Write for Life / Week 3 (trust your process)

Reflection and discussion of Week 3 of Julia Cameron's Write for Life

"'If you write Morning Pages, you will experience synchronicity,' I tell my students. 'You will find yourself in the right time, in the right place, meeting up with fortuitous circumstances that appear to be more than mere coincidence. Synchronicity is the uncanny meshing of our inner and outer worlds.'" Julia Cameron, Write for Life

We are now through Week 3 now of this 6-chapter, 6-week book, Write for Life by Julia Cameron. I hope some of you are still reading along and finding some of this material helpful, thought-provoking, resonant, or actionable in your own creative life. Thank you to those of you who have responded in the previous weekly threads about your experience with the week.

Chapter 3 has a Bit of Everything

This week's chapter, "Trust Your Process," is comprised of a bunch of short sections (which seem to be the daily "essays" she is referencing) on the following topics: trusting your ideas, honesty, vulnerability, anxiety, jealousy, humility, patience, and discipline. The chapter also includes sections on the "feared" or "imagined" credibility attack, asking for guidance, silence, changing genres, the value of writing by hand, synchronicity, hope, and faith.

That's a lot in a chapter. You may have found that some of these small sections had relevance or resonance for you, and some didn't.

This quote on patience repeats much that has come before in this book, but it has some nice moments:

"A word at a time, a thought at a time, writing is the distillate of our experience. The nectar of our psyche, writing deserves not to be rushed. Writing Morning Pages daily, we learn to transcribe each thought as it comes to us. Writing on our projects, we find ourselves moving ahead a thought at a time. We are learning patience, waiting for each idea to arise. Our writing becomes quite literally thought-full. Our prose becomes richer. Patience is the key to fine writing. I love to write, and patience has taught me to savor the process." (p 86)

I am having a hard time falling in line with most of what I am reading, and it makes these notes particularly challenging each week.

Without commentary, here are some short summary notes and highlights from this week's chapter:

• Choosing what to write—a strategy: "What I'd really like to write about is…." (and then pick one — an exercise in not overthinking it and not stalling on the "what" to write) (p72)

• Honesty: a claim that Morning Pages "train" us to write with honesty and that this training will carry over into other writing. "We write with rigorous honesty, and this wins for us our reader's faith. Born by sharing our vulnerability, we earn the right to write…" (p 74)

• Being honest (e.g., authentic) rather than worrying about how "smart" or "brilliant" the writing is: "As we attempt to enter the writer's world, only one quality is necessary, and that is honesty." (p 73) "'Am I being honest?' Honesty brings artfulness. There is a fluidity to our thoughts when we simply let ourselves write from honesty." (p 87)

• Three questions: "Am I being honest? Am I being authentic? Am I being of service? These three questions, answered in the affirmative, yield me a piece of writing that withstands scrutiny. The same will be true for you." (p 73)

• The importance of humility: she suggests writers must write with the desire to be of service…. which she says brings humility.

• Vulnerability: an advocation that vulnerable writing is the best writing. "The best writing comes from the heart, and the heart is tender. When our writing feels dull or flat, it is because we are refusing to say something we consider unsayable. We are refusing to be vulnerable, to share our secret heart." (p 75) — She posits that  vulnerability leads to spice and that vulnerable writing encourages risk.

• Jealousy: "Jealousy is a map. It tells us - with excruciating precision — just where and for what we yearn." (p 81) Jealousy… "is a stingy emotion, grounded in fear — fear that there is not enough good to go around." "We perceive ourselves in black-and-white terms. Compared to the illustrious 'someone else,' we are a loser." (p 82)

• Humility: be clear not smart.

• Patience: her belief that slowing down is best. 

• Synchronicity: "Writing Morning Pages, we notify the universe of our dreams, wishes, and desires. The universe, in turn, sets about the business of fulfilling those desires. It is as though we have placed a carryout order, and need only pick it up." (p 96)

• Vulnerability (and courage) leads to authenticity

• "Credibility attack": the (unfounded) fear that work is no good or will be challenged or questioned. 

