i walked to the library in a light rain this afternoon and picked up the book. i will not write until the morning, but i do have a composition book at the ready to receive my words.
(i am hoping this will not upset the apple cart. if it does i can be a casual observer from the sidelines… so please let me know.)
three pages will not be difficult - at least i can declare that now, and, like amy, i doubt any page will be legible enough for anyone else to read. (that is actually perfect!). my hands are a little creaky and arthritic and it definitely would be easier to type, but i won’t stray from the rules. (perhaps my hand yoga exercises will help with pain and stiffness resulting from longhand recording. fingers crossed…)
i was not aware the author had written so many books. friends had always raved about ‘the artists way’ but it never held my attention enough to finish it.
rambling, my apologies. looking forward to these exercises.
Week 1 I am out of the country. No 1 challenge walks and writing my morning pages. Skipped the quota.
Implementing walks done. Making time for me in the morning after I have showered and dressed was better than writing it after wake up in bed. Was w say too late the first day! If not doing eg ..“finding time later on..“ does not work for me.
Walks are fine as these I can easily do after lunch break or skip hot lunch and grab something while walking. I eat healthy so had more fruits and raw veggies this week.
I am convinced whatever it needs that makes your ink flow do it. No matter how it has been suggested but keep an eye words are flowing and you practice daily.
I am a fountain pen writer. Anyway, the morning pages I use ink for but my quotas, my projects, I am a typewriter.
I realized now a huge difference in my writing journey. I am more successful in writing with my fountain pen . My words are flowing nicely. Writing by hand does not make me feel the need of correcting over and over again.
Anyway, I have lunchtime where I am and will keep my eyes open on street arts. That is my artist date.
Thank you for sharing your experience Amy. Best, Marion
Week 1 went pretty well- it felt like a good start. I’ve read The Artist’s Way before so the concept of writing 3 pages of whatever comes to mind (“Morning Pages”) was familiar but a habit I needed to revisit.
Morning pages: 7/7 days
Daily quota: 6/7 days
Solo walks: 6/7 days - I walked every day as part of a separate fitness challenge already in my routine, but one of the days I walked with my spouse and couldn’t fit in a separate, solo walk.
Artist date: 3 instances counted as a “sort-of” Artist’s date.
My struggle is classifying the date as “something festive and out of the ordinary” as the author describes ... whereas I tried to fit something creative/inspiring into my ordinary day. I have trouble thinking of what to do that’s festive and out of the ordinary that isn’t super expensive/time consuming and can easily be done solo. So I need to consider more about what an artist date could be for the upcoming weeks.
As for the daily quota, I decided to write by hand to give myself a break from screen time during this creative effort, and choosing to write by hand has helped with some... but not all... of my resistance. I started reading Chapter 2 last night and can see the the pain points of rough drafts are explored, which will be helpful reminders/insights for me.
I’m hoping to gain creative momentum from this book/6-week endeavor. The process of writing morning pages does help clear out stagnant thoughts and keep ideas flowing. Movement in the form of daily walks helps too... in recent weeks I usually listened to podcasts while walking but reserving some solo focus time during walks has been more centering and has sparked ideas. The importance of movement is underscored in another book I recently read by Twyla Tharp, so I definitely am trying to prioritize that in my habit-building and creative journey.
With writing versus visual arts I always wrestle with how much time I prefer to spend on each, since I’m equally interested in writing and art... sometimes I don’t have much creative writing energy left “in the margins because I do a lot of marketing writing for my day job.
I’m enjoying this exercise; thanks for creating a community forum around it.
I'm only part of the way through the week (I started on Monday) but I've kept up with morning pages and I've managed to write 2 short essays. And I'm not a writer, so I feel pretty good about that! Taking walks is something I already do so that was already part of my routine.
I've been doing morning pages on paper, but typing any other writings and that's been working fine. The only struggle so far is that I haven't found a writing app that I really like for my iPad yet. I don't really want to pay for one, but the free options haven't been great.
