r/artistsWay

I know this question has been asked in some form on a few occasions, but I'm considering getting this book and one of my main concerns is that I know the book is heavy on the idea of a god existing and being an intrinsic part of creativity.

I have read the disclaimer the book provides from a chapter sample and it's... not ideal. It's a bit patronising, to say the least. I'm also not keen on having to interrupt my own reading repeatedly to mentally correct the text of the book.

The book seems to, on the whole, be very heavy on the idea of an external force acting on human creativity, and in there being something fundamentally "spiritual" (a meaningless term outside of a religious context, to me) about creativity. I disagree philosophically in many ways with what I've read so far, but the exercises genuinely seem to help people.

Overwhelmingly, the advice people have been giving is to simply interrupt yourself every time the word "god" comes up and alter it for yourself somehow. That seems like a bad way of reading anything. I've also seen the advice of "take what you want and leave the rest", but realistically how much am I likely to get out of this if I'm having to throw out a major aspect of the book's thesis?

I guess my question is, is the whole thing unreadable to me? Am I likely going to be too frustrated with the framing to get use out of it?

Let me preface with I (unintentionally) tend to make things complicated. I started the Artist’s Way while in the middle of a spiritual journey. I noticed that my morning pages were turning into my prayers, more of a journal. When I read that the morning pages would be something to throw away, I got stuck. Once I’ve gone through a difficult time, I like to go back through my writings to see how God has delivered me. I feel like I’m doing it wrong.

That was months ago. I really want to go through this process. I’m stuck.

I’d like to start the artists way, but I would find it easier to have like an accountability friend or group to do it with. If there’s any other women who would like a companion to share with, I’m 42f and would love to hear from you!

I'm on week four of the book right now, the reading deprivation week, and I'll be honest, I almost skipped it. I read something every single day, phone, book, cereal box, whatever. The idea of going a full week without any of that sounded impossible and also kind of pointless.

I did it anyway because I told my sister I would, and she's doing the book alongside me this time.

The first two days were rough. I kept picking up my phone out of habit and putting it back down when I remembered. I felt bored in this itchy uncomfortable way, like my brain wanted something to chew on and there was nothing there. By day three the itch calmed down a bit, and something weird started happening. I began noticing things around my apartment I'd been ignoring for months. A box of old cassette tapes from my dad that I never got rid of. A cheap keyboard I bought two years ago and never opened.

On day five I pulled the keyboard out just to have something to do with my hands, no book or podcast to distract me. I ended up sitting there for almost two hours just messing around with it, no plan, no lesson, just pressing keys and seeing what sounded nice next to what. I haven't touched an instrument since I quit piano lessons as a teenager, and I quit because I hated being told what to practice. Turns out I still like sound, I just hated the homework part of it.

By the end of the week I wasn't itching for my phone anymore, I was actually annoyed when I picked it back up on day eight. I've kept the keyboard out on my desk since then and I noodle around on it most evenings now, nothing serious, just enough to remember I used to like this before someone made it a chore.

I don't think the deprivation week did anything magic on its own. I think it just got everything else out of the way long enough for me to hear what I actually wanted to do.

Not in a bad way. Just unexpected.

Started the pages thinking I knew myself reasonably well. Functional self awareness, decent understanding of what I wanted, clear enough picture of why things were or were not working in my life. Three pages every morning felt like it would confirm things I already knew.

It did not confirm things I already knew.

Week one was surface level. Complaints about being tired, observations about the day ahead, nothing that surprised me. Week two the complaints ran out faster and something underneath them started coming through. Opinions I had not known I held. Frustrations I had been packaging as acceptance.

Things I wanted that I had quietly stopped admitting I wanted because wanting them and not having them was harder than just not wanting them, started taking whatever surfaced straight into something called Skrib Writing while it was still fresh and drafting from that place has felt more honest than anything I was producing before I started this process.

and not having them was harder than just not wanting them.

Week three I wrote something about my creative life that I had to read back three times because I did not remember writing it and could not argue with it. A true thing that I had apparently known for a long time without letting myself know it.

