This whole crazymakers and poisonous playmates really hasn't aged well. The lack of nuance!
On one hand, I agree with you, what a privileged take to say "well, if you're in a shitty situation, it because you want it." Wow, OK, Julia I-bought-a-house-in-the-Hollywood-hills Cameron.
And on the other hand, I find the lack of nuance when she talks about people getting in our creative's way so black & white. Your children might get in the way, because they're needy, because they're CHILDREN. It doesn't make them abusers. But that's also true for other relationships. At a time where it's very trendy to use pop psychology and therapy speak like "protecting my peace," to avoid doing work to foster complex, rich relationships... I find that potentially damaging.
And I say that as someone who can be a little too radical, sometimes, when it comes to protecting myself. (ah, trauma).
I find the part about attention particularly touching because, for once, she goes beyond men and god: animals and plants are her friends, and THAT I can relate to.
Anyway, I'm off to my artist date. Thanks for this space, Clare!
Yes! The nuance is so important. The people who interrupt our creative work do so for all kinds of reasons and if we want to find our way through that challenge, we need to be able to hold the complexity of their reasons. Nuance is essential and this chapter is really lacking in that department.
Love what you said about animals and plants too! The God stuff is a lot for me, and it was nice to see her foreground the natural world for a change!
Hope the Artist Date went well. I can't wait to hear all about it 💕
I think maybe the singlemost practice that has improved my writing is paying attention to external, sensory details. I've also noticed it's a sort of mindfulness exercise, since I am more attuned to the moment rather than thinking about the past or future. It grounds me and makes my writing clearer, more accessible, and (I think) more powerful.
It's incredibly powerful, isn't it Jeannie? If I could go back in time to my former self, this is the one practice I'd advise myself to develop: get good at deeply observing the world in all it's mystery and complexity. 💕
I feel the same, Jeannie! And it makes me realize just how much of life I have missed out on and forgotten by not paying attention. Which goes along with trauma recovery - recovering that ability to be fully in the world at any one moment is something I am still working on.
Me too! I still grieve the years I lost in a trauma tailspin, and struggle not to slip into those old patterns especially when life gets difficult. It's why this section resonates so much with me, I think. Being able to feel present in my life has never been easy for me.
YES! I agree, Tracey—being fully present is really hard to do when you are in the thick of unhealed trauma. I hesitate to use that phrase—unhealed trauma—because I know it is a lifelong endeavor, and one is never fully “healed,” but we can “recover” from it. It is a process. All of life is, I guess, right?
I definitely agree that what's good for creative recovery is good for recovering from trauma! It's my experience, too. And why is that? I think creative recovery is basically recovering your authentic self, bringing her out from the rubble of self-protection strategies you HAD to acquire.
I'm sending you a hug for those rejections! Those can feel especially hurtful when the work comes from your heart. I'm currently looking for a job and I get SO many rejection letter, I have an idea how it feels. I hope you took care of yourself🩷
I did take care of myself, though it does sting. Sometimes I read about other writers who diligently submit their stories 10, 15, 30, 50 times before they're published. I really admire their consistency, and I strive to emulate it but when all the rejections arrive at once, it does make me reconsider if my work is "good enough". I usually try to give myself a moment to be hurt, before returning to the writing with fresh eyes. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. But I know for sure that I won't give up.
Best of luck with your job hunting - that can also be a really vulnerable process. I hope you are taking care of yourself through all the ups and downs. In Ireland, we have a saying that "what's for you won't pass you" which means that the right opportunity won't pass you by. In my experience, that's been very true, though it doesn't always alleviate the challenges of the search. I am sending you lots of luck 💕
Aaawww thank you for that saying, I’m in tears! I hope I’ll pass my dream and she wants me too!
I can garantuee you that your work is amazing!!!! It is really hard to start out and you would also never know what people are looking for when they are inviting submissions. Keep going🩷🩷
Interesting Clare - I found the crazymakers part one of the most useful in the book. It is one that I keep going back to actually - as I encounter these sorts of people in my life. I have lots of nuanced understanding of trauma and abuse, through lots of therapy and reading, but sometimes I find this simplistic language super helpful to explain a pattern someone is shaping.
I like the specificness of how she describes these individuals. I don't see it as a diagnosis but a lens through which to understand the dynamics around you and why your creative (or other) project might not be progressing within those dynamics. I also see it as a way to put the lens back on yourself - not to blame you - but to understand why you might be pulled into those sort of dynamics and what (cheap) payoffs you get from playing a role in them. Particularly, so you can pull that energy out and pull it back into your art.