I have not done an artist date yet, but I'm planning to this weekend. There's a quilting shop near me that I'm going to go explore. I'm not a quilter but I appreciate the colors and patterns very much, so it should be interesting. I already spend a lot of time at my local art museum so as you said, Amy, I was sort of doing these types of excursions anyway.
Overall, I enjoy the morning pages and I like trying my hand at writing, but I have yet to have my telegrams answered by the universe. Maybe in week 2? 😀
1 and 2: I am not new to Morning Pages...I tried it a bundle of years ago and was successful for what seemed like forever, but in reality was probably six months. I was in a creative group that met and discussed the book. There was a heavy emphasis on the spiritual nature of the exercises which weighed heavy on me. I remember when we moved from the big house to a smaller house on the water, I came across these pages and in a blink of an eye decision tossed them out. So coming home to the pages feels comfortable...although at that time I wrote these pages as a 'brain drain' of whatever was on my mind...the purpose was to clear one's head of the debris that keeps creative thoughts at bay. So, all last week I wrote the 'brain drain', dredging up some bothersome memories long buried. But Amy is right. There are no guidelines (or very few dubious ones) and what I knew is what I did. This morning, after reading Amy's response to Week 1, I wrote of yesterday...all that I remembered in the ins and outs of the day. It felt good and the words flowed easily even with added adjectives and descriptors to the nouns, rounding out my three pages. As for the other elements of the exercises, I did them all (and have been doing them in some fashion for some while) except for the Daily Quota. I do not have a writing project in mind.
3. The elements of the exercises were in place already. The difference is that now I pay more attention to details and my responses. The days flow one into the other seamlessly.....with the Morning Pages as an anchor. I love the easy flow of the days.
4. Since I live on a small island with limited venues...my artist's dates were all with my access to the ocean and beach, and wooded areas. We have a small (very small) island library which I frequent and it gives me grounds for a sense of awe and curiosity each time I am there.
5. I am not working on an additional project.
6. I thought hard and long about different writing stations in my house. My options are limited. I use my basement studio which is all mine....and write at my art table facing a window looking out at the bay and the Olympic Mountain Range beyond. There are no interruptions and it is quiet.
7. I hope to continue with my schedule and let it become a standard of my days. I love to write...I love to use anything to write...even pencil which gives a unique look to my words! I love my composition books paper. I hope I will be writing for years and years to come. Who knows, maybe a writing project will present itself some day.
I am starting the process today, April 6, which happens to be the first full day of Passover. I'm not Jewish but I live in a Jewish community and it seems like a good time for new beginnings. So I haven't done the artist dates or the walks yet.
I have two delicious writing areas in my new apartment here, looking out onto large stands of Douglas fir mixed with cedar, spruce, maples.
I have been writing morning, pages, or what I call “today” exercises, since at least 1992. So now I am going to do something different. I am going to type them all using the Dvorak keyboard. (I have to type because of MS pain in my dominate arm.)
I have been working on learning Dvorak for a couple of years now. It is much more efficient than qwerty when you get some speed up. I am up to maybe 30 words a minute, so it forces me to go more slowly. But I am liking the process.
I’m already writing for Substack, so as a new project I’m going to work on poetry. I’ve found that with a little meditation the Universe dictates to me. I’m just the amanuensis for what Spirit writes. I can’t wait to get started; hoping for a poem a day.
I’ve kept up with the morning pages for awhile now and I feel I have built them into my daily routine. I think they really do help me achieve certain goals I set, just so I won’t keep harping about them. 😊
Oddly enough, I did have a moment of synchronization regarding something I wrote in the pages so that was a nice surprise!
I have set a small goal for daily writing on my project and only one day was a success with that. So I hope to improve in week two.
I have read many of Julia’s books and am familiar with the core concepts she teaches. I have never been able to stick with artist dates. Somehow they just don’t resonate with me. I was going to use the library for this week but our library is under renovation and only a small area is open to the public.
