Daily Archives: January 29, 2009

The Artist’s Way

“Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want so that they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first BE who your really are, then DO what you need to do, in order HAVE what you want.“
– Margaret Young (quoted in THE ARTIST’S WAY)

We’re 29 days into 2009. How’s it going so far? Are you meeting your goal to write more pages? More hours? No? Life still getting in the way? I certainly understand. Jobs, family, friends, pets, laundry… the list of obligations seems endless. Some of us find time to write no matter what. Some even find writing as an escape from the stress of it all. Others say that they can’t NOT write any more than they can’t NOT breathe.

Then there’s the rest of us. We want to write. We talk about it. We have good intentions. But it drops down the to-do list as the day wears on and we wear out.

I don’t believe that there is any one single reason why we stumble in our efforts to write. As Creatives, we have highly active imaginations that are a blessing –great story ideas!– and a curse — filling our mind with self-doubt and What Ifs . . .What if I don’t have any talent? What if I spend all these months on this novel and no one buys it?

Julia Cameron is probably one of the most well-known authors offering a number of books to help artists and writers break through the various blocks that we encounter. Through the years, I have read and/or met so many wonderful and generous like-minded authors who understand our own fickleness and offer advice on their own websites, publications and seminars.

Susan Meier is one such author. She has been an instructor for OCC’s online class and is also our afternoon speaker at our February OCC/RWA meeting. Check out TheMotivatedWriter.com where she is a contributor, and her own blog called “Life Coach” at http://www.susanmeier.com/blog.html.

Doyou know websites or books that you have found helpful? If so, feel free to post them. We all know that writing is ultimately a solitary pursuit. But many of us can use a little nudge of encouragement now and then, a little tidbit of advice to get us back into that abandoned page.

If you live in the Los Angeles area, a new Artist’s Way workshop is starting on February 9th at the Bodhi Tree Bookstore in West Hollywood. For details, go to CreativeLife.com.

– Gillian Doyle
http://www.gilliandoyle.blogspot.com/
http://www.gilliandoyle.com/