I am usually super triggered by un-trauma aware language, so I went back to read again, to see if - with time - this no longer resonated with me - but I still like it. I think it serves a purpose focused around unblocking creativity and I am ok with that.
Would love to know more about your opinion on this. It is interesting reading the book with a trauma lens and thinking about what serves recovery. I enjoyed reading your ideas on this - even if mine differ!
This is so interesting, Catriona! I'm so glad that you found this chapter useful. You're right that simple language/concepts sometimes have a way of reaching us in a way that more academic ideas can't. That's also been very true for me.
My personal story also doesn't overlap much with the dynamics that book describes. Don't get me wrong - I've met plenty of crazy makers and they've impacted my life in all kinds of destructive ways but my creative life has been largely untouched by them. This is probably because I'm a writer who mostly works alone in a room, but I wonder if my personal experience made this chapter feel more unbalanced to me. Cameron is more focused on the people who sabotage our work, while I've had to grapple more with self-sabotage. My biggest impediment to creative work has always been myself, I think.
I think my perspective is also quite rooted in wanting to protect other people. As I read, I was imagining people I know and thinking how they might absorb it as critical/victim blamey and I want to protect them from that. In general, our world is so quick to blame people who are targeted by abusers so I think I'm hyper-sensitive to anything that's un-nuanced about these dynamics.
I really appreciate you sharing your perspective though, Catriona. We all come to this material from different points of view, and I enjoyed learning more about how this chapter landed for you. 💕
This is my experience as well, at least since adulthood, “Cameron is more focused on the people who sabotage our work, while I've had to grapple more with self-sabotage. My biggest impediment to creative work has always been myself, I think.”
The whole crazymaker section did not land well with me, beginning with the language of “crazymaker” itself. It’s extremely insensitive and ableist in my opinion and made it very difficult for me to read. I think it would’ve been much more useful and productive had she described behaviors and actions of others that may contribute to blocked creativity rather than framing people in this essentialist way (I.e. she designates people as crazymakers rather than behaviours of others that can thwart your creativity).
I have a hard time taking anything useful from an author who triggers me - and she triggers me in many ways with her ableist language, all the God references, and even framing some of what she says as absolute fact, instead of her own opinion. I’m actually working on a post about my issues with the self-help book industry and I see some of them popping up here.
But I do find value in the morning pages and in paying attention, and will continue on for now hoping for some good bits - or maybe this will lead to a critical reflection on the process and the book. I should say I do find some of her points useful, like “ the essential element in nurturing our creativity, lies in nurturing ourselves.”
Thanks for sharing this, Tracey. You've managed to put into words what felt so 'ick' to me about this section, though I wasn't sure if I was the only one who felt that way.
I think The Artist's Way has the potential to be incredibly powerful for people, but it's not without its (significant!) flaws. The insensitive, ableist language, the God stuff, how strident she is in parts in conveying what is ultimately her own experience (as both a creative person & a teacher) as indisputable fact....
In general, I try to protect myself from writers/teachers who aren't trauma informed. I find myself having to sort through their work to find what could actually be useful for me, and what is a bunch of uninterrogated bigotry and assumptions. Usually, it's just not worth the bother. Doing The Artist's Way last year, I found that it was worth it. There was enough good in this process that (for me!) it was worth trying to find my way through all the rest of it. Doing it in community was also so important for me! It helped to feel that I wasn't the only one struggling with the material, and not in the ways I think Cameron intended.
I'm looking forward to reading your piece on self-help books whenever it's ready. (Please share the link when it's live, so I can read it!) I do think that modern publishing standards would require Cameron to add more nuance and complexity to this book if it were to be published today, so perhaps that's some evidence of progress? I don't know.
Clare, it is only because of your approach to the Artist's Way that I feel safe to continue on with it at all, so thank you!
The self-help piece I'm writing was instigated by a recent book filled with absolutes (and so much ableism) so I'm not sure about today's publishing standards being very progressive.
eesh, that sounds bad. I think you might be right about today's publishing standards Tracey. I like to think that the publishing industry is more inclusive than it used to be, but when I reflect on it, there's actually not a whole lot of evidence to support that view.