I did do the walking a couple of days. I’m trying to get back to walking daily as the weather allows. I feel like that will help in many areas. I’m mourning my sister’s sudden death in January and walking does help clear my head.
Overall I think Week 1 was fine. I hope to improve on the areas I didn’t meet my goals in Week 2.
I’ve been writing Morning Pages for a little more than 5 years. I’ve worked through several of Cameron’s books with a group of creatives & have found it to be hugely rewarding as a creative practice. Julia Cameron has published a LOT of books. In my opinion, they are all quite similar and these principles she introduces in chapter 1 are present in all of her books. There is also a very heavy 12-step recovery influence. (A few paragraphs of chapter one are directly taken from the Big Book of AA.)
I write my pages every day. By hand. In a journal. That works for me. I like the connection of pen to paper and the time away from a screen.
Artist dates come pretty easy for me. I often find myself “window shopping” on an artist date...spending extra time at the farmers market really looking at all the different vegetables, wandering every aisle at the thrift store, going to museums on the days they offer free admission, etc.
I don’t have a current writing project...would simply like to be open to the possibility of having one. So daily quota doesn’t really work for me at the moment but it will at some point. Thank you Amy & all of you for your comments & participation! On to chapter 2!
I want to thank everyone who commented so far and shared thoughts on this first week.... and thank you to those who have commented to each other. I do hope you have conversations with one another and not just with me. I was worried this week that the slant of my reflections on week 1 might really bother people..... and I'm so relieved to see that in the comments, mostly everyone really enjoyed their first week. I'll try and keep things toned down on my end next week..... and am hoping to just continue to enjoy the process.
I am late responding to this as we are already in week 2 but here a little bit about my week 1.
My morning pages went pretty well. I got up a bit earlier to do them and that went remarkably well. What I have to figure out is a routine for the weekend similar as for weekdays. Yesterday and today, I did the pages later in the morning which was fine but I don’t think that would work in the long run, especially when the weekends are busy.
I noticed that I was able to not overthink doing the pages or set any expectations except that it feels good to start the day with putting your thoughts on paper.
Mindful walking was already part of my routine though not so much as I wanted during the bad weather. However, it was easy to pick up as we had some nice days and spring is coming.
I love artist’s dates but maybe some people would see it differently than I do. For me they can be very simple as long as they are done with intention. Little blocks of time that make me feel good and inspire me. It can be a visit to the library or bookstore to browse around or sitting cozy under a blanket on the couch with a cup of tea flipping through art books or old craft magazines or playing around with paper, glue and scissors. I think that in the Artist’s way, Julia Cameron suggests to list what you enjoyed as a child and generate ideas for artist’s dates from that. It works for me, and it gives me permission to do “silly” things that give me joy.
My daily quota is a very short blog like entry for when I start a blog/substack in the future. One of the reasons I stopped my blog years ago, was getting blocked by the fact I had to come up with something good every week. I would overthink it and it turned the joy of writing an entry into something stressful. Training myself to write something every day that could potentially be used for a blog entry or not, seems a good experiment.
This week I read and started morning pages. I was sick most of the week with horrible stomach issues related to medication, so I barely made it through the week, and didn't get in any walking, project writing, or even all of my morning pages. It was frustrating.
I also have a lot of chronic pain, and writing by hand can wear on me, but I've found that Pentel Energel pens (I prefer .7 tip) write very smoothly, and if I try to not make it overly legible, my hand really glides across the page. 😁
I still really resist the parts of the book that come across as religious (or recovery focused as someone else pointed out). 😬 I'm trying to gloss over/ignore it and move forward, taking the parts that work, and leaving the rest behind.
On Fridays, I participate in Zine Lunch, a zoom workshop hosted by Sarabande Books. I'm counting Friday's as my Artist Date because it was fun and got my mind going in a creative way. Later, I committed to exchanging zines with someone from another FB group, so I felt like that was a minor win.
