I finished The Artist’s Way. Here’s my honest review.
After 12 long weeks, I officially finished The Artist’s Way. I do have to admit, it was a little too long and it became a bit of a slog towards the end. But even so, I found it intriguing, fulfilling, and really helpful for my artistic journey.
I talked about it in my last blog post, but within two weeks of starting The Artist’s Way, I got out of my creative rut and started drawing again. Writing morning pages took the anxieties out of my head, and artist’s dates reminded me of my favourite pastime – taking myself out on solo adventures. I started to realise unlocking creativity starts with prioritising my own needs and taking care of myself.
So what did I learn from the 12 weeks?
I learned that creativity really isn’t that serious, and it shouldn’t be burdensome. Creativity is a relief, it’s an escape. We add so much weight to being creative and being artistic, because it indirectly exposes our thoughts, feelings, and ‘talent’ to others. It can make us feel vulnerable, and judged – I understand why people don’t want to jump into it.
We also tend to commodify creativity and art too much, but at its core, creativity is really only for yourself. Creativity is its own reward and should always be thought of in that way. Because I design professionally, I need to seek approvals and validation for the work I do every day – and unfortunately it’s become a mentality that I’ve adopted for my own personal art. I think that’s why I put so much weight on the success of my personal projects (how much attention and positive feedback it gets), rather than just using these projects as a tool to have fun.
After reading The Artist’s Way I’ve realised that being creative is about relinquishing control, having faith, and enjoying the process right in front of you. That sounds so anxiety-inducing for many (me included), but the anxiety never comes from the act of creativity itself, but the weight and pressure we put on the outcome. It’s taught me that if I’m not enjoying the process of the craft, why am I doing it? Adopting this mentality across other factors of my life has helped me figure out what I need to keep in my life, and what I need to remove.
What are my favourite excerpts from the book?
There were a lot of amazing passages from the book that resonated with me. I’m going to include them down below.
On conserving energy:
“Everyone has an inner well, a place that we draw from (an artistic reservoir). Any extended period or piece of work draws heavily on our artist well. The truth is that work can dry up because it’s going so well.”
“In any creative life, there are dry seasons. In a creative life, droughts are necessary. The time in the desert brings us clarity and charity. When you are in drought, know that it is to a purpose.”
“Your artist needs to be taken out, pampered, and listened to.”
“An artist must have downtime, time to do nothing. For an artist, withdrawal is necessary. Without this period of recharging, our artist becomes depleted.”
On being a perfectionist:
“Perfectionism has nothing to do with getting it right. It has nothing to do with fixing things. It has nothing to do with standards. Perfectionism is a refusal to let yourself move ahead. It is stuck in the details of what you are writing or painting to making and to lose sight of the whole.”
On anxiety and being our own worst enemy:
“Most blocked creatives have an active addiction to anxiety. We prefer the low-grade pain and occasional heart-stopping panic attack to the drudgery of small and simple daily steps in the right direction.”
“Blocked creatives like to think they are looking to change their life in one fell swoop. Creative people are dramatic, and we use negative drama to scare ourselves out of our creativity with this notion of wholesale and often destructive change. Instead of writing three pages a day on a screenplay, we prefer worrying about how we will have to move to Hollywood if the script gets bought. Which it can’t anyway because we are too busy worrying about selling it to write it.”
“Indulging ourselves in a frantic fantasy of what our life would look like if we were real artists, we fail to see the many small creative changes that we could make at this very moment.”
On being a beginner and always learning:
“To recover as an artist, you must be willing to be a bad artist. Give yourself permission to be a beginner.”
“In a sense, no creative act is ever finished. You can’t learn to act because there’s always more to learn.”
On excuses:
“Stop telling yourself it's too late.
Stop waiting to make enough money to do something you’d really love.
Stop fearing what your family and friends will think of you.
Stop telling yourself that creativity is a luxury and that you should be grateful for what you’ve got”
““I’m too old” is something we tell ourselves to save ourselves from the emotional costs of the ego deflation involved in being a beginner.”
“But do you know how old I will be by the time I learn to really play the piano/act/paint/write a decent play?. Yes… the same age you will be if you don’t.”
One of my favourite exercises: Goal Search
This was one of my favourite exercises from The Artist’s Way – it felt very direct and purposeful. I decided to include it here because I know others will find it useful too.
