Two Tools to Reengage Your Writing Process
Creative blocks are not one size fits all. Yet, in Julia Cameron’s well known 12-week workbook
The Artist’s Way there are two major practices designed to unblock the things that get us stuck. In Season One of Moonlight Writers Club, we’re exploring the best of this timeworn tale. Consider it a reimagined, highlights only, Cliff’s Notes version of this book that walks and talks.
We explore how to navigate the spiritual aspects of this book, if that’s not exactly your jam, the possibilities of autonomy and self-love available in this practice, and unpack the two main tools that will lead you back to your creative process: Morning Pages and The Artist’s Date.
“Part of the practice of creativity is trusting that there is something that is not your tiny-hardworking-rational-brain working so hard, chugging along, that can create, that can be the passage through which what you are most capable of creating comes through. That’s really the invitation and that’s really the challenge.”
ASK MOLLY
“What are your hot tips for writing non-creative content? Like, the copy for my website that apparently won’t write itself?”
ANSWER:
Here are some things to think about:
Direct your writing to its use. What is the purpose of that writing? Who is your intended audience and what do you want them to do? How do you want them to view the information you’re sharing? How do you want them to feel?
Let constraints make your life easier. Play with a form like a how to, a recipe, or abecedarian to provide a creative, generative form to a non-creative project, or cut down your message into small manageable tasks and sections you can check off as you progress.
Stick with the context. For example, if you’re writing about a product, service, or art that you create you may want your audience to know about you. But you want them to know you within the context of your art of business. What elements of who you are relate to why or how you created the art or business you’re communicating about? You can leave out the rest.
Write to one particular person. Who is your dream reader OR who is the easiest audience for you to speak to? Write as if you’re speaking with an understanding friend or anyone who is receptive and really gets you.
Write in the form you’ll be publishing it in. Drafting in the web page, newsletter template, or other medium you’ll be sharing the information in may help you shape how and what you want to communicate and sense how the content will feel in the space it’s intended for.
TEXT EXCAVATION
Am I creatively blocked?
The idea of a block is easy to understand if you’re in a slump where you’re just not writing or feeling creative, but it can mean so much more. One can be very busy, and still be blocked.
Creative blocks are about more than the number of words on the page. Blocks are about being out of alignment, driven by “shoulds” or fears or pressure from other people rather than creating with self-respect and self-knowledge.
The practices of The Artist’s Way engage not just with productivity but with play and reflection. The tools teach us to learn the difference between cruel critics and true self. To understand what we know, we must first learn to listen and then learn to act from a place of exploration.
Handling the Cyclical Nature of Creative Practice
Creative unblocking isn’t just a one-time thing. As we pass through varying stages of our lives, we around bound to cross paths with familiar foes. The process of engaging with our inner artist is an opportunity to find patience and flexibility with the recurring nature of obstacles, and uncover new layers of understanding and opportunity with each pass.
The Two Tools
Two tools that go hand in hand are introduced at the outset of The Artist’s Way, and prescribed to be used...forever. The first is a daily journaling practice and the second is a weekly inspiration hunt.
The Morning Pages: To practice the morning pages, Cameron says to write 3-pages, long hand, stream-of-consciousness every morning. This is about learning to understand your own mind, your own interests, and learning to distinguish between you and your inner critic.
The Artist’s Date: This is a 2-hour date practiced solo once per week. This not a time to make your art, but a time to feed your artist. The freedom and the challenge of The Artist’s Date is to play and to spend time with yourself. Your imagination is the limit.
The groundwork of the Artist’s Way is an entry point to safety and redefining our relationships to creativity. Whether you are just starting out, or a creative professional, reengaging relationship to who you are and how your creativity works is an ongoing process. The ideas and practices central to this book are allies to your alignment.
RESOURCES & NEXT STEPS
NY Times Profile on Julia Cameron
The Pale Horse is the Agatha Christie quoted
What is an artist date to you? What’s your experience with the morning pages?
Write and let me know at mollythorntonwrites at gmail dot com!
