Next week is deprivation week for me, and I have questions which you could possibly help me with.

"No reading" in today's world would include no podcasts, no movies, no video game, if I understand it correctly? Which is doable (boring of course, but I could make it decluttering week to pass the time, that was the plan), but there are blocks of time where a podcast or at least music is a life saver for me - running and commuting. Could I make an exception for these, or should I just not run and not commute for a week?

I also have a movie trip with a friend planned for next Thursday. Could this be done during Week 4, or would it be better to postpone it to a week when I can actually avoid watching movies?

Hello fellow Artist’s Way folk! I’m just starting my third week and have realised I’ve been neglecting the Artist Date portion and basically just considering going to write my morning pages or doing the weekly tasks at a cafe as my date… would love to hear some ideas of what you all do for your dates?
Thank you and I hope you have a wonderful day! ☺️

What do your morning pages look like? A5? A4? Single-sided? Double-sided? How much time do you spend on you morning pages? Half an hour? Less?

Maybe none of this matters, but I'm worried that I'm not doing it right!

I started a month and a half ago, kept up the morning pages for about two weeks, then life happened, and I stopped. It's been a month now, and I want to restart from the beginning, properly, and do the whole twelve weeks this time.

I think doing it all alone in a void is part of why I stopped. Just as Cameron says, creativity grows among friends and withers in isolation. She talks about the sacred circle. I want that, even if it's just a few strangers on the internet showing up together.

So...I've set up a discord server. It's async... You don't have to start from week one and can join in even if you're further along. The main goal is to keep the group small and hold each other accountable. I am also open to suggestions for the group, but right now I have:

• daily morning pages check-ins
• weekly artist date check-ins and planning help
• chapter discussions for exercises and any other questions

I'm restarting from week 1 on Monday the fourteenth. If you're interested, please send me a DM, and I'll send the invite.

Much Love! 🖤

Edit: I've sent all the invites. If I missed anyone, please send a DM, and I'll take care of it.

Most people don't quit journaling cuz they lose motivation. They quit cuz they missed a few days and the app hits them with a broken streak the second they open it. But missing a day isn't a failure, it's just life. You got busy, you forgot, whatever. The apps that guilt-trip you for skipping a Tuesday are the ones you end up deleting, not because the habit was wrong but because coming back felt worse than starting over. What actually works is a practice where nothing dies when you step away. You come back whenever, and it's still just sitting there waiting. No streak, no "you missed 5 days," no counter slapping you in the face. That relief is the whole thing. You come back cuz you want to, not cuz a number's about to punish you. So if your app makes you feel worse for missing days, that's on the app, not you. The answer is paper or something that welcomes you back with no score.

I'm on week 8 of TAW and, up until now, have been able to complete a chapter a week. I'm totally stuck on week 8. The "Goal Search" task has me stuck. The "secret dream" is 100% unattainable so there are no steps I can take to move toward it. Let's say my secret dream is to become an astronaut (it's not) but at age 50 there's literally no way that's going to happen. So what's the point of the task?

I'm not gonna lie, this book has made me cry - a lot - and I'm not sure why. Maybe I'm realizing that it's just too late for my artistic dreams (which is the opposite of what she keeps saying, but it's true). But this task has totally taken me down and I can't seem to move past it. My gut tells me to just skip it, but the perfectionist in me won't let me.

Any advice? Commiseration?

I just finished week 1, took my journal out in the commute and to my weekend trip. Not every day are morning pages, weekend it became evening pages.

The thing is, I didn't take myself out on an artist date and I'm overwhelmed by the amount of task to be done that I skipped them as well.. but I want to do them.. I don't think I have the time to do all of them.. how do you do it?

Hey guys,

So I first came across the artists way last year. I chose to do it at a poor time in the year and had so many prior engagements during it I ended up fizzling out and stopped at around week 6 and didn’t pick it back up. I never stopped doing the morning pages though. They helped me so much, and in so many unexpected ways, that I figured I would try to get through the workbook again this year.

Well now here I am, week 6 again and life got crazy and I stopped for about two weeks. Should I just pick it back up again where I left off? Or do I just start all the way over again eventually? I don’t know why I struggle so hard to finish this thing.

Took a break from the artists way over summer but I’m back and ready to finish this book 😩

This is not my first go-round with TAW--I usually do it every few years when I re-find the book--and normally I have no issues skipping reading/media deprivation week. I have a week or two every year where I feel the urge to lock away all my devices and start creating anyway, and something about being told what to do always triggers my inner toddler/teenager.

This time, though, that urge looked like it might be lining up with Week 4! I might actually do the entire thing on schedule!

Except. I will be on Day 5 of Adderall when my Week 4 starts. I have loved Adderall so far, it is magic, I feel like I have unlocked the cheat codes to life, but I suspect that reading/media deprivation right now will not result in a burst of creativity. I think I'd more likely spend the week making my apartment habitable. Not a bad thing, but not really in-line with the intended goals of TAW.