I am so glad that you're getting something from this community exploration of The Artist's Way, Tracey. I think it's really important that we make the material work for us, rather than the other way around 💕
I'm glad to find everyone here and the rich, insightful comments. I too, like others, rankled and glossed in parts of the chapter, but with the weekend that was in it, happily took myself from work and other distractions to my devotions. I do apologise in advance, that my comments may lack finesse or a 'finish' - thoughts spoken aloud aren't always cohesive, or pithy. And I'm hoping that might be the point, for me.
Agreed, very much, on some of the outdated language. And how much of that would be a problem for me and probably one of the reasons why I've never read the book. And that probably sounds brutal. And so I don't want to light on what I could easily make many rabbit holes from.
Instead, I took the greatest delight in finding May Sarton in these pages, I'd a sorrow-moment a couple months back thinking that I'd lost one her books, and it was an again-reminder of the unbiased attention and the spirit found there, gifts in minutia and multitudes and I was glad to be reminded again of that kind of generosity. And I was glad for the refresh on the word transfusion.
While my skeptic was out doing other things, I carried on reading and made more serious notes on safe people and how that is an area I am tending, responsibly; it's a tender spot and one in transition and I don't think I know yet how much or how little people will share here, myself included. It has had more than a significant impact and I feel as if I'm facing it eye-to-eye versus sideways, and for that I do feel as sense of things airing. But it's a little scary, too. Because I have a lot on, I'm careful I think I take the time to make the space to write more on the latter matters, so there's an unspoken agreement with myself, on intentionality.
(Apologies for the late entry here, a toss up between early morning or later this evening, but the mourning pages!)
While I'm not mad about using the word crazymaker, it took me a moment to metabolise and reflect. A related change in relation to the latter that I didn't share last week but will now- in the first chapter Cameron says she speaks to herself as little Julia in her entries, where she seeks the wisdom via the pen/page. I didn't like at all referring to myself in third person much less as little or otherwise, but I did play with a few things & have kept Listening Michelle as a form of address to use not so much the morning pages but the other moments in the pages and if I'm trying to figure something out : I'm not sure what it is, when I address listening Michelle, it's a deeper inscape, as if going down the few steps further. I'm glad I made the quiet effort, even if I've felt a little crazy for it, it's given a new acoustic to the cultivation of safety in myself. And trust.
I have made the effort to incorporate Claire's version of page 3, and have found if I start to read one of the sentences, I'll read them all - I've kept a notecard near the kettle and it does give a bit of electricity if I'm feeling blahblahblah.
I've a date set for 7pm tomorrow, and I'm excited. I'm looking forward to it.
I'll ruin the magic if I say ... will report next week, DO laugh.
Like others, I paired the life pie and ten tiny changes as they seemed to go hand-in-hand and the tiny changes has been illuminating in its own way. When I thought of it again with this morning's pages, I thought of the word momentum and perhaps it's the traction that the tiny changes bring. I'd hoped to have a lash off the imaginary life/lives between yesterday and today, but didn't.
I did, though, peek at a mss in progress. last night, (until I get through this current work period, I'd given myself the boot regarding any mss.work - but habits ... ) I don't quite know why I did this last night and I was so tired - but look I did - as if I had a new pair of glasses, did I think I'd see or hear better? Oh, do laugh.
(A small but significant revision was made)
I did set a goal from one of the ten tiny changes this week, and am hopeful that I meet it and feel some sense of being satisfied.
This is, I think, the only book I have had zero desire to thumb through, or read through in one go - it feels a prescription of some sort, and I don't want to analyse. I'm reading the chapters as we go, and without the rest of you here I'm not sure that would be so, all to say -glad of the company and the insights others are gleaning.
As ever, thanks Clare for making the space & for everyone noting as we go.
I'm always happy to read your updates! I'm glad to hear that you found a way to engage with the material, despite some of the outdated language. Reflecting on 'safe people' is a really good exercise, I think.
In terms of what we share here, folks generally talk about their experiences through the lens of creativity rather than the specifics of their lives. I think that helps our contributions to be more helpful for others who might not share your exact life experience, but know what it means to feel vulnerable when they sit down to create.
Best of luck with your tasks this week - I'm looking forward to doing them myself too! And I agree when you talk about this book as being like a prescription. I've never read it through, and think it would be quite overwhelming to swallow it whole like that. The weekly chapter (& regular breaks) makes it feel much more manageable to me.
