A Practical Guide to Writing, Art, Music, Making, and Sharing Work After 60
A watercolor kit still in its plastic. A memoir you've only ever told yourself. Here is the way in.
5.5 × 8.5 in, 120 pages, posted to you. ISBN not yet issued
EPUB, reads on any e-reader, phone or tablet. ISBN 979-8-90623-715-6
About 2h 37m, narrated in full. ISBN 979-8-90623-716-3
For anyone over 60 with a creative thing they've been meaning to start, restart, or finally finish.
It is not instruction in any single craft; you won't learn watercolor technique or music theory here, and it makes no claim that your work will sell.
There's a watercolor kit a friend gave you three birthdays ago, still in its plastic. Or a guitar in the closet. Or a memoir you've narrated to yourself on long drives and never written a line of. It sits in the back of your mind like a coat you keep meaning to take to the tailor.
Your Creative Second Act is about getting the coat down off the hook. The real obstacle is almost never ability; it's the lack of a way in. Ten chapters give you one. You'll grant yourself permission to begin, pick a first project small enough to actually finish, and build a daily practice anchored to something you already do. You'll learn where ideas come from and how to catch them before they evaporate. You'll pass through the beginner stage without quitting, which is most of the game. Then finishing and revision, feedback that helps instead of wounds, finding an audience without chasing approval, and designing a full year of creative work rather than one lonely project.
About 25,000 words with chapter illustrations. There's a 30-day plan of one small action a day, worksheets including a project-sizing frame and a daily practice setup, scripts for asking for useful feedback and handling the unhelpful kind, troubleshooting for the real barriers, common myths corrected gently, a quick-reference card, a short glossary, and plain-language sources.
Examples move between painting, writing, music, crafts, and photography on purpose, because the hard parts are shared. The blank page and the untouched instrument are the same fear in different clothes. Ten minutes and a pencil will start almost anything here.
Every chapter, with the sentence it opens on.
This isn't a course and there's no test. It's thirty small, specific invitations, one a day, each doable in fifteen minutes or less, each a genuinely different small creative act. Skip days freely. Repeat any you liked. If you fall off for a week, just start again at the day you reached. The only wrong way to use this is to turn it into pressure.
Real pages, at the size they print. In the paperback these are black and white; the cover keeps its colour.
Copy these out, print them, or keep them in a note on your phone. They are yours to use.
Could I finish a first version in a week or two of short sessions? Can I picture what "done" looks like? If it flops, have I lost anything much?
Before you commit to a project, run it through these until all three come out yes, shrinking it as needed:
If any answer is no, carve out a smaller piece and ask again. A finished small thing beats an unfinished large one every time.
When you sit down with no idea, borrow one of these:
"I'd love your eyes on this. One specific thing: does [the narrow question] work? Just tell me what you notice, not whether it's good. I'll decide later what to change."
Listen without defending. Collect the notes. Then, alone and a few days later, keep the true ones and set the rest aside. You are always the final authority on your own work.
Would I still make this if no one ever saw it?
When you suspect the search for approval is steering your work, ask one question:
If yes, you're grounded. If the honest answer has drifted to no, make a few things purely for yourself until the answer is yes again.
You don't have to do any of this alone. Fill in one name or place per ring.
Free to read
All 10 chapters: what each one opens on, the questions it answers, and the one small thing to do when you have finished it. About 25,100 words in the book itself.
The book’s own sources, printed here in full.
The practical details around classes, tools, prices, selling, and copyright change over time and vary by where you live, so treat anything specific as something to confirm at the source. These kinds of organizations are trustworthy places to start for current, plain-language guidance:
This book had a developmental review, and its creative examples were checked so that no living artist's work or copyrighted material is reproduced without permission; the people in the case studies are composites, not real individuals. Because the book touches on selling work and on copyright, its guidance on those points is kept general on purpose, and the specifics, which differ by country and situation and change over time, belong with a qualified professional or a current, reputable source near the time you act. The principles here, about practice, finishing, and keeping your reasons your own, are built to age well. The rules of the marketplace are not, so verify those as you go.
| Series | Practical Guides for Life After 60, book 15 of the series |
|---|---|
| Imprint | The Greenlight Guides Editorial Team |
| Length | 25,100 words, 10 chapters |
| Extent | about 120 pages (estimated from the manuscript, not a proof) |
| Size | 5.5 × 8.5 in (140 × 216 mm) |
| Illustrations | 13, full-page illustrations |
| Listening time | 2h 37m |
| ISBN, ebook | 979-8-90623-715-6 |
| ISBN, audiobook | 979-8-90623-716-3 |
| ISBN, paperback | not yet issued |
| Language | English (en-US) |
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