The End of The Artist's Way
We have completed our first book. What did you think?
We are at the end - finally - of The Artist’s Way. We started it in January, gave ourselves two weeks to do each chapter, and now in June we are finished.
Some of us are incredibly thankful for the end. Whilst others might miss the routine. Some might not have even reached the end - if this is you please don’t give yourself a hard time. It felt like a BIG commitment.
I started The Artist’s Way a little bit sceptical, but I put my head down, read the chapters, wrote my morning pages, went on artist dates, and completed the exercises.
There were some really positive moments when I read through the chapters. Chapter Two was a good one (for me) as it talked about friendships and ‘crazymakers’. I could identify with so much of it and I explored it in more detail with the essay: Toxic Friendships and Their Impact on Your Creative Mindset.
When we were part way through chapter six I was annoyed. I hadn’t had any synchronicity, I was crying a lot and I was fed up. Plus I had no urge to write AT ALL. I mean, looking back, this could have had something to do with the anxiety I’ve just been diagnosed with, but it was also consistent with what Julia said might happen. This is what I wrote:
The Artist’s Way has taken over my life. Not just in the time taken to read the chapters, make notes, do the exercises, artist date, and morning pages - plus to write all this up for my Substack (and record the occasional video). BUT - it’s the processing time: the decisions I have to make, the answers I have to give, the fitting of it all in, the process of doing all the above having a massive impact on my creativity: the fogginess, the paralysis, the confusion, the new-found knowledge that I want to do X or Y leading to the extra pressure I put on myself to do it. Thus getting blocked and not wanting to do it because IT’S TOO MUCH PRESSURE.
If I wasn’t doing this for Substack I would have given this up by now [EDIT: I am so happy I AM doing this on my Substack for this very reason]. Although I’ve talked about things working for me from The Artist’s Way in the past with insights and so on - right now I feel like I haven’t got anywhere.
Right now I’m angry at the time it is taking me, and how it has put me off writing and creating videos (I love creating on YouTube so what’s that all about?!)
I’m not currently best friends with The Artist’s Way or with Julia Cameron.
By the time we’d moved onto chapter seven, though, I was feeling better. More positive. Plus I was starting to look forward to sitting at my desk.
And part way during Chapter Seven, I only went and finished my non-fiction book proposal. A book proposal that had taken me the best part of four years to summon the courage to complete.
Part way during chapter eight I got angry and sweary in my morning pages and I also had a revelation. Despite going on a number of artist’s dates I still wasn’t refilling my creative well enough. I needed to read more. Stop scrolling and read fiction. Which I did and I’ve read a large number of books since then. I believe this has had a significant impact on my writing, it’s encouraged me back to my desk and I’m writing so much more lately.
After that though, despite Julia calling me out, as she did during chapter eight, I’d had enough. I couldn’t take in much more of what she was saying in the following chapters. I felt saturated. I’d had enough with the introspection and wanted to get on with things. My attention wandered. I no longer has any interest in the exercises. But I continued with my morning pages - even though they’d become last thing at night pages and were sometimes only ten lines long - and continued to read fiction as my ‘date’. Plus I went to see Taylor Swift which was an amazing artist date! The last big piece of positive news was that I was returning to write regularly.
Quite honestly, I don’t know what I expected from The Artist’s Way. I felt the introductory pages promised a lot. And the first few chapters made some lightbulbs go off in my head. In terms of my writing mindset I feel it is a little more robust than what it was. I’m sure it helped me finish my book proposal, although there were other factors involved. And it’s perhaps helped me get back my love of writing. I’ve got a number of project ideas that I’d like to work on and I’ve printed out my novel - which has been gathering dust on my hard drive for years - with the intention of getting that finished soon.
But, it did feel like A LOT. The reading, the exercises, the morning pages and the dates. Julia suggests it takes 30 - 60 minutes a day. That’s quite a lot of time. But I think it’s more than that. Morning pages alone could take thirty minutes. The morning pages also affected my regular journaling in my writing journal. This is a different type of journaling where I would flesh out ideas, or write about my creative direction or things like quotes that have stood out for me. I would reflect and decorate the notebook with washi tape and draw big letters that I would colour in…and I’ve done very little of that recently. And I miss it.
I will also say that I’m fairly woo and not anti-God at all. But, there was a lot of it. And I don’t quite know how I feel about it except to say I sometimes found it too much. And I still don’t know if I’ve experienced synchronicity.
So, what did you think? Was The Artist’s Way worth doing? Did you hang on until the end or give up part way through? (No judgement, I wanted to do that myself!) Did you have any life-changing situations? Will you carry on with morning pages and the artist dates?
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I did AW in the 12 weeks because the thought of it going on for 24 made me scream internally - so it's been a while since I finished it, but I recognise a lot of what you note here. It did feel like a bit of a slog for quite a lot of the time, with the odd flash of OH, I SEE! along the way.
I am dropping in and out of doing the morning pages, they do seem to help excavate the limiting beliefs and such (but I am doing other work around that as well, so it's hard to tell what's having the effect).
I remain absolutely AWFUL at doing artist dates, why? I don't know - I fell like I have the time, but then it slips away - it's most likely a commitment thing. However I too have gone back to reading (and listening to, which is new!) a lot of fiction and it is really fun.
What I did have a real problem with was every time Julia Cameron mentioned "God" it brought me up short and *out of the work* . I am very much not anti-spirituality and if God is your thing then go for it, but it's not for me (other things are for me). Even when I crossed out "God" and changed it to e.g. "The Universe", it got in the way.
I still don't get synchronicity!
I probably wouldn't do the whole AW again but I did come out of it thinking a regular examination of 'where I am and where I want to be headed' would be valuable, so I may use some of the exercises again, and keep up with some form of journalling.
The end of TAW could not come soon enough for me. I did finish the book and a large selection of the tasks.
I started off with excitement and the thought that I would happily complete every bit of the program and at the end my novel would be finished (or nearly finished) and I would have published multiple post to substack.
The reality
Morning pages, Artist dates, and tasks that challenged me to the core, left me wrung out. I felt anything but creative during this process. No Substack posts and minimal work on my novel.
Around Chapter 8- I went out one night (it was a full moon) and burned all of my morning pages. After that I just didn't religiously attend to them. I started to focus my energy more on artist dates. Doing watercolor painting and creative cooking both with others and on my own.
After an illness in April, and getting behind I nearly quite all together. I did a chapter a week in May and finished the book on May 28th
I'm happy I completed the book and the majority of the task. It was a full time job. I could not manage additional creativity while doing this program.
Now that I have finished TAW I feel I have additional tools for when my creative life gets stuck or sluggish.
I wrote an artist prayer and I read it nearly every day. I ask myself questions and hand write pages to see what answers appear. I play more. I'm being kinder to myself. Watching for negative self talk. I learned a lot about my creative self, what works and what definitely doesn't work.
I do know that had I not committed here in this group to participate I wouldn't have finished. At time peer pressure is a good thing 😂(even if that pressure is only in your own mind)
Helen I want to thank you once again for taking us along with you on this journey, even if at times we had tantrums.
I'm sure I will reflect on this adventure for years to come. I may even decide to repeat parts. For now I am rejoicing that it is finished.