Thanks for being here Michelle, and congratulations on all your work so far! We're doing this! 💕
You're very welcome to join, Sandi 💕 We will be talking about The Artist's Way and our experiences of the process (morning pages, artist dates etc), but if that sounds interesting to you, it'd be lovely to see you. I'll DM you the details now 💕
Hi Rai, sorry for the confusion! Apparently, Ireland uses Irish Standard Time during the summer months and GMT during the Winter months. I had no idea! We are always in the same time zone as the UK, so it'll be 1pm on Sunday, March 30th. I'll update the post now too. Let me know if you'd like to come along and I'll forward the details 💕
Hi, Clare. Just checking that the virtual meet up will take place today? Apologies, a bit scatterbrained & if I've missed a beat in a place or two, my apologies again. Speak soon, Michelle
Hi Clare and community, I read Week 2 and got a lot out of it as well, and what stayed with me this round with Artist's Way (I've had several over the past 30 years), was ATTENTION, and Clare, I do exactly as you describe here: "When I’m on the bus or waiting to order at a restaurant or on a walk, I try to absorb the idiosyncrasies of the world so that I might be able to capture them in language." Yes! I am now playing over at Writing in the Dark with Jeannine Ouellette (my favorite writing home on Substack and the world) with an intensive based on Ross Gay's Book of Delights which I can't recommend enough. It's the result of his pledge to write a short essayette for each day of the year of something that delighted him. These are all about paying attention, and Jeannine has turned them into a wonderful learning opportunity for writers to deepen their craft. And so of course, when Jane Cameron writes about delight, too, I am all ears: "The quality of life is in proportion, always, to the capacity for delight. The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention." I also resonated with "More than anything, attention is an act of connection," which is what you are getting at Clare with how you absorb the world around you and try to capture it in language. The account of her grandmother's way of paying attention was moving and lovely. I also liked her passage "I like to think of the mind as a room." Powerful! I want to let more of those ideas into my room, to be more daring, to go deeper, to tell the truths that I may have been circling....to find emotional resonance in my fictional characters by letting that door of my mind's room swing wide open, let all the air in. I think the morning pages/artist's date/exercises are a way to do that. As she says, "Creative recovery is an exercise in open-mindedness." A solo artist's date is a bit challenging for me right now, having suffered a sudden debilitating low-back pain issue, which I've never had before (at least to this degree) but certainly a short walk down to the Mediterranean (I am fortunate enough to have just moved to Barcelona last month and live in the town of Badalona a few minutes walk from the sea) is something I can and will do. I also plan to take myself on an artist's date to the Badalona Museum, as this charming Catalan town of 200,000 people is built on Roman ruins and it will be interesting to find out more (using my google translate App as I don't speak Catalan and am still learning Spanish). As for exercises, I will do the Life Pie, too, also categorize my time spend, I think, and 20 things I enjoy doing, which I'll tack to my fridge door--and focus on the kinds of things I can do now as I heal from the back injury. So much to discover in this new place I'm living. It doesn't require me to go far, because it's all new. Finally, I'd love to be part of the March 30 zoom call.
Thanks for sharing this little snippet of your experience, Amy.
I'm also a big fan of Writing in the Dark, and Ross Gay's wonderful books of delight.
Your Artist Dates sound amazing. Barcelona is such a beautiful city and I hope you're starting to feel at home there? (It's grey in Dublin today, so am perhaps a little jealous too!)
I'm sorry to hear that your back has been giving you trouble. I hope you'll be able to listen to your body as it heals, and who knows maybe it will have some creative lessons to teach you?
I would love to see you at our virtual gathering. I'll DM you the meeting details now 💕
A quick search tells me 1pm GMT is 9am Toronto time, but I have no idea when you're changing to summer time, but I'm always so lost about this (thanks, dyscalculia).
If you send me the link in private, 'll check what time it is in Dublin the night before, and see if I manage to be ready for 8 or 9am. Does that work?
Gah, turns out I am awful at figuring out time zones! Sorry for the confusion Albe. I'll DM you the join link now and hopefully you'll be able to join us 💕
This whole crazymakers and poisonous playmates really hasn't aged well. The lack of nuance!
On one hand, I agree with you, what a privileged take to say "well, if you're in a shitty situation, it because you want it." Wow, OK, Julia I-bought-a-house-in-the-Hollywood-hills Cameron.
And on the other hand, I find the lack of nuance when she talks about people getting in our creative's way so black & white. Your children might get in the way, because they're needy, because they're CHILDREN. It doesn't make them abusers. But that's also true for other relationships. At a time where it's very trendy to use pop psychology and therapy speak like "protecting my peace," to avoid doing work to foster complex, rich relationships... I find that potentially damaging.