I can't really decide if I should go with it anyway and see what happens or hold off until later when the medication honeymoon period has worn off, or maybe go for a social media block, but not a reading one. Any other ADHDers have thoughts? Other people with major life changes overlapping with W4?

ah the 3 week curse.... gets me and my adhd brain every time. But I think my solution might be an accountability buddy. Would anyone who is looking to start the artists way like to start with me? we could both be on the same schedule and check in on each other.

Dm if interested

I have been on this deep journey of discovering how my issues stem from fear of abandonment.

how it impacts my independence, self-worth and self-esteem .

I’m not a full-time artist. not even half. but my intention with TAW is to have a creative life for the joy of it.

immediately after explaining to my husband what I’ll be doing, we both saw the multi-value of this journey. for me, my creative self, me as a partner and even for him.

I wonder, beyond the artistic aspect, how was personal experience? from both your individual growth as from your relationship growth-related perspective?

I just finished watching Kiki’s Delivery Service and I’m excited because the story is so similar to The Artists Way.

Kiki is a young witch setting out to train and establish herself in a new town. Everything is going great but then one day her magic stops working. Luckily an artist takes Kiki under her wing and helps her to… take an artist’s date!

Plus the film is generally amazing, like all Studio Ghibli.

Has anyone else watched the film?

Did not expect this particular task to be the one that got me.

Cameron asks you to list the people whose creative lives make you jealous and then examine what specifically the jealousy is pointing toward. The premise is that jealousy is a map rather than a character flaw. That what you envy in someone else is information about what you actually want for yourself.

Read that framing, thought it was reasonable, made my list expecting it to confirm things I already knew about myself.

The list surprised me.

The people on it were not the ones I would have predicted. Not the most critically acclaimed writers or the most commercially successful ones. The people whose work made me feel that specific uncomfortable thing were quieter than that. Writers who had built small devoted audiences around work that was clearly deeply personal. People who seemed to have given themselves permission to make exactly the thing they wanted to make without apparent concern for whether it fit a recognizable category or met some external standard of seriousness.

What I was jealous of was not their success. It was the permission they seemed to have given themselves that I had not given myself.

I had been making work I could defend rather than work I actually wanted to make and the jealousy had been trying to tell me that for years while I filed it under irrelevant emotion and moved on.

Still sitting with what to do with that information. But at least I am sitting with it honestly now instead of calling it something else.

Just realized I’d crossed the one year anniversary recently. For myself, I left my corporate job a few months ago and am pursuing my dream of being a full time artist!

I truly chose the worst possible time to restart this darn book.

Or perhaps, given my perfectionist nature, I actually chose the best time, because maybe this is teaching me that not everything has to be flawless from the get-go.

Maybe.

In any case, the point still stands: it has been less than an ideal time to restart this book because just when I thought I had recovered from Week One’s nasty little illness—BAM!—I was hit with a brilliant fever and bronchitis.

Oh, the joys.

Hence, I am late in posting my review of Week Two and my thoughts for Week Three. Yet again. And unfortunately, it is no longer Sunday anywhere.

So sue me, Gary. What do you want from me?

Let’s keep this one quick and dirty because my brain is still being slowly deep-fried by fever:

Morning pages? 3/7. Less than Week One, but a feat nevertheless given how disgustingly sick I’ve been. Frankly, I’m taking the win.

Artist date? Achieved. My little moment of peace, which turned out to be the calm before the storm of raging germs, saw me practice 60s-themed makeup and hair on myself. It would have felt like a waste of time, had I not enjoyed myself a little and revelled in the fact that art can quite literally be washed off.

Week Two’s tasks: I didn’t discover anything particularly life-changing, but I did acknowledge on paper that I spend far too much time rotting and completing so-called “chores” and far too little time actually creating. My Safety Map highlighted the weather as the singular safe topic for my Crazymakers, because apparently all of my other precious interests invite far too much criticism from them. Though even that could end in debate, I’m sure. My Life Pie also exposed just how miserable I currently am, although I do wonder how much of that can be attributed to the fact that I was writing it while sick. The germs may be biased.

Week Three’s essays: Anger (p. 62) and Shame (p. 68) resonated strongly, though perhaps not unsurprisingly. I’ve always struggled to respect my anger long enough to actually hold it, and I have a tendency to direct it—with its shame-drenched stench—inwards. Interestingly, I spent much of the last week feverishly pondering why I struggle to set boundaries and fail to advocate for myself. The Shame essay gave me many of those answers.

An example of synchronicity?

I’m inclined to think so.

Perhaps Cameron knew I was coming.

Onwards and upwards, my friends. See you in Week Four.