Hoping for a better week this week. I enjoyed reading everyone's experiences. ❤️
i walked to the library in a light rain this afternoon and picked up the book. i will not write until the morning, but i do have a composition book at the ready to receive my words.
(i am hoping this will not upset the apple cart. if it does i can be a casual observer from the sidelines… so please let me know.)
three pages will not be difficult - at least i can declare that now, and, like amy, i doubt any page will be legible enough for anyone else to read. (that is actually perfect!). my hands are a little creaky and arthritic and it definitely would be easier to type, but i won’t stray from the rules. (perhaps my hand yoga exercises will help with pain and stiffness resulting from longhand recording. fingers crossed…)
i was not aware the author had written so many books. friends had always raved about ‘the artists way’ but it never held my attention enough to finish it.
rambling, my apologies. looking forward to these exercises.
Week 1 I am out of the country. No 1 challenge walks and writing my morning pages. Skipped the quota.
Implementing walks done. Making time for me in the morning after I have showered and dressed was better than writing it after wake up in bed. Was w say too late the first day! If not doing eg ..“finding time later on..“ does not work for me.
Walks are fine as these I can easily do after lunch break or skip hot lunch and grab something while walking. I eat healthy so had more fruits and raw veggies this week.
I am convinced whatever it needs that makes your ink flow do it. No matter how it has been suggested but keep an eye words are flowing and you practice daily.
I am a fountain pen writer. Anyway, the morning pages I use ink for but my quotas, my projects, I am a typewriter.
I realized now a huge difference in my writing journey. I am more successful in writing with my fountain pen . My words are flowing nicely. Writing by hand does not make me feel the need of correcting over and over again.
Anyway, I have lunchtime where I am and will keep my eyes open on street arts. That is my artist date.
Thank you for sharing your experience Amy. Best, Marion
Week 1 went pretty well- it felt like a good start. I’ve read The Artist’s Way before so the concept of writing 3 pages of whatever comes to mind (“Morning Pages”) was familiar but a habit I needed to revisit.
Morning pages: 7/7 days
Daily quota: 6/7 days
Solo walks: 6/7 days - I walked every day as part of a separate fitness challenge already in my routine, but one of the days I walked with my spouse and couldn’t fit in a separate, solo walk.
Artist date: 3 instances counted as a “sort-of” Artist’s date.
My struggle is classifying the date as “something festive and out of the ordinary” as the author describes ... whereas I tried to fit something creative/inspiring into my ordinary day. I have trouble thinking of what to do that’s festive and out of the ordinary that isn’t super expensive/time consuming and can easily be done solo. So I need to consider more about what an artist date could be for the upcoming weeks.
As for the daily quota, I decided to write by hand to give myself a break from screen time during this creative effort, and choosing to write by hand has helped with some... but not all... of my resistance. I started reading Chapter 2 last night and can see the the pain points of rough drafts are explored, which will be helpful reminders/insights for me.
I’m hoping to gain creative momentum from this book/6-week endeavor. The process of writing morning pages does help clear out stagnant thoughts and keep ideas flowing. Movement in the form of daily walks helps too... in recent weeks I usually listened to podcasts while walking but reserving some solo focus time during walks has been more centering and has sparked ideas. The importance of movement is underscored in another book I recently read by Twyla Tharp, so I definitely am trying to prioritize that in my habit-building and creative journey.
With writing versus visual arts I always wrestle with how much time I prefer to spend on each, since I’m equally interested in writing and art... sometimes I don’t have much creative writing energy left “in the margins because I do a lot of marketing writing for my day job.
I’m enjoying this exercise; thanks for creating a community forum around it.
I'm only part of the way through the week (I started on Monday) but I've kept up with morning pages and I've managed to write 2 short essays. And I'm not a writer, so I feel pretty good about that! Taking walks is something I already do so that was already part of my routine.
I've been doing morning pages on paper, but typing any other writings and that's been working fine. The only struggle so far is that I haven't found a writing app that I really like for my iPad yet. I don't really want to pay for one, but the free options haven't been great.
