The Hero Is You - A Guest Post By Kendra Levin

Kendra Levin is an executive editor at Viking Children's Books and a life-coach working with writers. Her book, The Hero Is You, is "a grounded self-help guide to a healthier writing process." And it sold out from the #LA17SCBWI bookstore on the first day of the conference! So I asked Kendra to share with us a taste of what she wants writers to know...

Editor and Life-Coach for Writers, Kendra Levin

This past month, I had the pleasure of connecting with writers and illustrators at SCBWI’s annual national conference in Los Angeles. In two breakout sessions and an intensive, we talked about how to see the creative process as a journey through ideas drawn from my book, The Hero Is You.

The idea of the hero’s journey is an ancient one, but it’s full of tools writers and other artists can use, not just for craft but to help you develop a more intuitive, personalized, and creative way of working that fits you and your life. If you missed the conference, or missed out on my sessions, here are a few key nuggets we dug into:

1: Give yourself a map. 
Psychological studies have shown that people who create a detailed plan are more likely to accomplish their goals than those who don’t. Whatever stage of the process you’re at with a particular project, breaking the larger goal down into smaller, more actionable steps and connecting each one to a deadline can be enormously helpful in moving you closer to achieving your goal. Let’s say you’re hoping to complete a first draft of your manuscript by the end of 2018—how much writing will you have to do each month in order to make that goal? Each week? Each day? Whether you’re counting words, clocking your hours spent, or tracking your progress some other way, log yourself like you would with a fitness tracker—another proven technique for meeting goals. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t do everything in the exact timeline you’ve planned—just keep going. Your map will lead you where you need to go!

2: Acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses. 
Every hero has inherent gifts and vulnerable areas, and so do you. Use your strengths as an asset but not as a crutch—don’t be afraid to take risks in your work and explore beyond what you already know you’re best at. Rather than bemoaning or avoiding your weak spots, pay close attention to them: they have even more to teach you than your strengths do. They’re opportunities for growth.

3: Have a clear mission. 
Why do you create? What’s important to you about sharing your work with the world? What message do you want to convey with your writing or art? How do you hope to change or impact people through what you are creating? Who are you trying to reach with your work?

Asking yourself these questions can help you identify your mission as an artist. And when you know what your mission is, it can become a touchstone you can return to any time you’re in doubt or questioning what you are doing. Whether you are aiming to help marginalized children feel less alone in their experiences, to inspire or empower young people to dream big, or simply to make kids laugh and forget their worries, your mission likely reflects your deepest core values as an artist and as a human being.

Every hero has a mission, from the most epic and noble to the most subtle and internal. And I can pretty much guarantee that, whatever your mission is, it makes you a true hero to the young people you are hoping to reach with your work. So keep at it and remember: you’re a hero.

To find out more about the hero’s journey, or to catch Kendra at her next speaking engagement, visit kendracoaching.com.