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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is that the work brings inspiration. If you want

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Speaker 1: more ideas, set aside a regular time to do creative work.

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Speaker 1: Most likely the ideas will get in the habit of coming.

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Speaker 1: Today's tip is based on my recent interview with novelist

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Speaker 1: Camille Pagan. Recently, Before Breakfast has started featuring one longer

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Speaker 1: episode a week where I interview someone interesting about how

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Speaker 1: they take their days from great to awesome. Camille has

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Speaker 1: written a lot of books. She also coaches other writers.

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Speaker 1: She tells them that one of the most important things

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Speaker 1: they can do is to set aside a regular time

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Speaker 1: for their writing. It doesn't have to be much, but

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Speaker 1: it has to be regular, and it has to be something.

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Speaker 1: Here's why. If you set aside six to six forty

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Speaker 1: five am most weekday mornings for writing, your brain starts

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Speaker 1: to think of this as creative time. It starts to

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Speaker 1: come up with ideas knowing that you have the time

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Speaker 1: to take them seriously and to execute on them. Your

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Speaker 1: brain builds a habit. Whereas if you wait for inspiration, well,

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Speaker 1: inspiration maybe a long time in coming. The work brings inspiration,

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Speaker 1: not the other way around. I think this is great advice.

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Speaker 1: I have been blogging about four times a week for

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Speaker 1: the past fifteen years. I don't always know what I

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Speaker 1: am going to write when I sit down to post

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Speaker 1: on my blog, but because I have been doing it

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Speaker 1: so regularly, when I sit down to post, I always

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Speaker 1: come up with something. Some stuff is better than other stuff,

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Speaker 1: but the work brings the inspiration. You might find the

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Speaker 1: same thing if you carve out thirty minutes at night

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Speaker 1: most days for your drawing. You might not always know

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Speaker 1: what you are going to work on, but when you

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Speaker 1: get to those thirty minutes, you will do something. The

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Speaker 1: regular practice means you will create more art, and thus

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Speaker 1: create better art than if you hadn't had the practice.

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Speaker 1: Choreographer Twila Tharpe wrote a whole book called The Creative

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Speaker 1: Habit in which she talks about just this. She would

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Speaker 1: spend time regularly just trying out movements. As she got older,

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Speaker 1: she hired dancers to try out her physical ideas, but

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Speaker 1: she still built in regular time for this creative experimentation. Now,

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Speaker 1: people like Tharp and Pegan do creative work for a living.

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Speaker 1: So they can usually carve out more time than people

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Speaker 1: with day jobs. But a lot of Camille Pegan's clients

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Speaker 1: have day jobs, so they look at their schedules and

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Speaker 1: they see what can work for many busy people with

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Speaker 1: jobs and families. It's going to be a time in

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Speaker 1: the early morning. If you are a night owl, it

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Speaker 1: can be time at night. Some people make do with

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Speaker 1: sessions on each of the weekend days. A little bit

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Speaker 1: of time Friday night, Saturday morning, and Sunday morning can

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Speaker 1: also work. Three times a week is a habit. But

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Speaker 1: don't tell yourself that you will do creative work when

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Speaker 1: you feel like it or when you come up with

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Speaker 1: a good idea. Good ideas find you when you have

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Speaker 1: built in space to do creative work. We often think

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Speaker 1: of this as happening in the other direction, but it

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Speaker 1: isn't true. The work creates inspiration, so best to do

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Speaker 1: the work in the meantime. This is Laura, Thanks for listening,

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Speaker 1: and here's to making the most of our time. Thanks

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Speaker 1: for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,

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Speaker 1: or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura

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Speaker 1: vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.

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Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app,

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.