And I say that as someone who can be a little too radical, sometimes, when it comes to protecting myself. (ah, trauma).
I find the part about attention particularly touching because, for once, she goes beyond men and god: animals and plants are her friends, and THAT I can relate to.
Anyway, I'm off to my artist date. Thanks for this space, Clare!
Yes! The nuance is so important. The people who interrupt our creative work do so for all kinds of reasons and if we want to find our way through that challenge, we need to be able to hold the complexity of their reasons. Nuance is essential and this chapter is really lacking in that department.
Love what you said about animals and plants too! The God stuff is a lot for me, and it was nice to see her foreground the natural world for a change!
Hope the Artist Date went well. I can't wait to hear all about it 💕
Clare,
I think maybe the singlemost practice that has improved my writing is paying attention to external, sensory details. I've also noticed it's a sort of mindfulness exercise, since I am more attuned to the moment rather than thinking about the past or future. It grounds me and makes my writing clearer, more accessible, and (I think) more powerful.
It's incredibly powerful, isn't it Jeannie? If I could go back in time to my former self, this is the one practice I'd advise myself to develop: get good at deeply observing the world in all it's mystery and complexity. 💕
Yes! I can tell it really helps me with trauma recovery, too—paying attention to the details of THIS moment in time. Very grounding.
I feel the same, Jeannie! And it makes me realize just how much of life I have missed out on and forgotten by not paying attention. Which goes along with trauma recovery - recovering that ability to be fully in the world at any one moment is something I am still working on.
Me too! I still grieve the years I lost in a trauma tailspin, and struggle not to slip into those old patterns especially when life gets difficult. It's why this section resonates so much with me, I think. Being able to feel present in my life has never been easy for me.
YES! I agree, Tracey—being fully present is really hard to do when you are in the thick of unhealed trauma. I hesitate to use that phrase—unhealed trauma—because I know it is a lifelong endeavor, and one is never fully “healed,” but we can “recover” from it. It is a process. All of life is, I guess, right?
Is there still time for me to join! Oh my gosh, this feels like it was made for me
Absolutely! Welcome aboard Bee. 💕 I'd love to hear how you get on with your Morning Pages & Artist's Dates.
I definitely agree that what's good for creative recovery is good for recovering from trauma! It's my experience, too. And why is that? I think creative recovery is basically recovering your authentic self, bringing her out from the rubble of self-protection strategies you HAD to acquire.
I'm sending you a hug for those rejections! Those can feel especially hurtful when the work comes from your heart. I'm currently looking for a job and I get SO many rejection letter, I have an idea how it feels. I hope you took care of yourself🩷
Thank you my friend 💕
I did take care of myself, though it does sting. Sometimes I read about other writers who diligently submit their stories 10, 15, 30, 50 times before they're published. I really admire their consistency, and I strive to emulate it but when all the rejections arrive at once, it does make me reconsider if my work is "good enough". I usually try to give myself a moment to be hurt, before returning to the writing with fresh eyes. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. But I know for sure that I won't give up.
Best of luck with your job hunting - that can also be a really vulnerable process. I hope you are taking care of yourself through all the ups and downs. In Ireland, we have a saying that "what's for you won't pass you" which means that the right opportunity won't pass you by. In my experience, that's been very true, though it doesn't always alleviate the challenges of the search. I am sending you lots of luck 💕
Aaawww thank you for that saying, I’m in tears! I hope I’ll pass my dream and she wants me too!
I can garantuee you that your work is amazing!!!! It is really hard to start out and you would also never know what people are looking for when they are inviting submissions. Keep going🩷🩷
Let's keep going together my friend 💕 💕
so excited to find this just as I'm entering week 2 myself!
Amazing! Welcome aboard Noah. I'm excited to hear how you're getting on so far! 💕
Interesting Clare - I found the crazymakers part one of the most useful in the book. It is one that I keep going back to actually - as I encounter these sorts of people in my life. I have lots of nuanced understanding of trauma and abuse, through lots of therapy and reading, but sometimes I find this simplistic language super helpful to explain a pattern someone is shaping.
I like the specificness of how she describes these individuals. I don't see it as a diagnosis but a lens through which to understand the dynamics around you and why your creative (or other) project might not be progressing within those dynamics. I also see it as a way to put the lens back on yourself - not to blame you - but to understand why you might be pulled into those sort of dynamics and what (cheap) payoffs you get from playing a role in them. Particularly, so you can pull that energy out and pull it back into your art.
