Category: The Artist Way by Gillian Doyle

The Artist’s Way

[Notice to Readers: Unintentional as it was, this post could also be called “PASIC Conference, Part II” to Deb’s post yesterday. However, if you keep reading, you will understand why it ties into The Artist’s Way.]

I just returned from my first Published Authors Special Interest Chapter (PASIC), held every two years in New York City. Wow-oh-wow, what an experience. I’ll never miss another one! My roomie Debra Mullins was a long-time New Jersey RWA member before moving to OC in 2007. She couldn’t believe I hadn’t been to PASIC, and insisted I join her. I’m so glad I did. Everyone seems to know Deb from her stints as conference coordinator for NJRW, which means editors and agents are always stopping to say hello.

Our other roommate was OCC’s January speaker, Susan Meier, who had flown in from western Pennsylvania for her first-time PASIC, too. So we were the newbies, and Deb was more than happy to introduce us around. (Oh, and an added perk — Deb knows the best places for Italian, NY Pizza, barbecue, and Irish food! )

Former OCC member Faye Hughes and an OCC guest speaker last year, Christie Craig were the conference coordinators, and did a fantastic job. You have got to read Christie’s take on New York City…it’s too funny…. “A Southern Gal Goes To New York.“

What does all of this have to do with The Artist’s Way, you might ask? Because, throughout the conference, I found myself thinking of this book, and the workshop that I attended a few months ago. I have been a published author for 20 years now, and it is easy to fall into the “What ifs” and “If Onlys” when there are long dry spells. I have been to many conferences where there is a sense of despair in the air around me because I was in a bad place, a place where I doubted my talent, my commitment . . . my “calling”.

But I had to take my own path that did not include publishing year after year. And it’s okay! Everyone is different. For me, I have known for a very long time that my life is about overcoming the demons (not literally) and following a deep need to explore and understand my spiritual Self. I realize this is not everyone’s “thing” so I don’t talk about it. But the Artist’s Way does. Author Julia Cameron writes about the yearning to fulfill a sense of obligation to the Great Creator to be creative ourselves. A divine directive, as it were. If this creativity doesn’t come out in one way, it comes out in another. And if it is stifled, we suffer from depression that can lead to physical health problems.

Julia writes on page 64: “Life is what we make of it. Whether we conceive of an inner god force or an other, outer God, doesn’t matter. Relying on that force does.”

She talks of how we discount answered prayers, calling them coincidences or just plain luck. “We call it anything but what it is — the hand of God, or good, activated by our own hand when we act in behalf of our truest dreams, when we commit to our own soul.”

And when we pursue that dream, amazing things begin to happen. Synchronicity. Serendipity. That’s what has been happening to me in these past several months. Despite family emergencies that pull me away from writing, I have been kept on my path with the help of friends like Deb, and now Susan. I made new friends at PASIC. I’m renewed. Fired up. And in love with this career again.

One last thing before I close…. At PASIC I finally met a new author whose unpubbed entry I had judged a few years ago. I absolutely LOVED this story, and I am delighted that she sold it. It’s an historical YA with a twist of magic called THE BEWITCHING SEASON by Marissa Doyle. The sequel will be out this Fall.

Until next month….

– Gillian Doyle
www.gilliandoyle.com

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/

The Artist’s Way

AW is a very easy read, in a way. In another way, it is a challenge to the reader to make a serious commitment to creative recovery, a commitment that involves carving out time to read a chapter each week and to spend at least an hour every week on a “date” with yourself and no one else, going somewhere such as a park or museum or anything that is simply a pleasure to do.

Most people who have heard of AW usually know of the daily commitment to writing three pages of free-flowing thoughts called the “Morning Pages.” Many balk at the assignment. Often they do not understand the purpose. To do it is to understand. No one can teach or explain the change that will occur to the writer. Only the writer will “get it” after doing it. This may take three weeks or three months before realizing the benefits of daily Morning Pages.

Trust that the MP will work wonders. Leave the doubts at the door. Set the alarm 30 minutes early. Have a spiral notebook and pen ready and waiting. Then release all the mind-chatter onto the page. Unload the swirling miasma of thoughts, some good, some bad. Don’t judge them. Just write them.

The dumping of any negativity is meant to unburden you. However, if you feel as if it causes you to focus more on the difficulties and challenges in your life without working through answers or at least feeling more peaceful, try another ending. In the final 5-10 minutes, write down things that you are grateful for. Write positive statements to affirm your goals and aspirations.

After three pages, put down the pen and go on with your day, knowing any worries you put on the paper no longer need to be repeated in your head throughout the day. Consider it freeing up the hard drive in your brain so there is more room to fill with thoughts of your book or whatever creative project you have in mind.

Happy New Year!

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