Complete "The Artist's Way"

It’s now almost two weeks since I finished the last week of the program. I have held back “completing” this here as I really wanted to get to grips with what I thought of the program and perhaps there was a little nervousness about letting it go.

I found the program extremely helpful. I have restarted my writing. I am three chapters into my novel and counting. I have started re-writing some old short stories that I had lost. Ideas for new stories, long and short, are buzzing through my head and I feel excited about the next steps.

I didn’t do all the tasks, didn’t make an artist date every week but kept going forward every week and it was this and the support of family and friends (both off and on-line) that has helped me get to this stage. I think the biggest advantage of this program is asking for a commitment to spend 12 weeks exploring your own creativity. Whether it is this program or any other I think the commitment and perseverance that bring the benefits.

I’ve said elsewhere that just doing the morning pages and the artists date for 12 weeks is really all that’s needed to start the recovery and I still believe that. The other exercises and ideas over the weeks help to keep you going through weeks and give you space to work with the morning pages and dates.

I have toyed with following on with Julia Cameron’s next book – “The Green Book” – Walking In This World and have bought the book with a view to do another 12 week program. But I think it’s time to walk alone – with the two tools – the morning pages and the artist date and see where it takes me. If I need a further 12 week boost, I have “the Green Book” there to help. (Although having browsed through the book, I’m quite excited about her further weekly exercise – a walk. I think I’ll see about incorporating this in my weekly practice. (In fact I had a nice walk yesterday and it was refreshing.))

For anyone who’s stumbling about with their creativity and needs a boost. You can’t do much better than taking a walk along the “Artist’s Way”.

This week is the last of the Artist’s Way Program. It’s been an interesting experience and I’ve come a long way since I started just under 3 months ago. If anyone is interested in exploring their creativity then they can’t go far wrong trying out this program.

• Morning Pages

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As Julia Cameron suggests, the practice of writing Morning Pages is one of the pillars of this program and creative recovery. I have written a journal for almost 20 years on and off and getting back into this practice has helped enormously. I’ve also enjoyed the physical practice of handwriting the journal. Keeping them in a nice book means that I can carry the journal with me whenever I’m out and about and add to it during the day. It is my place of safety, the place where I can play.

As I spend a large amount of my day working on a computer, I’ve also restarted my practice of keeping a computer journal. I have kept a MindMap diary over the last couple of years which has been useful keeping me focussed but the typed journal is, like my handwritten journal, a place for me. It’s a place where I’m happy to write drivel, to witter and to play.

• Mini-goals

• Fictional paragraphs in morning pages :
  I’ve been experimenting with different exercises in the morning pages. I’ve found that these “stretching” exercises are helping.

• Novel : 4 of 7 :
  Although the Morning Pages have been going very well, the end of the AW program has been quite difficult. Getting motivated to work on my novel has been difficult this week. I count it a success doing more days than not, but it’s been hard work. In a funny way, towards the end of the week I think the expectation of the end gave me a little boost and I picked up the pace.

• Artist’s Date

I managed two dates this week. I carried on with my weekly coffee dates and visited a different coffee shop. It is quite interesting to sample the different environments.

For the second date, I went in search of a juggling and joke shop that I used to know. Unfortunately the shop was no longer there but I did find a craft shop and spent a while mooching around. It’s great to get out for these dates and I will endeavour to go on more excursions with my artist.

• Synchronicity

Nothing stands out as a “Wow!” event this week. I have found lots of different resources in my search to find support after the AW but these are not what I’d class as “synchronicity”.

• Other Issues

The coming end of the AW program hung gloomily over the last two weeks. I have found it hardest to keep motivated during these last two weeks. Whether that is the AW program or other issues, I’m not sure. The MPs and the other regular activities have kept me going over these weeks and in a funny way the coming end also served to keep me going. I had come this far. Another strong support for me over these weeks has been the 43things community.

There you have it 12 weeks of nurturing my artist. 12 weeks of creative regrowth. It’s been a great couple of months and I look forward to flying solo ;-P

A very late check-in this week.

• Morning Pages

7 of 7
I’ve been experimenting with different times and places. I have found it quite good to write in my bed before I get up. It gives me the chance to write in one block rather than in bits.

• Mini-goals

• Fictional paragraphs in morning pages
  Another 100%. I’ve begun experimenting with different types of writing and adding some more purpose to the morning writing. I am also looking to play with some other exercise from books like Creativty Rules.
• Novel
  With the plot more stable, I’ve settled back to a couple of pages each evening.

• Artist’s Date

I had another coffee date. I have been experimenting with different coffee shops to see if the different environment makes a difference. I do think I need to experiment a little with some other types of dates – but try getting a Taurus to change his habits :-) .

