The first light of the morning glows dimly over the horizon. The light from my reading lamp makes up the difference and illuminates the blank pages of the lined notebook open on my lap. The only noise in my snug studio is the slow tock-tock-tock of a clock on the desk. I sip my coffee and close my eyes to clear my mind. A moment later I open them and bring the pen I am holding to the top of the page and write the date and my location. I have decided to start with a list of gratitudes. Then I move on to talk about how the cat is climbing on my journal and biting the corner. I gently shoo her away and continue writing whatever comes to mind at the moment, until I fill three pages. The day has begun.
Last newsletter I wrote about The Artist Date, an exercise prescribed in The Artist’s Way, by Julie Cameron. The other cornerstone of 12-week course in the book is the practice of completing the Artist Pages every day. This is quite simply writing three pages longhand in a journal every day. That’s it.
It is simple in its method but powerful in its potential, much as meditation is. I would venture to say that it is, in fact, a form of meditation in which you are similarly encouraging “a heightened state of awareness and focused attention.”
The author maintains that writing in this way each day boosts creativity. After practicing Artist Pages myself, I have to agree that it feels like priming the creativity pump. After a few days of beginning the practice I found that my mind was filled with ideas and creative approaches to many things in my life.
One of the things I’ve always wanted to do is write a book. Ever since I read my first “chapter book,” Island of the Blue Dolphins, as a child I was hooked and wanted to create a book myself. I have made many aborted attempts in the past but struggled with coming up with ideas.
Shortly after I began writing my Artist Pages I came across a contest sponsored by David Baldacci, a thriller writer, through Master Class. I’ve told you that I’m a sucker for contests. I saw that I had one month to complete the entry requirements, which was to write two chapters of a mystery or thriller.
Once I learned of the contest my Artist Pages filled with ideas for a novel. I went with one idea, writing a chapter. The words flowed and it felt good. The idea, however, was too dark and I felt like it would be torturous to continue to spend as much time as would be necessary to complete an entire book. I stored it away in case it appealed to me later and began again. It took a couple of days of writing in my journal, letting my mind clear and flow, brushing away worry that I couldn’t come up with an idea like you would brush away a mosquito in your ear. And it worked. Sentence after sentence of asking “What if?” and finding the answers. It felt like I had found a beautiful bloom in the desert and watched it unfurl petal-by-petal as my idea developed.
With my new idea in place and buoyed by the knowledge that I was able to write a first chapter before, I began writing a new first chapter. Then a second chapter. The writing flowed much easier than it had in the past, before writing my Artist Pages. Of course, writing these newsletters, this being number 21, has also helped draw the words out, but the Artist Pages feel like a practice that lifts creativity to the next level. Creativity is the backbone of artistic practices of all stripes. It’s wonderful to master the mechanics of a craft, but once that’s done, you have to have ideas to work with. The Artist Pages are a perfect companion to the Artist Date in the nurturing of the creative soul and the production of ideas.
Whether you consider yourself an artist or not, I think writing in this way has the potential to open your mind in new and perhaps surprising ways that can expand one’s consciousness, quite literally. We could all benefit from seeing things differently and creatively. If you try it out, let me know what happens. You may just find out you are indeed an artist at heart.
And yes, I submitted my two chapters and will find out if my writing was selected to be among the five winners on January 24th. Whether I continue on with the book or not, whether I win or not, it feels like a major success to have come up with an idea I’m pleased with and to write more than I ever have in the past. I set a goal and achieved it and that feels pretty good.
I have a blank panel on the easel on which I am planning to paint a lovely winter scene, which I will share next time. For now, I will re-share a painting I wrote about a while back, “Wildflowers in Winter.” Coincidently, that post was the one in which I wrote about my love of contests. Strange how things work.