I am usually super triggered by un-trauma aware language, so I went back to read again, to see if - with time - this no longer resonated with me - but I still like it. I think it serves a purpose focused around unblocking creativity and I am ok with that.
Would love to know more about your opinion on this. It is interesting reading the book with a trauma lens and thinking about what serves recovery. I enjoyed reading your ideas on this - even if mine differ!
This is so interesting, Catriona! I'm so glad that you found this chapter useful. You're right that simple language/concepts sometimes have a way of reaching us in a way that more academic ideas can't. That's also been very true for me.
My personal story also doesn't overlap much with the dynamics that book describes. Don't get me wrong - I've met plenty of crazy makers and they've impacted my life in all kinds of destructive ways but my creative life has been largely untouched by them. This is probably because I'm a writer who mostly works alone in a room, but I wonder if my personal experience made this chapter feel more unbalanced to me. Cameron is more focused on the people who sabotage our work, while I've had to grapple more with self-sabotage. My biggest impediment to creative work has always been myself, I think.
I think my perspective is also quite rooted in wanting to protect other people. As I read, I was imagining people I know and thinking how they might absorb it as critical/victim blamey and I want to protect them from that. In general, our world is so quick to blame people who are targeted by abusers so I think I'm hyper-sensitive to anything that's un-nuanced about these dynamics.
I really appreciate you sharing your perspective though, Catriona. We all come to this material from different points of view, and I enjoyed learning more about how this chapter landed for you. 💕
This is my experience as well, at least since adulthood, “Cameron is more focused on the people who sabotage our work, while I've had to grapple more with self-sabotage. My biggest impediment to creative work has always been myself, I think.”
The whole crazymaker section did not land well with me, beginning with the language of “crazymaker” itself. It’s extremely insensitive and ableist in my opinion and made it very difficult for me to read. I think it would’ve been much more useful and productive had she described behaviors and actions of others that may contribute to blocked creativity rather than framing people in this essentialist way (I.e. she designates people as crazymakers rather than behaviours of others that can thwart your creativity).
I have a hard time taking anything useful from an author who triggers me - and she triggers me in many ways with her ableist language, all the God references, and even framing some of what she says as absolute fact, instead of her own opinion. I’m actually working on a post about my issues with the self-help book industry and I see some of them popping up here.
But I do find value in the morning pages and in paying attention, and will continue on for now hoping for some good bits - or maybe this will lead to a critical reflection on the process and the book. I should say I do find some of her points useful, like “ the essential element in nurturing our creativity, lies in nurturing ourselves.”
Thanks for sharing this, Tracey. You've managed to put into words what felt so 'ick' to me about this section, though I wasn't sure if I was the only one who felt that way.
I think The Artist's Way has the potential to be incredibly powerful for people, but it's not without its (significant!) flaws. The insensitive, ableist language, the God stuff, how strident she is in parts in conveying what is ultimately her own experience (as both a creative person & a teacher) as indisputable fact....
In general, I try to protect myself from writers/teachers who aren't trauma informed. I find myself having to sort through their work to find what could actually be useful for me, and what is a bunch of uninterrogated bigotry and assumptions. Usually, it's just not worth the bother. Doing The Artist's Way last year, I found that it was worth it. There was enough good in this process that (for me!) it was worth trying to find my way through all the rest of it. Doing it in community was also so important for me! It helped to feel that I wasn't the only one struggling with the material, and not in the ways I think Cameron intended.
I'm looking forward to reading your piece on self-help books whenever it's ready. (Please share the link when it's live, so I can read it!) I do think that modern publishing standards would require Cameron to add more nuance and complexity to this book if it were to be published today, so perhaps that's some evidence of progress? I don't know.
Clare, it is only because of your approach to the Artist's Way that I feel safe to continue on with it at all, so thank you!
The self-help piece I'm writing was instigated by a recent book filled with absolutes (and so much ableism) so I'm not sure about today's publishing standards being very progressive.
eesh, that sounds bad. I think you might be right about today's publishing standards Tracey. I like to think that the publishing industry is more inclusive than it used to be, but when I reflect on it, there's actually not a whole lot of evidence to support that view.
I am so glad that you're getting something from this community exploration of The Artist's Way, Tracey. I think it's really important that we make the material work for us, rather than the other way around 💕
Hi, Ladies.