I have not done an artist date yet, but I'm planning to this weekend. There's a quilting shop near me that I'm going to go explore. I'm not a quilter but I appreciate the colors and patterns very much, so it should be interesting. I already spend a lot of time at my local art museum so as you said, Amy, I was sort of doing these types of excursions anyway.
Overall, I enjoy the morning pages and I like trying my hand at writing, but I have yet to have my telegrams answered by the universe. Maybe in week 2? 😀
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts, Amy!
1 and 2: I am not new to Morning Pages...I tried it a bundle of years ago and was successful for what seemed like forever, but in reality was probably six months. I was in a creative group that met and discussed the book. There was a heavy emphasis on the spiritual nature of the exercises which weighed heavy on me. I remember when we moved from the big house to a smaller house on the water, I came across these pages and in a blink of an eye decision tossed them out. So coming home to the pages feels comfortable...although at that time I wrote these pages as a 'brain drain' of whatever was on my mind...the purpose was to clear one's head of the debris that keeps creative thoughts at bay. So, all last week I wrote the 'brain drain', dredging up some bothersome memories long buried. But Amy is right. There are no guidelines (or very few dubious ones) and what I knew is what I did. This morning, after reading Amy's response to Week 1, I wrote of yesterday...all that I remembered in the ins and outs of the day. It felt good and the words flowed easily even with added adjectives and descriptors to the nouns, rounding out my three pages. As for the other elements of the exercises, I did them all (and have been doing them in some fashion for some while) except for the Daily Quota. I do not have a writing project in mind.
3. The elements of the exercises were in place already. The difference is that now I pay more attention to details and my responses. The days flow one into the other seamlessly.....with the Morning Pages as an anchor. I love the easy flow of the days.
4. Since I live on a small island with limited venues...my artist's dates were all with my access to the ocean and beach, and wooded areas. We have a small (very small) island library which I frequent and it gives me grounds for a sense of awe and curiosity each time I am there.
5. I am not working on an additional project.
6. I thought hard and long about different writing stations in my house. My options are limited. I use my basement studio which is all mine....and write at my art table facing a window looking out at the bay and the Olympic Mountain Range beyond. There are no interruptions and it is quiet.
7. I hope to continue with my schedule and let it become a standard of my days. I love to write...I love to use anything to write...even pencil which gives a unique look to my words! I love my composition books paper. I hope I will be writing for years and years to come. Who knows, maybe a writing project will present itself some day.
I am starting the process today, April 6, which happens to be the first full day of Passover. I'm not Jewish but I live in a Jewish community and it seems like a good time for new beginnings. So I haven't done the artist dates or the walks yet.
I have two delicious writing areas in my new apartment here, looking out onto large stands of Douglas fir mixed with cedar, spruce, maples.
I have been writing morning, pages, or what I call “today” exercises, since at least 1992. So now I am going to do something different. I am going to type them all using the Dvorak keyboard. (I have to type because of MS pain in my dominate arm.)
I have been working on learning Dvorak for a couple of years now. It is much more efficient than qwerty when you get some speed up. I am up to maybe 30 words a minute, so it forces me to go more slowly. But I am liking the process.
I’m already writing for Substack, so as a new project I’m going to work on poetry. I’ve found that with a little meditation the Universe dictates to me. I’m just the amanuensis for what Spirit writes. I can’t wait to get started; hoping for a poem a day.
I’ve kept up with the morning pages for awhile now and I feel I have built them into my daily routine. I think they really do help me achieve certain goals I set, just so I won’t keep harping about them. 😊
Oddly enough, I did have a moment of synchronization regarding something I wrote in the pages so that was a nice surprise!
I have set a small goal for daily writing on my project and only one day was a success with that. So I hope to improve in week two.
I have read many of Julia’s books and am familiar with the core concepts she teaches. I have never been able to stick with artist dates. Somehow they just don’t resonate with me. I was going to use the library for this week but our library is under renovation and only a small area is open to the public.
