The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron

So I'm attending a webinar about the book The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. I've loved many of her books, including The Right to Write, The Sound of Paper, and others. This one is her quintessential book on unleashing creativity.

I'm starting again with her two basic strategies:

1. Morning Pages: This is an exercise to put down in longhand three full pages of written text first thing in the morning. After my first webinar, I realize that I've done this wrong for years. I've used my journal to write my pages. But the better strategy is to write on legal paper or some such, fill the pages, and then tuck them away somewhere. After 7-8 months, I could go back and look at them, but not sooner. It gets the "censor" or the "editor" off your shoulder and you can create freely.

2. Artist's Dates: These are weekly, solo activities. A walk in the woods. A trip to a museum. I have in mind a couple of forest preserves that are not too far away that I have been meaning to check out.

I'm also keeping this important principle in mind:

"Difficult as it is to remember, it is our work that creates the market, not the market that creates our work."

So true!