Launching a Blog = Birthing a Baby*

(*sort of)

The Creative Process Takes Shape

The Creative Process Takes Shape

About nine months ago I began thinking about creating a blog. The buzz in my women-owned-business community was that blogs were the wave of the future. I knew my blog-ological-clock was ticking because the future arrives quicker and quicker these days, so I got busy, fast. My new venture Theatrical Intelligence® was taking shape, and wise minds suggested that a blog would be a catalyst for conversation in anticipation of my upcoming book.

Since my concept was not fully conceived, I googled ‘blog’ and learned that the word is a contraction of the term web-log.  Googling ‘theatre blogs’ confirmed that my beloved theatre industry lags in the blogosphere, and I saw that theatre students, as always, were ahead of the curve. So I decided to do what the students were doing: learn blogspeak and sign up for Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

I watched. I waited. I learned. And after a couple of weeks I experienced what can only be described as blog-hunger. The symptoms were oddly familiar: there was a primal creative force driving my every moment, an obsessive craving for 24/7 knowledge-exchange-with-wise-women, and the wildest dreams imaginable. It was exactly the same as the baby-hunger that had consumed me three decades before.

When I was pregnant with my daughter in 1974, none of my friends had yet taken the plunge into parenthood. I trembled as I described to my doctor the feeling of leaping into the unknown where no one I knew had ever gone before. She tactfully reassured me that “others had done it.”  Giving birth to Theatrical Intelligence® feels exactly the same way. Yes – others have done it! But to me, it is tremendous, terrifying, exhilarating, exhausting, and ultimately the most creative thing I have taken on since giving birth to my children. It feels as if I’m taking a courageous step into a new frontier.

A New Life - Welcome!

A New Life - Welcome to Gabriel!

You are hereby invited into the new terrain that is Theatrical Intelligence. Will you please help me expand my reach beyond my current network by answering two questions?

  1. What is the most fulfilling work you’ve ever done? Please describe.
  2. In what way are you happy (or unhappy) in your current work? Please describe.

Your answers to these questions will help inform my new concept, and I thank you in advance for contacting me.

The picture on the right is my first grandchild, Gabriel. His journey into the world gave me the analogy of birth and blog, creativity and community. Not to mention love. Thank you, Gabriel!

And to everyone: Welcome to the Theatrical Intelligence community.


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3 Responses to “Launching a Blog = Birthing a Baby*”

  1. Karen says:

    Never quite thought of it in this way – but the analogy is spot on – and the gestation period and the development once birthed is absolutely a growing experience. Great post and great photos.Nice work Ann!

  2. Gary says:

    Sitting at home being worked on by my new baby does not leave time for me to work on my other baby – my blog. Love the connections and the imagery. Great piece.

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