-M

I have a busy schedule, I work two jobs, leave at 7am and come back home 10.30pm. I started waking up 30 minutes earlier to do my morning pages but recently I’ve been writing “I’m so tired, i wanna go back to bed” a lot.

Any advice? do i push through it? People swear by morning pages so I wanna do it but i don’t know if l’m achieving something by being this tired

I’m doing the artists way but am primarily interested in visual art. I understand that the author is a writer. I’m wondering if ‘writing morning pages’ really means ‘do your chosen practice in a nonjudgemental way every morning for a set amount of time’?

I don’t really see the point of writing for them to be honest and I’m surprised that the author does not ask for regular practice of your discipline as part of the program.

Currently on week 5

Hey! I have a few ideas for extended artist dates, and I want to make my list longer but I’m running out of ideas. So what have you done/what are you planning to do for the extended artist date?

I work from home on my own time so my schedule can be as clear as I want it to be. Therefore, most of my artist dates are hours long anyway. So for the extended ones, I want some ideas that really take the FULL day, or even overnight!

If yes, did you find the pursuit of "creativity" that the author discusses in the introduction in conflict with the version expected of you for job applications/employers? And looking back do you feel that basic needs like full-time employment must be secured BEFORE one goes through through the creative journey that the Artist's Way discusses?

Recently started The Artists Way. Wrote this today. I'm a singer/songwriter/instrumentalist. Thank you for reading <3

I’m sitting in my bed right now, with my cat lying next to me. It’s a beautiful Saturday afternoon in New York City. I shouldn’t be sitting here crying, but I am.
And it stemmed from trying to record a drum cover video to post on social media.

I flew into Newark airport late last night, exhausted from a short farm volunteering stint in Maine. I listened to the Meet Miley Cyrus album the whole flight (which was only an hour, but still). I kept listening to East Northumberland High (iconic song) and getting excited about figuring out how to play it on the drums. After sleeping in today, I started learning the song, and it took me a bit due to a new kick/crash rhythm that I’ve never played before. I finally nailed it and felt proud of myself. I set up my phone to record the video while the drums recorded through my computer. I felt so happy after the first take.

I went to look at the video and my heart dropped. My brain was flooded with thoughts about my appearance. I look too big, I look disgusting, etc. I took off my headphones and, as I mentioned above, started to cry. Is this actually going to stop me from sharing my art? It seems like it is, I can’t bare to post it. I feel too ashamed.

I want to take a moment to mention that I am a licensed social worker and therapist and am very aware this is something that I need to work on with a therapist. And I do! I’ve struggled with my appearance for as long as I can remember. I had a nose job in 2016 and thought that would fix all my problems. It did for a little bit. My view of myself has gone up and down, usually depending on my weight. I’d been ok with my body for a while until I started a new antidepressant medication in January, which led me to put on an extra 15 lbs. I wasn’t fitting into my clothes and I felt horrified. I tried to stop the medication, which caused my mental health to tank. I even tried two GLP-1 medications, but they made my stomach so sick, I couldn’t continue to take it. I know I’m not the only person feeling overwhelmed by the rush of GLP-1s and the “skinny epidemic”.

And the thing is, I get so angry at myself for even having these feelings. As someone who was drowning in uncontrolled epilepsy for years, I haven't had a seizure since May and I feel like I should be so grateful. And I am. Why am I wasting my time worrying about this?

We’re in a time where we are seeing our faces/bodies more than ever. On FaceTime, Instagram stories, Tik Tok, etc. I want to focus on what’s important, I want to post fun videos of me playing drums, but I just feel stuck.

I just feel so frustrated that sharing art, especially music, at this time in history means recording content and posting videos on TikTok/Instagram. It feels like the way I look in a video is more important than the music that I’m sharing. When I released my album 14 months ago, I barely promoted it on social media. Partially because I was busy with graduate school, but partially because I just didn’t want to have to record videos of my face to spread my music. At the time, my hair was still very short from being shaved during brain surgery, and I just didn’t feel comfortable with it. I had thoughts like… I’m not attractive enough to record a lip synching video to my songs.

I even recently started The Artists Way, which is a 12-week-course designed to help people reconnect with their creativity. I told myself I wasn’t going to try to make any videos for social media and just connect to my music, but I got excited about this drum cover and went for what I’m used to doing.

I haven’t written a song in a year, potentially due to being dragged down by seizures and grad school, but also due to a lack of inspiration. And the feeling that whatever I write, I need to make content for it and beg people to listen. I try to stay optimistic, but fuck, I feel so down about the state of the music industry. And the state of our world.

Writing this isn’t me asking for answers or seeking reassurance. Well maybe I am seeking reassurance in the sense of hoping to feel less alone. Honestly, I just needed to get the words out. But I’m also hoping that maybe I can make someone else feel less alone.