Creative Cattle Prods

 So Ladies and Gents, this week I have a two-for. I’m feeling perhaps a little creatively stale in the cold of this winter of which I had grown unaccustomed, in the midst of corporate drudgery and am turning back to those guides that have previously paved my way to productivity.

My first recommendation is The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron. This book was introduced to me by my beloved friend and fellow writer, Anath, a maven of entertainment industry research. The Artist’s Way is a 12-week course with exercises to draw out the muse which is your life and have it whisper in your ear encouraging words of inspiration, and from my experience does so wonderfully. I followed The Artist’s Way, firstly and lastly, toward the end of May 2008 during a rather tumultuous year and found that I had written about 600 pages by the end of the 12 weeks, which was well beyond the basic assignment of writing three pages a day. It was a catharsis akin to a cleansing cerebral colonic that left me thoroughly smeared...with ink and thankfully not the alternative. My other well-enjoyed pseudo-task was the weekly Artist’s Date, where one discovers and decides his or her own(unless assigned specific to the week) creative longing and satiates that hankering solo to avoid the potential of people pleasing and outward judgment. However, be forewarned: I have previously discussed it with other AW students, those unlike myself who has a bit of a loner streak, and it may seem more challenging if you’re not comfortable doing things like going to a movie or taking yourself out to an exotic dinner sans companionship, but the process is so very worth being outside your comfort zone.

My other book of approbation is The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield, and I believe Amazon referred it to me in its fastidious tracking and marketing, though I am appreciative none the less. The War of Art is considerably shorter and a simple structure to pragmatically put forth creative work. It emphasizes the importance of healthy habits and making your art a priority, which for an artist makes herself or himself a priority in a world that may or may not be supportive or in the very least selectively responsive.

I am about to journey again with these codices as my compass. If anyone out there would like to join me, please write in and we’ll form our own AA(Artists Anonymous) until we’re happy enough with our creations to be uncloistered. I hope perusing was amusing.

Gratefully...Cheers! Yay!

-Slai