I could to improve Twisted.

During this process, I was not identifying myself as a blogger. Whenever I would talk about Twisted to friends or acquaintances I'd get very mixed results, "You're doing what? Blahhhhhging?"; "Why do you spend so much time working on something that doesn't pay?"; "Who reads THAT?"; I could go on.

Slowly but surely over the course of the past year, I started fine-tuning the Twisted experience. For the first anniversary, I revamped the layout of the blog, improved the graphic communication, streamlined the categories, honed the messaging.

For me, blogging is the culmination of 17 years as a copywriter, ten years as a strategic communication consultant and 42 years as a living, breathing, thinking human being.

At any given time, Twisted forces me to stretch my mind and my abilities as a writer and a designer, a motivator and a friend. I've met so many talented, ridiculously wonderful people through blogging both personally and professionally. It's helped me get my consulting business back on track with a solid understanding of social engagement strategy and implementation.

Would you like to share your ideology with us? What do you believe in?

I believe life is a journey you choose to make. I believe you learn more through failure than you do success. I believe karma always has your back. I believe the first step in making a meaningful contribution to the world is making a meaningful contribution to yourself by being truthful with your soul.

Do you consider writing an art form?

Yes. Always. I don't think it matters if you're writing an email or a thank you note, a poem or a work of fiction, an ad or an instruction manual...knowing what words will connect with your reader is an art.

How do you define art?

An inspirational bridge that allows two souls to talk turkey.

What do you like to create in your writing?

I like to create a conversation between friends. While I hope that many people read what I write, I hope my words speak to them all, individually.

What type of setting supports your creativity most?

Trust me, if I knew the answer to this question, I'd never leave that setting. EVER.

What and when, was the first piece of writing you created, that made you consider yourself a professional?

Interesting question. My very first ad ever printed was an ad introducing VitaSpa bath products. When it was approved by the client I definitely, for the first time, felt like a professional copywriter. I'd have to say when I hit publish on April Fool's Day, though, that was the first time I considered myself a writer.

How does your Muse inspire you? 

 Muse, WHAT MUSE? Is there supposed to be a freaking muse in my life...cause I missed the memo on where and when to pick my mine up.

How do you connect with your Muses?

All joking aside, I don't really have this MUSE mentality. I think that may be because of the time I've spent copywriting-which is a process of writing that, while creative, leaves very little to the imagination. Successful copywriting is the combination of understanding a business, understanding an audience and building a bridge between the two. That type of writing really puts a puzzle together...which feels very different for me than the magic a muse might spin.

Don't get me wrong, I do have moments when I feel inspired (especially with blogging), but I can't pinpoint them to a glorious Muse. I pinpoint them to a moment when my mind is open to receiving and recognizing a story worth telling.

Do you believe you must "find inspiration" or "connect with inspiration"?

I believe you must open your eyes to inspiration. It's everywhere.

IS it easy for you to remain inspired? What do you do on the days the Muse has left you?

As easy as it is for me to remain aware of what's going on around me. I don't think that's very easy at all. I'm pulled in so many different directions, sometimes it's very difficult to relax long enough to allow a little inspiration to seep through the cracks of my brain.

What's inspiring you now?
 

Right this very minute? My OMMwriter program. It's playing a lovely, little tune against a white backdrop so that I can completely focus on the task at hand.

Do you consider yourself to be an artist? Why or why not?

I do, yes, but that consideration was a long time coming. Copywriting doesn't have the best rap, you know? I think I've moved beyond just that an in doing so I have become an artist.

Do YOU think people’s views of artists are positive?

Collectively, no. I do, however, think our current economy is forcing positive change in the way people perceive artists. More and more people are realizing, by lack of work, that pursuing passion pays off. That's a wonderful, daunting, terrifying, enriching thing for everyone.

Is your view of Artists positive?

Absolutely.

What thoughts about living a creative life did you grow up having? Were the people around you supportive of being creative?

You're asking the person who was sure they could make a living as a poet. HA! I think I terrified my parents, but to their credit, they just rolled with it. They've always been insanely supportive of me.

Why do you think feel you’ve “spent so much time running from one thing [you] truly love…writing?”
I haven't met to many people that like standing naked in front of a crowd.

What about your true love scares you?

For me, writing is a window into my soul. Sometimes the thought of pulling opening the blinds is just paralyzing. Lots of times when I hit publish on Twisted I wonder... am I talking to myself? does this matter? should I share that?

What do you feel you truly need in order to be fully reunited w/your true love?

A nice book deal would do the trick. Or that muse you keep talking about.

p.s. Thank you so much for inspiring me to just write this one form the heart. xo, T

Does your heart have anything inspiring thoughts it wants to share? What's inspired you lately? I'd love to know - leave your comment below.
Tracey Selingo is a writer and communication consultant who helps people get a word in edgewise. Follow Tracey on twitter and friend her on facebook.