"From Morning Pages, we have learned that we can write from whatever mood we find ourselves in. We learn that we can make art when we don't feel like it. There is a simple question we can ask ourselves. That question is, 'Am I being honest?' Honesty brings artfulness. There is a fluidity to our thoughts when we simply let ourselves write from honesty. We put pen to page and set down our ideas as they come to us. We do not struggle. We do not fret. We do not worry. We trust our first thought." Julia Cameron, Write for Life

My Thoughts on Chapter Three

There were sections this week that had resonance for me.  There was also an unexpected moment in which a word choice sent me scrambling because I had just days before written and then decided to hold an entire section specifically about this word for a separate Sunday writing or a podcast. When I first saw the word pop up, out of the blue, I felt like my basket of eggs had been overturned. Now, days later, looking back at the context of the sentence, I realize it is totally different and unrelated.  It was still a moment of unexpected synchronicity (which was not the word), though it was not really synchronicity in the way she talks about it.

The section on jealousy had resonance for me. I struggle with jealousy and with the overwhelming reality that the world is unfair, that working hard and taking what seem to be the right steps doesn't mean things work out, and that many people succeed (or don't) for reasons that are hard to pinpoint. I do struggle, and it is difficult to admit that. So I read her words on jealousy with interest. Mostly, I was just curious to see her take on it. The one kernel there for me comes back up in the tasks at the end…. The reminder that understanding what you are jealous of and why opens up the opportunity to find an action you can take. "Jealousy asks us to grow." "Jealousy can be turned to our advantage. After all, it points us in a direction we desire." (p 82)

On synchronicity, she writes:

"Writing Morning Pages, we notify the universe of our dreams, wishes, and desires. The universe, in turn, sets about the business of fulfilling those desires. It is as though we have placed a carryout order, and need only pick it up." (p 96)

I must be doing something wrong. (I say that laughingly.)

How the Week Went

My morning writing routine (started before we started reading this book, but inspired by the general concept) continues to be strong. I don't even question that this is the first thing I will do each morning. I immediately move through the cycle of actions in the habit stack. This has helped balance and enhance my day in immeasurable ways. Right now, I have no desire to miss this window of time, this sequence of activities, this span of reflection.

I didn't find the quota useful in the first two weeks. I didn't start out following the strictures, either, but once I completely reoriented and settled into habits I know work for me, I have had a productive writing week. I was already setting a timer for short writing sessions as a way to mentally (and concretely) carve out extra time for writing sessions.  (I usually continue beyond the timer, but setting the timer helps create at least a baseline boundary for this process.) I continued to set the timer this week, but I also decided to go ahead and log word count for the April Camp NaNoWriMo. This simple system really works for me. As a result, I've fit in the extra daily writing, without limiting myself, and allowing some days to be more or less, longer or shorter. I can see the numbers adding up, and I've written some things I didn't know I was going to write. (Of all the things I've said, that feels the most Cameronesque, but in truth, it is how I write.) (These writing sessions are not by hand. My real writing is not analog.)

As I've written throughout this week, I have thought several times of some of her discussion around laying track. The idea of writing forward is one that works for me, and as I've followed my own writing path throughout the week, I've realized, time and again, how some of the things she's written about do have parallels to how I work, how I write, how I approach the page and simply let whatever happens happen. (I then compulsively edit and go back into my work later.) While I still think this probably wasn't the right book for me to read, I do know that, even subconsciously, I'm thinking about some of the things I've read.

Last Sunday, I wrote several pieces for my Sunday mailing. One of those was about the inner critic, something that Chapter 2 really made me think about (although naming it isn't something I'm likely to do). I bounced from there to some discussion that circles, obliquely, around imposter syndrome, something I've never ever talked about before, and I'm not convinced those are the right words. They are not even the words I used last week in my writing. I think the discussion probably falls a bit in line with the "credibility attack" essay from Chapter 3. So some of these sections have given me things to think about even if, in the end, they head in a different direction.

Maybe I'm just standing in a totally different field.

Your Week

• There were 5 tasks with this chapter, one on asking for guidance, one on jealousy, one on trusting our ideas ("What I'd really like to write about is"), one on synchronicity, and one on emotionally charged topics of personal significance. Did you do any of these? Did you find any of them helpful or personally insightful?

• Have you experienced moments of synchronicity as a result of your three weeks with this book?

• How did the core practices go: Morning Pages, Artist Date, walks, and daily quota?

• Did you struggle with any sections of this chapter?

• Were there sections you especially liked or found helpful for you?

• How are you feeling about your writing, your habit, or the book now that you are midway through? Have your feelings changed since you started?

Into Week 4 we go!

"It is the desire to share accurately our perceptions that gives a writer voice. When we are willing to be authentic, our words take on the patina of truth. And it is truth which allows the writer to connect to the reader." Julia Cameron, Write for Life