It used to be I was frequently surrounded by writers. There was constant interaction when I ran local writing events. Once I stepped down from that I was busy enough with other things that I didn't notice the gap. Of course, COVID was at its societal peak when I stopped running those events, so there were other things to pay attention to. Now, other than on here and social media, I rarely interact with writers in that sort of creative sense, and I realized I'm missing it, though not quite enough to engage in the community I used to volunteer for (last time I went back to engage as an attendee, I got dragged back in).
Instead, I've been reading craft books. Typically, I sit on my front porch with my breakfast smoothie and whichever craft book I'm reading. Only on sunny days, of which we've had a surprising amount lately. We've got a solid snowstorm heading our way this morning, so it will be at least a few days before one nice enough to sit on the front porch again comes along (March is our snowiest month here in Colorado).
No worries, though. My current craft book is The Artist's Way, by Julia Cameron. After the introduction, there's not a ton of reading to do, but there are activities that take up the space of a week. I'm only in the first week now. The A #1 requirement at this point is to do "morning pages." These are handwritten (a must), three pages, and are about whatever comes to mind. I've seen the premise done differently elsewhere, but it might have been inspired by this book since it's been around awhile.
The first day, the morning pages didn't take long at all. The second day, I dragged a bit, so it took longer. Yesterday went more smoothly. I'm writing this post before going to bed, so "today's" pages aren't written yet. I have a meeting first thing, followed by another meeting. Then I'll be getting ready for a livestreamed podcast episode on which I'll be a guest (Minddog TV, 8 PM ET). It should be fun! But that leaves my morning pages up in the air. I've decided not to stress about the pages tomorrow. As long as they get done when I'm able, it doesn't matter if I did them first thing.
I'm trying to go into this craft book and its exercises with an open mind, with the intention of doing all the exercises. The introduction says that if you don't want to do them all, you should do the ones you're resisting the most, because those are likely the ones you need the most. In this first chapter, I didn't have a problem with any of them. I believe this is a 12-week process, so we'll see what happens!
BOOK TOUR
My book tour is going on right now. Below is the current schedule:
March 4 - Patricia J.L.'s blog Twisting the Myths: I write about the background of Wendigo in Michigan Isn't Safe From the Wendigo
March 6 - Alex J. Cavanaugh's blog: I write about my favorite childhood myths in movie form in Childhood Magic
March 8 - Roland Yeoman's blog: I write about Sasquatch in A Sasquatch by Any Other Name *this one hasn't shown up yet
March 13 - Anna at Elements of Emaginette, where she'll be writing about her favorite mythological character
March 15 - Jonathan and Kristina will be writing about their favorite mythological creature(s)
March 15 - Sandra Cox at Sandra's Place: I write Three Character Foodie Facts with Selina Moonstone
March 15 - Nate at Habitual Hobbit: It's More Fun to Believe
March 15 - DeAnna Knippling at Wonderland Press: I write about Ogopogo and the Muck Monster
March 18 - Steven Arellano Rose at Far Out Fantastic with a Q&A
March 20 - Toi Thomas at The Toibox of Words
March 25 - Jennifer Lane at Jennifer Lane Books
And in April, Mary at Dimensions in Fiction
Thank you to the following people who shared out in other ways: HR Sinclair, Amanda Casey, and Natalie Aguirre.
Have you ever read The Artist's Way? Did you do all the exercises? Do you still do your morning pages? Were there any exercises you weren't willing to do?
May you find your Muse.
7 comments:
Never read that book or done any writing exercises. I can understand your reluctance to get dragged back into the writing group. A lot of work.
Roland has been sick with covid, so maybe that's why he didn't post for you.
Hi Shannon - well done on doing all you do - and good luck with the tour - I'll try and catch one of the next entries. I did wonder if the book was about Julia Margaret Cameron - as she was a very famous photographer back in the 1800s - a very interesting woman. I haven't read yours, nor come across it. Cheers Hilary
I was gifted The Artist's Way years ago when life was hectic, and what little time was mine was not cooperating with sitting and writing. And I like sitting and writing, but it seemed to be added pressure so I put it aside. Now, reading your post I might pull it off the shelf and revisit it.
Currently I'm rereading parts of On Writing, by Stephen King. I enjoyed his insights on writing years ago and I enjoying it again. First half of the book is about his work and the back half is his wisdom on the craft of writing.
Enjoy your daily writing exercises. :)
That book sounds interesting.
I love to write, but when I do, it is by candlelight.
First, thanks for stopping by Marmelade Gypsy this morning. It's nice to "meet" you!
And yes, I've done the Artist's Way and even did a class with it. I found it very useful. I did Morning Pages for quite awhile (though not now) but I didn't sweat it if I didn't do them in the morning. When I did it, I was working and it was hard enough to just get up and ready to roll, much less add three pages of writing. The point is to do them, freely, and while I can see the advantage of a morning jump start, it was that or not do them. I still try to do the Artist Dates, too. They're energizing and often inspiring. It's been ages and I don't remember if there were ones I resisted (and I think I might be mixing some -- like the news moratorium -- from those in Sarah Ban Branach's lovely and helpful "Simple Abundance." Either way, I hope you find a few well worthwhile things from the experience. (The recent NYTimes magazine just had an opinion piece on "The Artist's Way" which I enjoyed tremendously.)
I do love reading writer's books for inspiration. This one sounds good. I'll drop by your blog tour!
I haven't read The Artist's Way. You'll have to keep us posted on how the exercises go.
Sounds like you've had a healthy tour.
I miss attending conferences and the interaction with other authors.
Hope sales are booming.
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