You may find the following exercise difficult. Allow yourself to do it anyway. If multiple dreams occur to you, do the exercise for each one of them. The simple act of imagining a dream in concrete detail helps us to bring it into reality. Think of your goal search as a preliminary architect’s drawing for the life you would wish to have. I am indebted to Barbara Sher and Shakti Gawain for the inspiration for these tasks.
The Steps
Name your dream. That’s right. Write it down. “ In a perfect world, I would secretly love to be a ________________. ”
Name one concrete goal that signals to you its accomplishment. On your emotional compass, this goal signifies true north. (Note: two people may want to be an actress. They share that dream. For one, an article in People magazine is the concrete goal. To her, glamour is the emotional center for her dream; glamour is true north. For the second actress, the concrete goal is a good review in a Broadway play. To her, respect as a creative artist is the emotional center of her dream; respect is true north. Actress one might be happy as a soap star. Actress two would need stage work to fulfill her dream. On the surface. both seem to desire the same thing.)
In a perfect world, where would you like to be in five years in relation to your dream and true north?
In the world we inhabit now, what action can you take this year to move you closer?
What action can you take this month? This week? This day? Right now?
List your dream (for example, to be a famous film director). List its true north (respect and higher consciousness. mass communication.) Select a role model (Walt Disney. Ron Howard. Michael Powell). Make an action plan. Five years. Three years. One year. One month. One week. Now. Choose an action.
What will I be doing moving forward?
Morning pages
Admittedly towards the end, morning pages were becoming boring and tiresome. I felt like I was repeating myself, it was taking time out of my commute when I could’ve been drawing or reading – which almost felt counterproductive. My morning commute is around 1 hour long, and I typically use that time to read books or draw on the train. However, when I started doing morning pages, writing took over my drawing time and I stopped drawing altogether.
Moving forward I will no longer be writing morning pages, but I’ll be recording audio diaries at the end of the day so I have a bit more to reflect on and everything feels a bit more fresh. This will also improve my speaking skills, my enunciation (my Australian accent tends to make my smoosh words together), and listening to my voice notes is way more fun than rereading a wall of boring text. I’ve been recording my daily entries for a couple of weeks now, but I find it way more fun and something I look forward to.
Artist dates
As for Aritst’s dates, doing a weekly date is often for me, especially when I socialise a lot during the week. I also want to prioritise time on my own, so I have the mental capacity to be creative. So I’m going to a museum or movie twice a month instead, and it doesn’t disrupt my weekly routine either. I’ve marked a bi-weekly artist date for myself – something I’ll prioritise when it comes around, and I’ll find ways to enjoy some time on my own.
Being mindful
Instead of doom scrolling immediately when I’m bored, I’ll spend 30 minutes a day doing simple and mindful activities – like stretching or finishing puzzles on my coffee table. It’s a simple act, it doesn’t relate to creativity at all, but it’s a moment for me to step away from my regular routine to feel mindful and restful.
Splitting up ‘no pressure creative drawing time’ from ‘focused project time’
My biggest struggle is trying to find time to enjoy creativity with no purpose, but also getting things done. I’ve been drawing aimlessly for a few months, and while the process has been fun, my focus has been all over the place and I haven’t created anything substantial. So moving forward, I’ve decided that I will dedicate time to “no pressure free creative drawing” on my morning commute – and an hour before bed I will spend time working on a monthly project that has a deadline and output. This is how they differ:
Morning “no pressure free creative drawing/time” (10 minutes minimum)
Treating this like a warm up
I’m allowed to draw things that are bad
I just have to do the bare minimum
I’m just drawing to draw, so I can move my hand around
Night “focused project time” (1 hour minimum)
I have a monthly project I need to finish, deadline is the end of the month
It can be illustration, writing, graphic design, print or craft related
It’s all I focus on for the month, 1 project at a time
If the project finishes early, I will start on another and the deadline will be at the end of the same month
This way I get to enjoy my creative time and slowly improve my skills with no pressure, and I also get to finish a cool little project by the end of each month. There’s a lot of cool ideas I have floating around in my head, and I want to try them all.
My final thoughts
While on this journey, I discovered how much of my creativity was stilted by my own mentality – whether it was from stress, self-doubt or perfectionism. I also went through a period of time shortly after finishing The Artist’s Way where I could barely bring myself to pick up a pencil, let alone think about projects. But only a week after that, my brain was brimming with ideas, intense enthusiasm, and a thirst to share knowledge again. Creativity is a wonderful thing, and should never feel like a chore.
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