• Synchronicity

I haven’t come across any obvious synchronicity this week.

• Other Issues

This week has not been an easy week. The end of the program is in sight and while I’ve been enjoying the exercises, the thought of continuing without the support of the program is affecting this last week.

A little late this week…

• Morning Pages

6 of 7

This is the first week that I didn’t manage to do all 7 morning pages. Although I did start the 7th, but didn’t manage to do the 3 pages. I was a little worried as I had wanted to keep the 100% but then realised that I was obsessing about that and maybe this would eventually get in the way. So I relaxed a little and was happy to miss one as long as I continued and managed, say, 4 out of 7. Being a little more relaxed, I’ve started to experiment with time and place. I used to get up – and do them while getting ready in the morning. This did mean that I sometimes had to do them in pieces as “getting ready” got in the way. So I have decided to see about writing them before I get up, while still in bed. So far, it’s not been too difficult and it has meant that I’ve been able to do them in one “sitting”.

I have found the Morning Pages to be one of the best parts of this program. While I have kept a computer journal on and off for many years (mostly off over the last couple of years), converting to a hand written journal has give me much more flexibility and I have found it much easier to keep to them every day (well almost ;-) )

• Mini-goals

• Fictional paragraphs in morning pages

  100% – (or every time I’ve wrote my morning pages) – so 6 of 7 days.

  When I tried this experiment in the past, many of the snippets started to form into coherent groups that could be part of one story. This time it has been the same and as the result of these short – no more than 50 words generally – pieces I now have a couple of potential longer stories to work on.

• Novel

  This week I’ve stopped writing a page-a-day as I’ve been hitting plotting problems so have decided to work on using the Writer’s Journey plot to see if I can work on them. I’ve given myself this week as a deadline and will return to my page-a-day routine next week

• Artist’s Date

I didn’t get to the coffee shop this week :( Easter week is family week and I didn’t feel able to take time out. I did manage to spend some time drawing as I’d just received some “way cool” ( ;) ) books on comics. It really took me back to my childhood as I used to draw comics when I was at school. Great fun.

• Synchronicity

This week’s AW is about blocks and two of my biggest are family and work and both were highlighted. I started a new contract and it’s Easter break so the children are at home.

• Other Issues

Working on the plot for my novel this week, somehow, made “writing a novel” feel more than a “hobby”. Writing a page-a-day was a start but working on fleshing out the plot has made the novel feel much more “mature” and realistic. I’ve also been working on recovering the stories that I’ve lost and started jotting notes on these. It’s all helped me to think about the “reality” of writing rather than the “dream” of being a writer.

• Morning Pages

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I’m getting more and more from doing the morning pages. Often I write much more than the base 3 pages.

• Mini-Goals

I have set myself some mini-goals, as mentioned in an earlier “check-ins”. They are:

• write a paragraph or more of prose in my morning pages
• write a page or more of my novel every day

This week I’m 100% on both. I’m feeling quite positive about all this. I made sure that the goals were achievable. Once I’m comfortable with this level, I will look at stretching a little.

• Artist’s Date

I made another trip to a coffee shop for my artist date this week. I went to a different shop which was much quieter. It’s been difficult this week as it’s a school holiday and the children are at home. I’m hoping to try a different date next week – as well as my weekly visit to a coffee shop.

• Synchronicity

As I’m coming towards the last part of the Artist’s Way program, I’ve been starting to think about the future – see other entries. I’ve come across some good sites and communities.

• Other Issues

This week I didn’t do many of the exercises. I did look at a mnemonic to remember the BLASTing away the blocks exercise and I have been looking at my previous U-turns. Hoping to reverse some U-turns I went on a hunt for some old short stories that I wrote – a long time ago. With no luck finding them, I’ve decided to look at rewriting them. Listing the basic ideas behind the stories, I noticed a theme between a couple of them and have started thinking about a series of short stories around this them. So all in all, a positive week.

An exercise for blasting throught the blocks from Week 9 of Artist’s Way

1. List all BITTERNESS, anger and resentment over the project
2. Shine a LIGHT on all fear and resistance over the project
3. Check that you have found them ALL
4. What SALARY or payoff are you getting for not doing the project
5. Strike the TRADE – “I’ll deal with the quantity. You deal with the quality.”

B.L.A.S.T. away blocks and away you go :-) Perhaps a little contrived but works for me.

As I’m coming to the end of week 9, I’m starting to think about life after the Artist’s Way and in a certain “synchronicity” – well I was searching for “Artist’s Way” but luck favours the active – I found the following site – Contagious Creativity. It is run by “Kat” who – now, just about to start Week 9, I find out – started a group of bloggers who went through the Artist’s Way program. Looks like it’ll be interesting.

