Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Tina Lear. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Tina, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I learned to write by writing. It’s that simple. And by reading, and by loving great songwriters (Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Sting, James Taylor). I started as a singer/songwriter, so those were my teachers. And let’s not forget about Stephen Sondheim, greatest teacher of all for what I did for four decades. I started when I was little (9? 10?), and I’ve done it all my life. during my marriage, I wrote in the margins of my married life, when nobody was looking, just to do it, just because I couldn’t NOT do it.

Knowing what I know now, I couldn’t have done anything to speed up my learning process. It’s a living animal that does its thing with me always, in every moment. I threw away twenty years of an alternate life when I was 18: I dropped out of college to elope with a young man who turned out to be a conman. Six months into that mess, I left him, and ended up living with the man I eventually married and had three children with. He was 31 years my senior. I was still only 18. I stayed with him for almost two decades. The marriage came to an almost Shakespearean end. During that whole time, I was learning the things that would inform my craft—and learning them at exactly the right pace for what I could digest.

What obstacles stood in the way of learning more? I question the premise. Why should I learn ‘faster’ or ‘more’? My life took the course it took. It couldn’t have been otherwise. But if I had to name an obstacle, it would be my insistence on proving how effectively I could subsume my life into someone else’s ‘more important’ life. The obstacle of refusing to believe that I mattered enough to assert myself, no matter who didn’t like it. I was profoundly guilty of the wealth I’d been born into, so I did everything I could to prove myself worthy of it, to prove I could be selfless, to prove I wasn’t spoiled. I went way overboard.

What skills do I think were most essential? For learning my craft? The dogged Must Do. The skill of also being able to read. Reading other writers–good ones, bad ones, noticing when and why I felt that they were good or bad. For good writing, I think knowledge of good grammar and proper spelling are important–so that when you break those laws, you do it on purpose. Saying what you mean is a surprisingly unheralded skill. Economy of language is a skill. Knowing where to begin, and when to end–those are important skills in the craft of writing. But you can only learn them by failing at them over and over, in differe.

But you can’t learn any of those skills unless you give yourself permission to (in the words of Natalie Goldberg) “write the worst stuff in America”–and a lot of it, and consistently, for a long time. Writing skills are like muscles, and it takes time, discipline and consistency for them to develop.

Tina, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I became a writer by doing a whole lot of it. By myself and for no reason. I also asked a million questions, and learned from everyone who would teach me–Natalie Goldberg, Padraig Ó Tuama, Margarat Atwood, Ray Bradbury. Marion Roach Smith (some directly, some indirectly).

But now that I think of it, my twenty-five years in Buddhism have given me the greatest gifts, as a writer. Because it’s my meditation practice that has shows me the profound value of sitting with What Is, without trying to change it. When you can do that in your writing, that makes for powerful work. Somehow the act of facing the various fires and bogs and floods of emotion that accompany being human–facing all that without wishing it to be otherwise actually opens the eyes. It opens the awareness so that when you write, you can see more clearly what’s really going on, and so the writing hits closer to home.

I write in very different areas. Keeps it fresh.

My first love is poetry, so my recent debut collection (“Partial Views: A Collection of Poetry”) has made its way into the world. I think of it as a tiny memoir of a much larger life. It’s a love letter to every little girl hiding in plain sight, every woman sleeping around long after it isn’t fun anymore, every mother screaming at her kids, every wife trying to jump out the window of a marriage on fire, and every grown daughter watching Jeopardy with her ancient, bedridden mother at her side. It is a love letter to all the ways in which we try and fail and try again to meet our reflection in the mirror and whisper yes.

My next love fantasy, and so “StoryEarth Chronicles: The Sting Baby” has shown up. This novel has no dragons or epic battles. It’s much more of a family drama, set in the world where Stories are held sacred, and language is their actual food. It examines prejudice, dogma, and the perils of inflexibility through Millie’s journey—eventually ushering us into the mysteries of the unseen world, and its possibilities for redemption. And, invisibly, the themes of compassion, oneness, being with what is, find their way into this work as well.

The other writing muscle that I exercise is on substack. I write a blog there that appears every one to two weeks, and it always includes three elements: 1) a message from me, 2) wisdom from others (could range from the Dalai Lama to a 3-year-old girl I met in line at Starbucks), and finally, 3) the wild card–usually comedy, but it could be a musical clip or something that just makes my jaw drop about the natural world. I really love sharing with my readers in this way, and learning from them, too.

At the core of my work is a sense of permission to be what, where, and how are you right now in this moment. You don’t have to achieve anything. You are already of deep value to the world, just because you’re breathing in and out wherever you are. We need this relaxed sense of ‘okay’ in our world. Everyone trying so hard to be happy–that’s what’s creating so much of the suffering we experience. We have to stop. We really have to stop, and genuinely “meet our reflection in the mirror, and whisper ‘yes’.”

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Every morning when I get up, I make a vow that “for the benefit of all living beings, I shall give rise to the awakened mind and continually train in the way of the bodhisattva.” Deep down, that’s the engine that drives my creative journey. I don’t pretend to be ‘awakened,’ and I certainly don’t pretend to be a bodhisattva. But every day, I remember that vow, keep training.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

One of the most important books I’ve read (about doing ANYTHING) is James Clear’s “Atomic Habits.” Period. The ideas in this book, and how they are presented, will help anyone, in any field, to achieve phenomenal results. All you have to do is actually read the book, and follow the steps.

For any writer, at any stage, I would highly recommend Natalie Goldberg’s “Writing Down the Bones.” This book is my bible, and I still use it, decades after its release.

If you’re a writer and. you’re interested in anything to do with publishing, your best source is Jane Friedman’s email list called “Electric Speed.” (Caution! There are two Jane Friedmans in the publishing world, so make sure you connect with this one: https://janefriedman.com/ ) Seriously, this is the most useful email in my email box–and I ALWAYS read it to the end, every time it comes in. Full of invaluable information, and down to earth, practical tips. She offers courses as well, and I’ve taken several. Do it.

For anyone interested in writing Memoir, you can’t do better than any of Marion Roach Smith’s online courses. https://marionroach.com/ I’ve taken several of these as well, and just recently finished the 6-month master class. Many of her students have gone on to publish novels, memoirs, pieces in Modern Love, New York Times, Washington Post, the New Yorker, it goes on and on. She is no nonsense, and encouraging, and has decades of rock hard experience. A voice you can really trust.

THE FREE 100-DAY MFA: Ray Bradbury has priceless advice on how to obtain an MFA in Writing, for free. It’s called the 1000-day MFA, and you can hear him lay it out in just a few minutes right here (start at 8:30): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W-r7ABrMYU&t=342s. This video alone can give you direction that is priceless.

Finally, I would like to recommend my coach, Sarah Auda at Three Beats Consulting https://www.threebeatsconsulting.com/. She has been an incredible resource for me, helping me in a thousand ways to clarify what I’m doing, and why, and giving me endless ideas for how. It’s not just woowoo, oh now don’t you feel better stuff. I am literally wasting less time, making more money, and living a clearer life because of her presence.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tinalear.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tinalearwrites/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tina.lear/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tinalearwrites/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@tinalear/videos
• Other: For those interested in my music, go here: https://www.reverbnation.com/tinalear

Image Credits

The image of me standing on the beach was taken by Elena Terrone (my wife). The three other images were photographed by R. E. Yelton