293: Find Your Creative Focus - Interview with Jessica Abel

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hey there word nerds!</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Jessica Abel.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Cartoonist and coach Jessica is the founder of the Creative Focus Workshop, and author of</span> <em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Growing Gills: How to Find Creative Focus When You're Drowning in Your Daily Life</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, the graphic novel</span> <em><span style="font-weight: 400;">La Perdida</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, and two textbooks about making comics,</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Drawing Words & Writing Pictures</span></em> <span style="font-weight: 400;">and</span> <em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mastering Comics</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Her book</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Out on the Wire</span></em> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">is about how the best radio and podcast producers in the world use story to keep us listening. Jessica’s latest work of fiction is the Eisner-nominated</span> <em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Trish Trash: Rollergirl of Mars</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">. She is chair of the illustration program at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.</span></p> <h3><span style="font-weight: 400;">In this episode Jessica and I discuss:</span></h3> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The inspiration behind</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Growing Gills</span></em></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The myth of the muse and “right brain versus left brain”</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The power of time tracking</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Dealing with external and internal nay-sayers</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The