Artist's Way Lessons

Last September I joined a group who was committed to working through Julia Cameron's book The Artist's Way. Many of the exercises were designed to help artists who felt stuck or ineffective, and I couldn't relate to that feeling. I've often felt I had an abundance of ideas and a dearth of time to execute them. However, I did most of the exercises, and the most valuable has been the Morning Pages. I have been writing them for the past year with great success. For me, the pages are a concrete tool to help me get some ideas, problems, issues, and patterns onto the page. I tend to live in my thoughts, which can lead to in-action while I process and process. Writing every day has been a powerful way to see new alternatives, and push myself to think of other solutions that I just wouldn't get to if I weren't writing them down.

I found the Morning Pages a terrific way to record inspirations, write through problems, and create clarity on some issues. The surprise to me has been in the creativity that explodes out of the writing. I've felt very successful in achieving goals in the past, but the satisfaction I've gotten through writing about my creative process has brought out even better ideas. As I look back over the past year, I've seen development in my skills, and the Morning Pages have helped me make connections between ideas to make the content of my work even richer.