Read back through everything after week three and the person in those pages was more honest than the version of me that walks around in daily life. Not more dramatic, not more troubled, just less edited. Less concerned with being reasonable about things that were actually bothering me.

Cameron says the pages are not meant to be read or analyzed. I broke that rule and I think it was worth it just once to see what three weeks of unedited honesty looked like from the outside.

How do you approach Morning Pages when you take a while to fully wake up?

Hi everyone! I’m just starting my 4th week of The Artist’s Way, and I’ve been thinking about what Morning Pages actually look like for me.

I’ve been doing a kind of morning journaling for about four years already, so I was already used to writing in the morning. The difference is that my old journaling didn’t really have a particular intention, and there was no page limit.

I also have narcolepsy, so it takes me a while to fully wake up in the morning. For about the first 30 minutes after getting up (which is when I take my medication), I’m basically a zombie. 😅 Sometimes all I can do is open my notebook and start writing.

And what I write during that time is… incredibly mundane.

>

A good half-page can be like this.

But I think it actually helps me wake up. It feels like my hand starts moving before my brain is fully online. I put these vague thoughts about what I need to do into words, and then somehow my body starts following along. I drink the water, wash my face, take my medication, etc. As I move around, I gradually become more awake.

After about an hour and a half, I’m usually alert enough that my writing becomes more substantial. If I have a lot on my mind, I sometimes end up writing 4–6 pages.

Lately, though, I’ve started using the time to set up my work environment as well. If I become alert enough, I just start working. If I’m still sleepy, I continue writing while I wake up.

The result is that my Morning Pages have become longer, and sometimes they start turning into detailed notes about whatever I’m working on. When I read them back, they don’t really feel like the kind of “Morning Pages” I imagined they were supposed to be.

But at the same time, I wonder if I’m overthinking it. Maybe this is simply what Morning Pages look like for me right now.

I’m curious how other people approach this. Do your Morning Pages ever become very mundane, repetitive, or mixed in with practical thoughts about your day? And if you take a while to fully wake up in the morning, do you have any particular way of handling your pages?

P.S. I wrote this in my native language and used AI to translate it. Hope that's okay! Otherwise, I can post the original and let your browser translate it.

First copy I bought six years ago. Read the introduction, felt inspired, put it on the shelf and told myself I would start on Monday. Monday became eventually and eventually became never and the book sat there for two years before I gave it away.

Second copy I bought because I forgot I had owned it. Got through week two before life got busy and I set it aside with every intention of picking it back up. Did not pick it back up.

Third copy I bought eight months ago in a specific kind of desperation. Something had gone flat in my creative life in a way I could not fix by trying harder and I was out of other ideas.

This time I actually did it.

What was different was not discipline or a better season of life, I started moving straight from the morning pages into something called Skrib Writing while whatever came up was still fresh, and having a focused place to take the material before the day closed over it changed what the pages actually produced beyond just the pages themselves.

Life was actually harder than it had been during the first two attempts. What was different was that I finally understood the book was not asking me to find time for creativity. It was asking me to look honestly at why I had been avoiding it.

That is a much more uncomfortable book than the one I thought I was buying the first two times. The morning pages are not a journaling practice. They are a slow dismantling of every story I had been telling myself about why the creative work was not happening.

Still in it. Some weeks are harder than others. But something is different this time in a way I cannot fully explain yet.

Anyone else take multiple attempts before it actually landed?

I want to write this while it is still fresh because I think I need to remember that week four happened exactly the way it did.

I started The Artist's Way about six weeks ago after years of telling myself I was not really a creative person, that I had missed my window, that whatever I used to feel when I wrote or drew or made things had just dried up somewhere in my late twenties and was not coming back.

The first three weeks were uncomfortable but manageable. Morning pages felt pointless for about ten days and then started feeling necessary. The artist dates were awkward because I genuinely did not know how to spend time with myself without filling it with productivity or scrolling.

Then week four arrived and something in me just revolted.

