Welcome to The Everything Creatives Newsletter
A community for creatives who no longer bother guessing what they want to be when they grow up.
Before all else, thank you for joining me on this corner of the internet. I’m Maria. A Portuguese, pushing-thirty-year-old, whose 5-year plan is to be surprised.
Since I am Portuguese, a photograph of a beach on our large Atlantic coastline is necessary. It’s also a necessary reminder for me to slow down and let creativity expand in stillness, as well as in restlessness.
I kept changing my mind about what this newsletter would be about, until I realized that the constant changing is exactly what it is about.
Creating in a world that won’t sit still.
Nothing ever was nor could be stagnant in this world. But recently, things have been moving at record speed, with technological advancements and interconnectivity that screams for us to participate.
I have a lot of thoughts on what it means to create in a world that never stops shifting. So that’s where this newsletter will begin. If it turns into something else, so be it, but for now, may this be a space to reflect, adapt, and connect a little deeper.
This newsletter is free. Maybe a few bits and bobs will be under a paywall, but I generally enjoy the idea that creativity isn’t something you have to turn into a system, a brand, or a productivity hack. It’s something to notice, something to live in.
As a creative who doesn’t know what they want to be when they grow up —like many others—I hope to create a sense of community here. For the ones drawn to many things, who feel and think in constant creation, start and abandon projects, and keep searching for more.
My aunt has always told me, “you don’t pay to try things on”, and I whole heartedly embrace this advice. To this day, my motto is to try things on as I discover what it is I want to be when I grow up.
I am currently freelancing full-time for the first time in my life. This gives me a kind of freedom that I never imagined was possible. My aptitude test in high school told me I could be a mathematician, an actor, a psychologist, a camera woman and a list of other random things. At the time, I thought it was all a joke, and that the test gave me nothing, but now I can see that it was really just highlighting what I already knew.
I was never made to do just one thing.
And not only is that a valid option, but it’s also, ironically, becoming the more stable one in the current working climate where adaptability, flexibility and creativity are all assets.
I recently came across the term multipotentialite (“people who display aptitudes across multiple disciplines”) in Emilie Wapnick’s How to Be Everything — and realized I’m not just an indecisive Libra after all—I’m multi-creative (not that creativity was ever just one thing)…
I may die never knowing what it is I want to be when I grow up, quite simply because I have slowly learnt that the doing is a lot less important to me than the why.
So I’ve started leaning into who I want to become, instead.
Join me in that, arguably more interesting search, at your own risk.
What to expect (until I change my mind)
Monday reflections on culture and creativity: I’m not going to preach how you should be creative, or how to maximize your creative productivity. I’m more of an observe and grow as you create kind of person, so that’s what I will share with you.
Monthly prompts, ideas, organization tools: I have too many ideas for my own good, so I’ll be sharing some monthly writing prompts, brain dumps or creative exercises, to potentially inspire your creativity.
Monthly series pieces: Musings, observations and stories of my personal creative journey and the setbacks and growth that I experience along the way.
Connect
This all feels impersonal if we never connect, which is the point of most things in life. So reach out. Tell me your story, morning glory. What are you working on, what would you like to share, and what moves you? What are you avoiding, and what are your preferred procrastination methods. Also, if you’re into it, what’s your zodiac sign? I’m always curious about astrology.
Here's to our shared creative path,
Maria
