Reclaiming Your Creative Spark
Embracing Just-In-Time Learning
Are you feeling overwhelmed by the constant stream of new tools, platforms, and creative trends? Inbox full of more useful articles than you could ever read? You’re not alone. It feels like everyone around you is mastering the latest shiny thing. From book trailers, to dazzling websites, or visual social media magic, they’re powering forward and here we are, thinking, “I want to do that but I don’t even know where to start.”
Sound familiar?
We’re often following out-of-date advice. We’ve been told that knowledge equals preparedness, that learning everything up front is the only way to stay relevant in this fast-paced world. So before we can start, we need to learn the whole process. Right? But here’s the thing we have to accept: in our modern world, it’s exhausting. It’s suffocating. And worst of all, it’s not effective.
Why?
Because modern tools change faster than we can keep up. What you learn today will probably be outdated by tomorrow. Worse yet, trying to cram everything into your brain at once doesn’t just waste time, it smothers your creative spark. You weren’t meant to operate under pressure like that.
So, what if we flipped it? What if instead of chasing every new trend or platform, we learned only what we needed, exactly when we needed it?
This is the power of just-in-time learning.
The Relief of Learning Only What Matters Now
Imagine this: You’re working on a manuscript and suddenly realize you’d love to create a simple book trailer. But instead of spending hours watching tutorials or reading guides about video editing, you ask yourself, “What’s the bare minimum I need right now to make something decent?” Turns out, it might be as simple as creating a slideshow with some basic text and images. No complicated software required.
Or maybe you want to build a website for your writing. Instead of diving into coding or design frameworks, you start small: figure out the absolute essentials (like setting up a home page and an “About” page) using user-friendly platforms. The rest can wait—until you’re ready.
Just-in-time learning doesn’t mean ignoring technology or creative opportunities. It means choosing to learn what matters for your next step, and only that. No more feeling like you need to be a tech whiz or a design genius to create something meaningful. Those new tools that are always changing? You may be surprised at how easy what you want may have become!
Embracing the Overwhelm (And Doing Something About It)
If you’re drowning in industry newsletters, social media groups, and endless “you should be doing this” advice, stop for a second. You don’t need to read it all right now.
Is that newsletter useful? Maybe. Create a folder and throw it and anything else about that topic into that folder. Don’t try to read them right now. Just make sure your folder is well labelled. (If it isn’t useful, unsubscribe!)
The secret is that newsletter overload isn’t all that’s causing overload. The problem is learning to focus on only what’s directly blocking your ability to create right now. So unsubscribing from or archiving those newsletters isn’t an act of laziness. It’s an act of self-care. You can always revisit them later if something truly captures your interest.
Archives are your own curated knowledge. To learn more about how to build your own useful archive of knowledge (that doesn’t eat your time or brain space), you may want to read Building a Second Brain by Tiego Forte.
Taking Action, One Step at a Time
Next time you feel stuck or overwhelmed, ask yourself: What’s the smallest thing I need to learn right now to make progress on my creative goal? Then, tackle just that. Repeat as needed.
For example:
- “I want to try visual social media but I can’t draw.” → Learn how to use a simple graphic design tool or find royalty-free images and templates. Canva or Midjourney could be your new best friend.
- “I’d love to have a website but don’t understand technology.” → Use a no-code platform like Author Websites by BookBub to create a basic site with your writing portfolio. Want something more robust? Take a class focused on just what you need.
Your Creative Tool Kit
Just-in-time learning isn’t just about tools, it’s about reclaiming control. It’s about saying, “I’m not going to let this overwhelm me. I’ll learn what I need when I need it, and that’s okay.”
The next time you’re staring at a new trend or platform, don’t panic. Just take a deep breath and ask yourself: What one thing do I need to know right now to move forward? Then, let go of the rest until you actually need it.
What’s one creative goal you’ve been putting off because it feels too big or overwhelming? Share in the comments. I’d love to hear how you’re embracing just-in-time learning and reclaiming your creative power!
* * * * * *
About Lisa
Lisa Norman's passion has been writing since she could hold a pencil. While that is a cliché, she is unique in that her first novel was written on gum wrappers. As a young woman, she learned to program and discovered she has a talent for helping people and computers learn to work together and play nice. When she's not hanging out with her family, writing, or teaching, she can be found wandering the local beaches.
Lisa writes as Deleyna Marr and is the owner of No Stress Writing Academy. She also runs Heart Ally Books, LLC, an indie publishing firm.
Interested in learning more from Lisa? Sign up for her newsletter or check out her school, No Stress Writing Academy, where she teaches social media, organization, technical skills, and marketing for authors!
This article is based on a chapter from her most recent book, The Work of Joy is now available here.
Top image from depositphotos.
