The work of getting my creative juice back has been guided by The Artist’s Way. My ongoing thought process on doing this weekly work is, that if I can feel more connected to the things that “light me up,” I can get better at articulating what creative ways I can support people, organizations, and new ways of attacking old problems.
In short, get clear on how I use creativity so I can market myself and make money.
When I started week 4, I was still feeling like some inner cobwebs were very pesky, and holding me back from getting unstuck. I could feel I was getting closer and more confident, but still needed some additional nudging. Julia Cameron suggests that “if you feel stuck in your life or your art, few jump starts are more effective than a week of reading deprivation.”
No reading. No scrolling. No consumption of words or books or podcasts or anything that takes the place of time doing something, anything else. Cameron suggests a bunch of things to be done instead —writing letters, working out, cooking, repotting plants, sorting something, listening to music…
The point of this exercise (I think) is to take creative action in those moments when we otherwise would be consuming someone else’s creative output.
Cameron claims that every person who walks into this exercise assumes she is “an artistic flake,” and I can’t say I disagreed.
But then, amid my week of deprivation, something did happen. I didn’t necessarily find a cure for all my business-focused language problems but I rediscovered some key pieces that I wasn’t expecting:
I started listening to entire albums again. No playlists, no mixes. I would play an album from start to finish and really listen to it, the lyrics, how the music mixed, the production, the individual instruments. I revisited music I forgot about, and random albums that I haven’t played in a decade or more (think: INXS Kick; Midnight Oil, Blue Sky Mining; Frightened Rabbit, The Winter of Mixed Drinks; The Afghan Whigs, Gentleman…). The beauty of an entire album is something I think I took for granted or didn’t think about from the artist’s perspective.
I talked to my dog on walks. I’m not sure if Fletch appreciates that I am generally silent when we walk. In fact, I swear he seemed happier on our walks as I talked to him, pointed out birds and plants and buds and changes in the landscape. I think my dog actually likes when I’m focused on him and our time together — not just the cardio of walk and my audiobook.
I got more tasks done. Dumb, but true. At least on the easier to-do list, tasks seemed to melt away, quickly and efficiently.
I wrote more cards. I sometimes forget how much I love writing letters in cards. I think there is something beautiful about a moment in time, sent in an old-fashioned way, with handwriting scrolling thoughts and memories and sentiments. I got myself some stamps and spent some time writing to people I care about.
I felt better. I know it seems trite to even say, but I had less negative thoughts being away from the scrolling feeds of beautifully curated content. I also know we all want to stop the madness, but fear we will miss something important about someone’s life that we need to know about. I have to say, I don’t know that I actually care as much as I thought I did.
I could write feverishly but not necessarily publishable stuff or coherent concepts. It was almost like my pen couldn’t write fast enough. At some point, I will go back and read the ideas that were feverishly coming to me (likely not all great), but in terms of the production of ideas, the experiment worked.
So, would I recommend a deprivation, especially if you are skeptical or think your consumption of information (I love words! I love images! I love seeing other people’s art! I’m not addicted!) is totally under control, or you say things like “I need to do it for work, blah, blah, blah…” If you pay attention, you might just see something or learn something or find a little bit of genius that has been lost for awhile.
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I am fascinated by the work of this artist.
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I LOVE THIS! It makes total sense. We consume so much of other people's output, that we never give ourselves a chance to process it, let alone make our own output. I try to listen to podcasts when I'm crafting, and it just gets jumbled in my head, or I lose track of what I'm working on. I should honor the thing I'm working on and let my mind just do one thing at a time.