"Week" 3 of The Artist's Way

Reflections on the Journey So Far

The experiment continues!

At the end of last year I was thinking it would be great to have a group discussion around Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. Typically something like that requires a 12 week, intensive focus and minor upheaval of your current creative work. I wondered if we could approach it differently. We are currently a quarter of the way through, so I figured now would be a good time to stop and reflect on how its going so far.

The Current Approach

In case you missed it, what the current Stop Writing Alone Approach is for The Artist’s Way Study group, it is as follows.

Each month we commit to:

• one solid week of morning pages

• one, 1 hour Artist’s Date

• read the chapter of the month

• Do the chapter tasks as per the normal suggestion in the book. In other words, you do not have to do them all, but you should especially do the task(s) that excite you the most, and the task(s) you feel the most resistance to

• attend one Zom discussion group at the end of the month

The Current Response

Well, I am writing this post during the hour alotted for the evening March (“Week 3”/Chapter 3) discussion because I am all alone here. I was also all alone this afternon. I have some thoughts about why this is happening:

• My own inconsistency

  Part of this has been complicated by my health interrupting previous month’s meetings.

• Stretching it out leaves room for escape

  I am wondering if the stretched out approach to The Artist’s Way allows for too much room to walk away. The program can be intense and there is often lots to buck up against in terms of belief systems and disagreements with the program creator.

• Philosophical/Spiritual Mismatch Left Unexplored

  One debate that runs rampant in The Artist’s Way circles, and Week 3 is full of ammo for this one, is the discussion of “God” or a higher power at work is one that causes much doubt in people exploring the program. In a more compact program, debates and discussions are held much more frequently and issues can be aired and dealt with before all the tools are abandoned. Perhaps in offering just one hour a month for discussion leaves members thinking there is no room for this discussion and, therefore, they remain uninterested in a space where they think spirituality will be unnecessarily intertwined within their creative process

• It’s just one more thing

  Finally, and probably leader of the whole pack, The Artist’s Way feels like homework when you’ve already got too much to accomplish.

Why I Am Still Here

I am still going through the motions (though I have dropped the ball on my own Artist’s Dates — a sadly common theme with me and this program… and life) for a number of reasons:

• morning pages power

  I had been away from my morning pages practice for awhile before jumping back into this, and right now they are serving me well.

• I need to get better at Artist’s Dates again

  Until starting this up again, I hadn’t realized how horrifically I had dropped this self-care ball again. While I know my current medical mystery has kept me sort of bound from exploring so many of my personal joys, I know staying with TAW will help me to remain vigilant in the quest for finding the activities that will help me refill my creative cup

• the tasks are unearthing new responses

  My copy of TAW was purchased in the late Spring of 2016. I have used the same book over and over again ever since. I see the old underlines, highlights, stars, dog-earred pages and some previous responses to the tasks. In previous iterations of this program I would read many of the tasks and think, I remember that question and my answer is the same. That is not happening at all this time and that is very telling. In the past year/year and a half I have been feeling a shift in my soul, but I have not been able to grab hold of it. Seeing that the tasks are poking at new discoveries gives me hope that I may be able to wrangle the inner bronco bucking at my creative soul

• I have experienced nothing but success in the past with this program

  While TAW can not solve all my woes, it does tend to be the flashlight in the dark pointing me down paths I didn’t know I had wandered off. I am curious where it takes me this year.

• I’m ok going it alone

  TAW does not, like writing, require community. I have experienced it being enhanced by it, but I have also had just as amazing epiphanies sitting solo with a book. So each time I have shown up to a meeting and had no one enter the Zoom, I have given myself time to delve further into the readings, done some free writing, revisit the tasks, and done my iChing readings.

What I Have Gained So Far

Finally, I’d like to give a little space to the little gifts this round of TAW has given me so far. I do believe they are not as numerous or enormous because of the slow motion mode I am engaging with it, but I am attuned to their arrival and trying to do the work of gathering them up in my mind so I can feel the impact voer the course of the year.

• reconnection to my spiritual life line, the IChing

  This has nothing to do with Cameron’s discussion of God. It is because of a practice I added to my morning pages years ago. Instead of doing affirmations at the end of the morning pages as Cameron suggests in week one, I began doing an IChing reading. It is part of my morning pages process and, in this round of TAW I realized I hadn’t been doing those readings for awhile. I love them, they help me feel grounded and connected and, for me, that’s an important part of me.

• morning pages power

  Mentioned above in the “Why I Am Still Here” section, this is alone a huge plus. It is so funny how often I recommend the morning pages to writers in our community and out, and then I forget to do them myself! This has been a great rediscovery for me, as it often is when I reengage with TAW.

• a synchronistic save

  I will be forever grateful for this year’s experimental project’s timing. Just as we were taking off in the beginning of the year, someone very close to me, outside of this community, was struggling with enormous life stuff. Enormous. As I did everything in my power to be there for them in their time of need, I had that horribly helpless feeling of knowing I could not carry their burden for them. After one of our very long chats I walked away to get ready for a Stop Writing Alone meeting where I happened to be discussing this program which, I then realized would be perfect for this person in their time of need. That night I went to the bookstore bought them a copy and a morning pages notebook and gifted them both. It has been a game changer for them in a way I never could have been alone. If this round of TAW serves as that singlar life preserver and nothing else, it will be worth every second of time I give up to it, ten-fold.

• little, new creative bursts of inspiration

  Finally, in “week” 3 I am beginning to feel little creative bursts and epiphanies when I engage with my TAW work. It’s intriguing that this didn’t happen for me in the first two chapters, but I am feeling it now, so if it continues, I am sure I will have even more to share with you as the year goes on!

Until Next Month and WEEK FOUR!!

You are still invited to join me at any time. Feel free to hop in to any of The Artisit’s Way meetings to chat about where you are in the process. I will be releasing the April Calendar of Events shortly which will include the time(s) and date for the next meetings, but there will also be another post about the month’s activities because “Week” four of the program is a bit of a doozie, often rife with loads of debate. I will start the conversation early as I lay out my own personal plan for attack.

In the meantime, let me know how you are doing and if you are taking on (or have taken on ) The Artist’s Way.