I worked thru The Artist’s Way 2x in full, benefitting from an emergence of clarity. Early on, I had to go thru my book, scratch out the word god & write in nature to get thru it tho. The author goes off about god- like, it’s not just casual mentions. It really bugged me. While I was doing the exercises as an experiment, more than once during the process I felt resentful of the language. The Artist’s Way targets people who are ‘creatively blocked’. If u are not blocked, but have chosen to do it for enrichment or other reasons, being blocked doesn’t resonate- so I have that unpopular opinion as well. Your outline is charming Chelsey. I plan to follow along with the prompts you’ve created but will not be reading the book again. Morning pages are always helpful regardless.
D, thank you so much for sharing your insights. I think you hit the nail on the head with some of the barriers I've always had to negotiate around the program. At its core, I think TAW is SO GENEROUS and GENERATIVE, but those qualities can get overshadowed by some of the hills it insists on dying on... more on all this in the podcast episode I'm launching later this week!
I’m very excited about this! I don’t have the capacity to read it or do the activities this time round but I love the fact I can still join the tarot calls (or watch the recordings) and read your letters about it. I did the artists way last year with a group and it was a great experience.
I think my biggest gripe with it is, while it’s not just for writers, I felt a lot of the activities were very writing heavy. I struggled to see how and where I could use my main medium of music to explore the themes. And I imagined the same for if my medium was art or dance etc
Such a great point re the writer focus, Beth, and something I definitely want to make space and offer adjustments around (though I know as a writer I can be biased, too, so feel free to hold me to account!). So glad you'll be along on the tarot element of the journey <3
It's been close to a decade since I first worked my way through the Artist's way, and I don't think I made it all the way to the end. I was one foot in, one foot out of my childhood religion at the time so I don't remember if it was this way in the original work, but I recently picked up her new Artist's Way Toolkit and was fairly dismayed by all the religious-pressure vibes basically instructing creatives to believe in God or they'd be missing out on being a true creative. It was kind of a turn-off and the tone was exclusionary and sort of snobbish.
I've been doing my own version of morning pages every morning for the past month+ in spite of this icky feeling, with two pages of free writing and the final page being a Tarot journal of a card-of-the-day style pull. It's been lovely to redefine it for myself so I am looking forward to the collective reframe of the Faith aspect in this particular community!
Jessica! You're speaking my language - I couldn't agree more that the religious language is the biggest barrier for finding the generousity TAW has to offer at its core. I'm so looking forward to reframing the "god" element as our own intuition and inherent creativity. And I love how you''ve reinvented morning pages for yourself - this is a huge part of what I hope to break open as part of the programme, so you're ahead of the curve already!
Im excited. I agree with others, I think I will will allow one of my Guides to come forward for the twelve weeks or so- perhaps the Magician might be my guide ;
Probably contentious but I'm no longer a fan of Morning Pages - after doing them for YEARS, at certain points in my life. Not only am I prone to rumination and horrible self-criticism in them, I also feel like I squander that precious liminal thinking and creative energy that happens just after I wake up. I always remember Cameron saying that she'd have characters 'walk on to the page' during Morning Pages and wondered why that never happened for me, instead I was transcribing pages of self-flagellation.
That said, I did find the TAW exercises helpful, which I think most people don't love. I'd do, at minimum, the one that was the most appealing and the one that I liked least.
And I massively kicked back against Artist's Dates which were probably the most useful tool of all for me.
I worked thru The Artist’s Way 2x in full, benefitting from an emergence of clarity. Early on, I had to go thru my book, scratch out the word god & write in nature to get thru it tho. The author goes off about god- like, it’s not just casual mentions. It really bugged me. While I was doing the exercises as an experiment, more than once during the process I felt resentful of the language. The Artist’s Way targets people who are ‘creatively blocked’. If u are not blocked, but have chosen to do it for enrichment or other reasons, being blocked doesn’t resonate- so I have that unpopular opinion as well. Your outline is charming Chelsey. I plan to follow along with the prompts you’ve created but will not be reading the book again. Morning pages are always helpful regardless.
D, thank you so much for sharing your insights. I think you hit the nail on the head with some of the barriers I've always had to negotiate around the program. At its core, I think TAW is SO GENEROUS and GENERATIVE, but those qualities can get overshadowed by some of the hills it insists on dying on... more on all this in the podcast episode I'm launching later this week!
Yes, also really turned off by that too. I'm able to substitute Fate/the Universe or something similar but there's a LOT of god.
This is exactly why I've never been into it!
I’m in the middle of my third attempt at the artist way, also a tarot reader. I’m in week 7. Will def enjoy anything you send out.
So looking forward to your insights having just been through it fresh!
I’m very excited about this! I don’t have the capacity to read it or do the activities this time round but I love the fact I can still join the tarot calls (or watch the recordings) and read your letters about it. I did the artists way last year with a group and it was a great experience.
I think my biggest gripe with it is, while it’s not just for writers, I felt a lot of the activities were very writing heavy. I struggled to see how and where I could use my main medium of music to explore the themes. And I imagined the same for if my medium was art or dance etc
Such a great point re the writer focus, Beth, and something I definitely want to make space and offer adjustments around (though I know as a writer I can be biased, too, so feel free to hold me to account!). So glad you'll be along on the tarot element of the journey <3
It's been close to a decade since I first worked my way through the Artist's way, and I don't think I made it all the way to the end. I was one foot in, one foot out of my childhood religion at the time so I don't remember if it was this way in the original work, but I recently picked up her new Artist's Way Toolkit and was fairly dismayed by all the religious-pressure vibes basically instructing creatives to believe in God or they'd be missing out on being a true creative. It was kind of a turn-off and the tone was exclusionary and sort of snobbish.
I've been doing my own version of morning pages every morning for the past month+ in spite of this icky feeling, with two pages of free writing and the final page being a Tarot journal of a card-of-the-day style pull. It's been lovely to redefine it for myself so I am looking forward to the collective reframe of the Faith aspect in this particular community!
Jessica! You're speaking my language - I couldn't agree more that the religious language is the biggest barrier for finding the generousity TAW has to offer at its core. I'm so looking forward to reframing the "god" element as our own intuition and inherent creativity. And I love how you''ve reinvented morning pages for yourself - this is a huge part of what I hope to break open as part of the programme, so you're ahead of the curve already!
Oh I love that! So excited to dig even deeper in that direction, then!
Im excited. I agree with others, I think I will will allow one of my Guides to come forward for the twelve weeks or so- perhaps the Magician might be my guide ;
Probably contentious but I'm no longer a fan of Morning Pages - after doing them for YEARS, at certain points in my life. Not only am I prone to rumination and horrible self-criticism in them, I also feel like I squander that precious liminal thinking and creative energy that happens just after I wake up. I always remember Cameron saying that she'd have characters 'walk on to the page' during Morning Pages and wondered why that never happened for me, instead I was transcribing pages of self-flagellation.
That said, I did find the TAW exercises helpful, which I think most people don't love. I'd do, at minimum, the one that was the most appealing and the one that I liked least.
And I massively kicked back against Artist's Dates which were probably the most useful tool of all for me.
what a great idea. I had it. And haven't really done much about it so may well join you all on Sunday :-)