I stopped doing morning pages for five days. I skipped the reading. I told myself I was too busy which was partially true and mostly not. I felt guilty about it and the guilt made me avoid the book entirely which made the guilt worse.

On day six of that gap I sat down at six in the morning before anyone else was awake and just opened the journal and started writing. Not because I had figured anything out. Just because not writing was making me feel worse than writing.

What came out of that session was the most honest thing I have written in probably ten years. I am not going to share what it was but I cried while writing it which has not happened to me in a very long time.

I do not think I would have gotten there without the resistance first. The block was showing me exactly where the thing I needed to reach was buried.

Still here. Still showing up. Week six now and something has quietly shifted that I do not have the right words for yet.

Hey everyone, I'd like to buy the book and embark on this journey. Is there any difference between the editions? I can find the Profile Books Ltd 2020 edition in my country, otherwise I'll have to order from EU for an older one. I'm afraid I'm becoming obsessed with it so any help is welcome

https://preview.redd.it/9e0cag739ejh1.jpg?width=573&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e9c88df0ab9ab18695f3b2941d43a3908aa40a46

I’m really keen to find a spiritual and intentional life (yet I am a non believer) so thought TAW would be interesting as it’s been so transformative for lots of people
However I am a stay at home mum to 2 under 2 and I like to do crafty bits and bobs (for example this week I’ve made a Cinderella doll, some trousers and a felt mouse for my toddler) but I’m not “stuck” I’m more just wanting something deeper that’s about me rather than my mothering. I find being a mum extremely rewarding and I’m very very happy in my life so I’m kind of wondering if I will find TAW useful?
Like i don’t feel sad or unfulfilled 🙈

Any advice would be greatly appreciated x

I’m just starting The Artist's Way and would love to find one or two people as accountability buddies. I want to do a quick check-in at the end of each week to share our thoughts and keep each other motivated.

I’m starting right away and planning to wrap up Week 1 by Sunday, August 23rd. My timezone is GMT+3, but as long as we can stay in touch once a week, any timezone works really. If you’re just starting out too send me a DM. (I am 24 year old woman but any gender or age can DM)

I have recently started the artists way and am about a week in. I’ve been doing the morning pages every day in an A5 notebook and find them to already be helping tremendously….BUT writing makes my hand and arm cramp up so badly that by halfway through page two I can barely even scribble it hurts so bad. I always aim for 3 pages, and I want to be able to write them by hand consecutively (if I pause and come back later I feel like my train of thought is interrupted). I’m wondering if anyone has suggestions for making the morning pages more accessible? Right now I struggle to even type this (let alone paint!) because my hand is still cramping from writing.

Hey everyone, I know the standard advice is that Morning Pages are a "brain dump" for clearing clutter or boosting productivity, but I’ve been thinking more about the spiritual side of it. Julia Cameron herself calls it a form of meditation, and I’m curious if anyone here feels it’s actually more like a direct form of prayer or a way to tap into a spiritual current beyond our logical understanding.For those of you who still do them regularly: Have you ever noticed a "magic" to the pages where for example if you complain about something or ask for something specific, life suddenly shifts and gives you exactly what you need? like asking for something on the page and then suddenly getting it in a way that felt like "spiritual assistance"? Does anyone have specific stories? also, If you're someone like me, who has suffered from severe depression or a major life slump, did you find that writing every day allowed those mysterious forces beyond your control to operate in your favor and pull you out of it? it's like the act of automatic writing alone make you feel more spiritually aligned or less alone, as if life itself is responding to you... I’d love to hear if anyone else sees this as a spiritual tool first and foremost, something that allows you to tap into the forces you can't explain rather than just being a "to-do" list for your brain. Does your life feel richer or more "assisted" as a result of the practice?

I am at week 8 and loving morning pages. It has helped me manage a very challenging family scenario, get me painting again, planning my next role and re surfacing an old business idea. Keen to hear from others tho what else has led to a really positive result? I must say apart from MP, artists dates and responding to prompts I’m a bit slack ( eg creating the collages etc) Need some inspiration!!