Making Time From the Beautiful Chaos

It has been an interesting couple of months, which in other words means that my life has been a symphony of beautiful chaos. Most days, it’s less of a symphony and more of a NEPA outage with every generator on the street but mine kicking on at once.

Right now, the chaos includes wrestling a critical thesis for my Master’s that has me using words I’m not entirely sure I can pronounce. It also includes my picture book, Hairstory, flying off into the world on pre-order from the US to the UK to Canada and beyond (exciting!!). It’s the kind of wonderful, dizzying madness you pray for - the kind that will swallow you whole if you let it.

I had a choice: be buried by the busy or be intentional about the beautiful.

I chose the beautiful.

Now, I'm not a fancy planner sort of lady, so choosing the beautiful doesn't get the Hollywood treatment with meticulous notes and colour-coded plans. But it does mean a ruthless kind of love for the things that matter. This love says “no” to a third webinar, so I can say “yes” to sitting outside with friends, having those meandering talks that fill your soul rather than kill time with a blunt machete. It’s picking up the phone to call someone I haven’t spoken to in ages and picking up right where we left off (no explanations needed).

Most of all, it’s making space for the thing that feels most like me: teaching.

I got to run a poetry workshop for Sheevolution Africa’s Summer Growth Camp, and let me tell you, those young ladies? Poets, every single one of them. Their words cut to the heart of me, leaving me a blubbering mess.

Teaching a poetry workshop at the Sheevolution Summer Growth Camp

After that high, I launched my Story Lab for 10-16-year-olds. We took their stories apart and put them back together to form super stories. Make way John Green and Suzanne Collins - my Story Lab kids are coming for you! The feeling from seeing their glowing eyes as they got to grips with their stories? That’s a feeling that can power you through a thousand thesis deadlines.

Turns out, I have the heart of a teacher. Who knew? (Everyone. Everyone knew.)

Your Turn to Choose the Beautiful Chaos

Here’s the thing I’m learning: “someday” is a myth. The chaos doesn’t clear. You have to claw out space for your joy right in the middle of it.

That story idea you’ve been nursing? The one you tell yourself you’ll write when things are “less busy”? It’s not going to write itself. The chaos will always be there. The trick is to write in the margins of it.

That’s why I built my courses. To give you the map and the push to finally do the thing, right now, in the beautiful middle of your own madness.

• Got a picture book in your heart? My Picture Book Edit Course is your ten-day ticket to a finished manuscript. No more doodling in notebooks. In just 7 days, you’ll have something polished and ready. Let’s make it happen. Stop waiting. Enrol in the Picture Book Edit Course Here.

• Is a novel whispering to you? I’m brewing up Novel Mastery for those of you ready to build a whole world, not just a page. If you’re ready to go all in, let me know. I’m building this for you. Join the Novel Mastery Course Here.

  
  

Don’t wait for a quieter season. The world is loud. Your story is louder. Let’s make some beautiful chaos together.

—Shopsy

P.S. I may still forget my keys, but I never forget the look on a student's face when their story clicks. Some things are just too important to misplace.