Leave a Reply
17 comments on “Reclaiming Your Creative Spark”
Tagged as:
Subscribe to WITS
Recent Posts
- Writing: A Room of Mischievous Interns
- The Most Productive Writing Day I Never Had
- Antagonists and Action
- What Your Character Notices Reveal More Than You Think
- How to Make Readers Forget Your Story Isn’t Real
Boy, did I need this today! Right now, I'm looking at a email from my domain hosting website, telling me that I've probably been hacked. Twenty years ago, I would have known what to do and fixed it easily. Today, technology has pretty much passed me by and now I have to decide if I'm going to learn all the layers of fixes or call someone to help. Sounds like a "just in time" project, because I certain CAN learn and this makes me feel better that it's okay I didn't know it before now.
Thanks, Lisa!!!
Many of those types of emails are fake.
But you're starting in the right direction: don't let it scare you.
This is definitely a situation to take slowly!
Took it slowly and figured it out. I can learn new things when I need to!
Woohoo! Congratulations!
This is why I take my car to the garage when it needs service. I don't need to or have to know how to or do it myself. No Shiny Object Syndrome for me, thank you very much.
I was exchanging emails related to this idea just yesterday, with a well-know writing maven. When we don't know our own selves well enough, we turn ourselves into pretzels trying to meet the demands of others, those who would control and dictate (if we let them) what we think, write, do, and dream, and condemn us when we don't kowtow and comply.
When we are certain about and comfortable with who we are, we don’t fall into the trap of trying to produce what others want us from us. This applies equally to chasing the latest trends, instead of asking, “Does this fit me?” That is about as simple a question as one can ask, although not always easy to answer. Too many of us are afraid to ask it of ourselves, because we don’t know ourselves. Too many of us don't realize we need no one's permission to ask it, or to answer it. Answering it is part of our lifelong growth as sentient beings. What have we got to lose?
Sally, I'm cheering with how amazing your post is. That is it exactly. We don't NEED to do those things, and they may actually be detrimental to us!
Asking: will this apply to me? Will it help me today? Those are powerful questions.
This is such good advice. It's easy to get distracted by the 'next big thing' that's going to get our books in front of thousands, but honestly, it's all just too much. When TikTok first came out, I tried it and quickly decided it wasn't for me and at the time it wasn't. Not sure it is now, but I've rejoined and a young energetic girl who has amassed a large following is going to help me. Finding help is often our best method rather than trying to do everything ourselves. Of course, money is often the issue there, at least for me. This girl isn't going to charge me much and it will be worth the experiment, I think. Thanks for this!
Jan - and you treat it AS an experiment!
One of the best questions is: are my ideal readers there? If they aren't - then there's no reason to do it.
Another is: will I have fun with this? And we don't always know that. You're going to play with this young person helping and encouraging you. If you find that you don't enjoy it, then the answer is no only because people are attracted to those who are having fun, and if you aren't... don't do it!
Best of luck with your experiment! And know that whatever answer you get, that is profitable!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Your article will help me a lot.
You're very welcome, Mary. And thank you for sharing your valuable time reading it!
No point in saving advice, newsletters, etc. - unless you know for CERTAIN that you are planning to use it SOON.
As you said, much advice is already out of date by the time you see it anyway. And there is just too much of it!
And I usually would go start something from scratch - How to make a book trailer - when I thought I needed one. Folders are too full of stuff I'll never use, and which would take too much time to clean out.
Information used to come at us slowly, in a form we would want to save (say, a Writer's Digest article). If you didn't save it then, you might never find it again.
Now is the complete opposite, so save what you will USE fairly immediately, and trust the rest (or something better) will be there when you look.
That's a great point, Alicia! I still dump everything I might need someday (usually unread) into a folder. Then when I might need it, I'll ask a helpful research tool to go in and tell me if there's anything in there I need. Sometimes it will show me something important. Most of the time it says I can safely delete the whole thing.
Website. Yeah, I know it's probably simple, but yet here I am without one.
Denise - for fun, and for free - go over to author websites by bookbub. Sign up for a free account (you never need to make it public, so this is safe play). Pick one of their free templates. Within a few minutes, they'll have built you a website. You can even tie it to a domain name and start a list. Obviously, we can pay for extra templates or whatever, but most of that is not nearly as important as existing. And they have good free templates. Just a thought.
I've been putting off taking advantage of the A+ content feature on Amazon. It's supposed to increase book sales, but so far I haven't had time to look into it - too busy working on actual books!
Do it, Annabelle! That is a fantastic thing to learn how to use. But just take one book and make one set. Or ask your cover designers if they offer something inexpensive!
Three books, each in various stages for complete. I fill my time with proposing and prepping workshops I teach (which is fun and good for my brain and exposure, but takes tons of time). I wonder sometimes if it is an avoidance thing, but maybe it is more my calling. Ironically I feel the same in reverse. As I enjoy working on my books, I wonder if it would be smarter to work on the workshops. There are many things in my life that take a great amount of time, most writing related. I'm wondering if there are counselors out there who specialize in helping to prioritize. This post may be the thing that pushes me to look into that. Thanks!