I'm glad to find everyone here and the rich, insightful comments. I too, like others, rankled and glossed in parts of the chapter, but with the weekend that was in it, happily took myself from work and other distractions to my devotions. I do apologise in advance, that my comments may lack finesse or a 'finish' - thoughts spoken aloud aren't always cohesive, or pithy. And I'm hoping that might be the point, for me.
Agreed, very much, on some of the outdated language. And how much of that would be a problem for me and probably one of the reasons why I've never read the book. And that probably sounds brutal. And so I don't want to light on what I could easily make many rabbit holes from.
Instead, I took the greatest delight in finding May Sarton in these pages, I'd a sorrow-moment a couple months back thinking that I'd lost one her books, and it was an again-reminder of the unbiased attention and the spirit found there, gifts in minutia and multitudes and I was glad to be reminded again of that kind of generosity. And I was glad for the refresh on the word transfusion.
While my skeptic was out doing other things, I carried on reading and made more serious notes on safe people and how that is an area I am tending, responsibly; it's a tender spot and one in transition and I don't think I know yet how much or how little people will share here, myself included. It has had more than a significant impact and I feel as if I'm facing it eye-to-eye versus sideways, and for that I do feel as sense of things airing. But it's a little scary, too. Because I have a lot on, I'm careful I think I take the time to make the space to write more on the latter matters, so there's an unspoken agreement with myself, on intentionality.
(Apologies for the late entry here, a toss up between early morning or later this evening, but the mourning pages!)
While I'm not mad about using the word crazymaker, it took me a moment to metabolise and reflect. A related change in relation to the latter that I didn't share last week but will now- in the first chapter Cameron says she speaks to herself as little Julia in her entries, where she seeks the wisdom via the pen/page. I didn't like at all referring to myself in third person much less as little or otherwise, but I did play with a few things & have kept Listening Michelle as a form of address to use not so much the morning pages but the other moments in the pages and if I'm trying to figure something out : I'm not sure what it is, when I address listening Michelle, it's a deeper inscape, as if going down the few steps further. I'm glad I made the quiet effort, even if I've felt a little crazy for it, it's given a new acoustic to the cultivation of safety in myself. And trust.
I have made the effort to incorporate Claire's version of page 3, and have found if I start to read one of the sentences, I'll read them all - I've kept a notecard near the kettle and it does give a bit of electricity if I'm feeling blahblahblah.
I've a date set for 7pm tomorrow, and I'm excited. I'm looking forward to it.
I'll ruin the magic if I say ... will report next week, DO laugh.
Like others, I paired the life pie and ten tiny changes as they seemed to go hand-in-hand and the tiny changes has been illuminating in its own way. When I thought of it again with this morning's pages, I thought of the word momentum and perhaps it's the traction that the tiny changes bring. I'd hoped to have a lash off the imaginary life/lives between yesterday and today, but didn't.
I did, though, peek at a mss in progress. last night, (until I get through this current work period, I'd given myself the boot regarding any mss.work - but habits ... ) I don't quite know why I did this last night and I was so tired - but look I did - as if I had a new pair of glasses, did I think I'd see or hear better? Oh, do laugh.
(A small but significant revision was made)
I did set a goal from one of the ten tiny changes this week, and am hopeful that I meet it and feel some sense of being satisfied.
This is, I think, the only book I have had zero desire to thumb through, or read through in one go - it feels a prescription of some sort, and I don't want to analyse. I'm reading the chapters as we go, and without the rest of you here I'm not sure that would be so, all to say -glad of the company and the insights others are gleaning.
As ever, thanks Clare for making the space & for everyone noting as we go.
Goodnesses in the meantime.
Michelle
Hi Michelle,
I'm always happy to read your updates! I'm glad to hear that you found a way to engage with the material, despite some of the outdated language. Reflecting on 'safe people' is a really good exercise, I think.
In terms of what we share here, folks generally talk about their experiences through the lens of creativity rather than the specifics of their lives. I think that helps our contributions to be more helpful for others who might not share your exact life experience, but know what it means to feel vulnerable when they sit down to create.
Best of luck with your tasks this week - I'm looking forward to doing them myself too! And I agree when you talk about this book as being like a prescription. I've never read it through, and think it would be quite overwhelming to swallow it whole like that. The weekly chapter (& regular breaks) makes it feel much more manageable to me.
Thanks for being here Michelle, and congratulations on all your work so far! We're doing this! 💕
I’d love to hang out. Is it just for those doing the Artist’s Way atm? (I’m not, but would love to otherwise join.)
