Since Alison Kent started up another round of The Artist’s Way and reminded me that it’s a good thing to do once in a while, it seems like a good time to talk about why to do it, how to do it, etc.
First you get the book by Julia Cameron. But you don’t just read it. It’s an activity book. Read the introductory pages that give background information and explain what it’s about, then chapter one. The end of each chapter has a list of tasks to do for that week. Every week you do morning pages (daily writing about whatever is on your mind) and artist dates (any activity that feeds your senses) in addition to the weekly tasks. It takes 12 weeks to work through, at the end of which you have built some good creative habits and learned a few things about your creativity.
The hardest habit to build, I think, is the artist date. It’s essential for continually gaining new input and feeding the senses so that you have a stock of inspiration to create from. If you are a busy working parent, you might have to do what I do, which is resort to mini artist dates. I try to do this daily for five minutes. I listen to music that inspires me, or go take a picture, or sketch out something I want to paint, or sit on the garden bench and just look and listen and feel. Artist dates don’t have to cost anything, or even go anywhere. Your own backyard can be full of things to discover with new eyes.
Morning pages aren’t hard for me, but I’ve been writing daily in a journal since I was 12. The habit is pretty ingrained. I don’t write 3 pages longhand since I lost the ability to write longhand years ago to tendonitis. I don’t believe there is any magic to longhand vs. typing, but your mileage may vary. Try it both ways and see which you like.
The important thing with The Artist’s Way, like any creative tool or “rule”, is to use it in a way that works for you. If you can’t go off by yourself for an hour to do a formal artist date, take 5 minutes and be informal. If you can’t handwrite, type. Or dictate.
If you’re an author, the ability to write in a way that isn’t a. for sale or b. a performance is really liberating. And you can take the freedom you experience in your journal back to your for pay/for public work. Try it and see.
If you’re checking in with a group weekly, it can be interesting to hear about other people’s experiences. You can also do it quietly alone. However you do it, if you actually work through the book you will be in a better creative place at the end of 12 weeks. And if you are like me and considering doing it for the 3rd or 5th time (I’ve lost track), you still have new things to learn about your creative process and how to work with it now.
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