I did do the walking a couple of days. I’m trying to get back to walking daily as the weather allows. I feel like that will help in many areas. I’m mourning my sister’s sudden death in January and walking does help clear my head.
Overall I think Week 1 was fine. I hope to improve on the areas I didn’t meet my goals in Week 2.
I’ve been writing Morning Pages for a little more than 5 years. I’ve worked through several of Cameron’s books with a group of creatives & have found it to be hugely rewarding as a creative practice. Julia Cameron has published a LOT of books. In my opinion, they are all quite similar and these principles she introduces in chapter 1 are present in all of her books. There is also a very heavy 12-step recovery influence. (A few paragraphs of chapter one are directly taken from the Big Book of AA.)
I write my pages every day. By hand. In a journal. That works for me. I like the connection of pen to paper and the time away from a screen.
Artist dates come pretty easy for me. I often find myself “window shopping” on an artist date...spending extra time at the farmers market really looking at all the different vegetables, wandering every aisle at the thrift store, going to museums on the days they offer free admission, etc.
I don’t have a current writing project...would simply like to be open to the possibility of having one. So daily quota doesn’t really work for me at the moment but it will at some point. Thank you Amy & all of you for your comments & participation! On to chapter 2!
I want to thank everyone who commented so far and shared thoughts on this first week.... and thank you to those who have commented to each other. I do hope you have conversations with one another and not just with me. I was worried this week that the slant of my reflections on week 1 might really bother people..... and I'm so relieved to see that in the comments, mostly everyone really enjoyed their first week. I'll try and keep things toned down on my end next week..... and am hoping to just continue to enjoy the process.
I am late responding to this as we are already in week 2 but here a little bit about my week 1.
My morning pages went pretty well. I got up a bit earlier to do them and that went remarkably well. What I have to figure out is a routine for the weekend similar as for weekdays. Yesterday and today, I did the pages later in the morning which was fine but I don’t think that would work in the long run, especially when the weekends are busy.
I noticed that I was able to not overthink doing the pages or set any expectations except that it feels good to start the day with putting your thoughts on paper.
Mindful walking was already part of my routine though not so much as I wanted during the bad weather. However, it was easy to pick up as we had some nice days and spring is coming.
I love artist’s dates but maybe some people would see it differently than I do. For me they can be very simple as long as they are done with intention. Little blocks of time that make me feel good and inspire me. It can be a visit to the library or bookstore to browse around or sitting cozy under a blanket on the couch with a cup of tea flipping through art books or old craft magazines or playing around with paper, glue and scissors. I think that in the Artist’s way, Julia Cameron suggests to list what you enjoyed as a child and generate ideas for artist’s dates from that. It works for me, and it gives me permission to do “silly” things that give me joy.
My daily quota is a very short blog like entry for when I start a blog/substack in the future. One of the reasons I stopped my blog years ago, was getting blocked by the fact I had to come up with something good every week. I would overthink it and it turned the joy of writing an entry into something stressful. Training myself to write something every day that could potentially be used for a blog entry or not, seems a good experiment.
This week I read and started morning pages. I was sick most of the week with horrible stomach issues related to medication, so I barely made it through the week, and didn't get in any walking, project writing, or even all of my morning pages. It was frustrating.
I also have a lot of chronic pain, and writing by hand can wear on me, but I've found that Pentel Energel pens (I prefer .7 tip) write very smoothly, and if I try to not make it overly legible, my hand really glides across the page. 😁
I still really resist the parts of the book that come across as religious (or recovery focused as someone else pointed out). 😬 I'm trying to gloss over/ignore it and move forward, taking the parts that work, and leaving the rest behind.
On Fridays, I participate in Zine Lunch, a zoom workshop hosted by Sarabande Books. I'm counting Friday's as my Artist Date because it was fun and got my mind going in a creative way. Later, I committed to exchanging zines with someone from another FB group, so I felt like that was a minor win.
Hoping for a better week this week. I enjoyed reading everyone's experiences. ❤️