• Morning Pages

7 out of 7
Still going strong here. I have had to push a little harder to complete them this week as I’ve started to take them for granted.

This week one of the themes was about small successes by taking small, baby steps rather than failures by attempting to take large, life changing steps. With this in mind, I’ve set a couple of small daily goals. The first is to use the time with my morning pages to write a short paragraph or two of a “fictional” scene. So far that’s been fairly successful and I’ll be recording my progress with these with my weekly check in.

The second mini-goal is to write a page a day of my novel. Yes! I’m writing a novel too ;-) . It started at 3 pages but I found that difficult so have shrunk it to at least one page. Still not 100% on this but it’s much more realistic than the 3 pages.

• Artist’s Date

This week it was another date in a local coffee shop, and it was a date that I didn’t bail on. I’ve found my weekly (in a test group of 2!) coffee shop dates to be very fruitful. Both times, I’ve come back with loads of notes and ideas. So I’m going to commit – with any readers as my witness – to visiting a coffee shop, armed with pen and notebook, once a week. Once again, work commitments got in the way of a second date. I think it would be helpful for me to spend some time looking at why I’m not keeping these dates. Am I setting myself up to fail?

• Synchronicity

Once again there is synchronicity between ideas in the Artist’s Way program and a couple of other programs that I’m working on. It appears that there is a certain common core.

• Other Issues

This week has been busy – see previous notes about Mercury going Direct – and I haven’t done as many exercises as I’d like as some of them looked very interesting. The Artist’s Way is a start on a lifelong journey and I’m sure that the exercises and ideas from this 12 week program will be useful during the period after the program ends – so I’m certain I’ll get back to some of the exercises over the coming weeks and months.

But of the exercises I did do, I loved the “not allowed” exercise. It is liberating to be able to explore boundaries.

I’ve also found that over the last weeks, I’ve found “art” to be integrating itself in my life more and more. I’m looking forward to the future with anticipation.

Running late at the moment as I’m catching up now that Mercury has gone direct. Hopefully it’ll all calm done once it comes out of its shadow.

• Morning Pages

7 of 7

I am definitely finding them much more useful and am starting to push myself in them. I’m also getting more open in my use of the pages and it’s common for me to write in them and my journal openly. I suppose this may be called – at a stretch – a “risk” – but so far I’ve not really “risked” anything in them. Although I am using them more to explore issues and stretching myself in them.

• Artist’s Date

Hooray! I actually went on one outside the house. I actually tried for two – but time and the crowdedness of the coffee shop stopped me on the second. The first date was a coffee with my notebook in a “generic” coffee shop. I had a great time people watching and wrote quite a bit in my notebook. I’ve made a promise to myself – not worth the paper they’re written on, but now you, any reader, know about it so it may hold a little more weight – to visit a coffee shop once a week and just sit, watch and take notes.

• Synchronicity

This week is a week of “risks” in the Artist’s Way and this theme was mirrored in my re-reading of The Comic Toolbox – with one of the important “tools” being the willingness to risk.

• Other Issues

I really enjoyed the collage exercise this week and spend a great afternoon watching rugby and cutting up magazines. I also found the favourite films exercise interesting. It highlighted some themes that were interesting. What was more interesting was the themes that weren’t there that I had expected to be. It highlighted that comedies are my tip top favourites, hence the re-reading of The Comic Toolbox.

• Morning Pages

7 out of 7

I’m starting to get real use from the morning pages. I’m using them to examine ideas, feelings and beliefs. I’m also starting to play more in the morning pages and using them as a place to play with snippets of prose.

• Artist’s Date

Blimey! I actually made one this week. I picked a DVD from the rental shop and settled down to watch it. Everything conspired with me and the DVD player worked and I enjoyed spending the hour and a half watching “Paycheck”. An interesting film – not too taxing but an enjoyable film none the less.

A little “synchronicity”, I had not read the note in the Artist’s Way about considering two dates when I tried to have a second date at the end of the week. Work sideswiped me but I managed to salvage a bit of the date with a nice walk home from school with my son.

I will make sure that I build on this from now as I make sure that I take time to spend time refilling the well.

• Synchronicity

As mentioned above a little synchronicity over the “dates”. But the major piece of synchronicity was that I an email series that I had subscribed to was dealing with beliefs over abundance and talking about the same issues discussed in the Artist’s Way.

• Other “Stuff”

This week has been a busy week with quite a bit of change happening in my work. It has also been a week when I’ve found that there has been a good time to contemplate. (Astrologically Mercury Rx is always a good time to do this sort of contemplation but also a time when keeping a clear head is important.)