Why I’m Starting the Year ‘The Artist’s Way’
12 weeks of committing to my creative discovery and recovery
By the time December 31 rolls around, I usually have a clear idea of what I want to focus on for the coming year. I’ll already have projects in mind and big goals I want to tackle.
But this year, I struggled to come up with anything too specific, preferring instead to keep my creative goals intentionally vague for the time being. I knew, however, that I would need something to help fuel my creativity and inspire my next moves.
Back in 2021 and into early 2022, I read Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way for the first time. I wrote about my experience with The Artist’s Way before, so I recommend checking that out if you’re not familiar with the book.
To summarize, the book is about “discovering and recovering your creative self.” It features 12 chapters, meant to be read over 12 weeks, each one centered around a different part of yourself to “recover.” The first week, for example, is about “Recovering a sense of safety.”
The first time through, I found the book tremendously helpful in recovering a sense of creativity I’d feared I’d lost. This year, I’ve decided to kick off these first three months reading the book again, one chapter per week as is intended.
What I’m committing to
The book asks you to commit to performing a few daily and weekly tasks to aid you in your creative recovery. For me, this means I’m promising to:
Write my daily pages: I know — they’re called morning pages. Sometimes I do them in the morning. However, I’m often a bit more of a night owl. Doing them in the early evening after work and before I have my personal creative time suits me better.
Take time for weekly artist dates: For me, these can take on a different shape than what Cameron recommends. I’ve found that it’s relatively easy for me to set aside time to be creative at home at some point during the week. If I do go out and explore, though, I rarely do it alone, as she advises. I’m usually with my husband, who’s content to tag along as I browse antique stores, visit art galleries, or otherwise find some other type of adventure. So I’m dating my husband and my muse — what of it?
Focus on my creativity: Admittedly, between the holiday season and wrapping up 2024’s projects as best as I could, I kind of lost sight of a lot of my good habits that I’d stuck to throughout the rest of the year. So these next three months are to help me bring my focus back to my art and writing.
An exercise for the first week
The first chapter centers around recovering your sense of safety — knowing that it’s okay for you to express yourself and your creativity. One of the prompts at the end of the first chapter asks you to dig deep into a time when someone or something impeded your creativity. Who was a “monster” from your past who criticized your creativity or held you back in some way? Think about that and then write a “horror story” about that person.
(I’ve written about it before — and how you can defeat your own monsters by releasing your limiting beliefs.)
When I was in first grade, I did a finger painting project to create a picture of an apple tree. My classmates and I would dip our thumbs in red paint to place an “apple” on a pre-drawn tree on a sheet of paper. At the end, the pictures would all hang up in the classroom, like some kind of cartoon orchard.
For whatever reason, I wanted my apples to be in perfectly neat rows. (My early attempt at modern art, perhaps.) As I was finishing my painting, my teacher came over, looked at what I was doing, and shook her head. “Apples don’t grow in straight lines,” she said. Then she took my paper and gave me a new one so that I could make my apples more random — you know, just like what everyone else was doing.
I find this story humorous rather than traumatic. But I’ve always remembered how ridiculous it was for a teacher to do that. And anyway, her pre-drawn trees didn’t really look like trees, either. So now who’s unrealistic?
In my journal, I took this story a step further and turned my first grade teacher into the world’s worst art critic. She’s doodling over a Picasso! She’s ripping up Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe print because people don’t have purple faces! She’s throwing a Jackson Pollock in the dumpster!
Even if you don’t want to read The Artist’s Way, I highly encourage you to try this activity. Take the person who shamed you or insulted your creative efforts and turn them into a caricature. Take the power away from them and give it to yourself.
Powerful changes ahead
From the Basic Principles of The Artist’s Way: “As we open our creative channel to the creator, many gentle but powerful changes are to be expected.”
I’ve found this to be true in the past, and I’m excited to see where this second time reading the book will lead.
If you’re interested in following along, we can start 2025 off reading The Artist’s Way together. See you next week for a check-in!
Want to read the entire series?
Explore the tag or choose from below:
Week 1, Recovering a Sense of Safety: This post
Week 2, Identity: On Icons, Idols, and Identity
Week 3, Power: No Apologies. Take Your Power Back.
Week 4, Integrity: Grow, Shed, Grow Again
Week 5, Possibility: A Portal to Possibility
Week 6, Abundance: Little Luxuries
Week 7, Connection: Connecting the Dots
Week 8, Strength: In the Chrysalis of Liminal Goop
Week 9, Compassion: Down the Rabbit Hole
Week 10, Self-Protection: 3 Lies to Stop Telling Yourself About Making Art
Week 11, Autonomy: How to Design Your Artist’s Altar
Week 12, Faith: There Is No True Creative Destination, and That’s Okay
Last year was grueling! My creativity feels out of gas, so this post and reminder that I need to open and read my copy of THE ARTIST'S WAY is right on time and much appreciated!