You're very welcome to join, Sandi 💕 We will be talking about The Artist's Way and our experiences of the process (morning pages, artist dates etc), but if that sounds interesting to you, it'd be lovely to see you. I'll DM you the details now 💕
It does! I’ve done some of the process before. (I think I once managed a whole month or two of Morning Pages on a daily basis?)
Thank you for the invitation. Will look forward to seeing you! 💕
Really looking forward to seeing you too Sandi 💕
The rest of the UK will have changed to BST that Sunday morning. Does Dublin keep GMT?
Hi Rai, sorry for the confusion! Apparently, Ireland uses Irish Standard Time during the summer months and GMT during the Winter months. I had no idea! We are always in the same time zone as the UK, so it'll be 1pm on Sunday, March 30th. I'll update the post now too. Let me know if you'd like to come along and I'll forward the details 💕
Hi, Clare. Just checking that the virtual meet up will take place today? Apologies, a bit scatterbrained & if I've missed a beat in a place or two, my apologies again. Speak soon, Michelle
Hi Michelle, Yes, we're meeting at 1pm. I'll share the details with you now 💕
Hi Clare and community, I read Week 2 and got a lot out of it as well, and what stayed with me this round with Artist's Way (I've had several over the past 30 years), was ATTENTION, and Clare, I do exactly as you describe here: "When I’m on the bus or waiting to order at a restaurant or on a walk, I try to absorb the idiosyncrasies of the world so that I might be able to capture them in language." Yes! I am now playing over at Writing in the Dark with Jeannine Ouellette (my favorite writing home on Substack and the world) with an intensive based on Ross Gay's Book of Delights which I can't recommend enough. It's the result of his pledge to write a short essayette for each day of the year of something that delighted him. These are all about paying attention, and Jeannine has turned them into a wonderful learning opportunity for writers to deepen their craft. And so of course, when Jane Cameron writes about delight, too, I am all ears: "The quality of life is in proportion, always, to the capacity for delight. The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention." I also resonated with "More than anything, attention is an act of connection," which is what you are getting at Clare with how you absorb the world around you and try to capture it in language. The account of her grandmother's way of paying attention was moving and lovely. I also liked her passage "I like to think of the mind as a room." Powerful! I want to let more of those ideas into my room, to be more daring, to go deeper, to tell the truths that I may have been circling....to find emotional resonance in my fictional characters by letting that door of my mind's room swing wide open, let all the air in. I think the morning pages/artist's date/exercises are a way to do that. As she says, "Creative recovery is an exercise in open-mindedness." A solo artist's date is a bit challenging for me right now, having suffered a sudden debilitating low-back pain issue, which I've never had before (at least to this degree) but certainly a short walk down to the Mediterranean (I am fortunate enough to have just moved to Barcelona last month and live in the town of Badalona a few minutes walk from the sea) is something I can and will do. I also plan to take myself on an artist's date to the Badalona Museum, as this charming Catalan town of 200,000 people is built on Roman ruins and it will be interesting to find out more (using my google translate App as I don't speak Catalan and am still learning Spanish). As for exercises, I will do the Life Pie, too, also categorize my time spend, I think, and 20 things I enjoy doing, which I'll tack to my fridge door--and focus on the kinds of things I can do now as I heal from the back injury. So much to discover in this new place I'm living. It doesn't require me to go far, because it's all new. Finally, I'd love to be part of the March 30 zoom call.
Thanks for sharing this little snippet of your experience, Amy.
I'm also a big fan of Writing in the Dark, and Ross Gay's wonderful books of delight.
Your Artist Dates sound amazing. Barcelona is such a beautiful city and I hope you're starting to feel at home there? (It's grey in Dublin today, so am perhaps a little jealous too!)
I'm sorry to hear that your back has been giving you trouble. I hope you'll be able to listen to your body as it heals, and who knows maybe it will have some creative lessons to teach you?
I would love to see you at our virtual gathering. I'll DM you the meeting details now 💕
A quick search tells me 1pm GMT is 9am Toronto time, but I have no idea when you're changing to summer time, but I'm always so lost about this (thanks, dyscalculia).
If you send me the link in private, 'll check what time it is in Dublin the night before, and see if I manage to be ready for 8 or 9am. Does that work?
Gah, turns out I am awful at figuring out time zones! Sorry for the confusion Albe. I'll DM you the join link now and hopefully you'll be able to join us 💕