Monday, March 23, 2009

The Artist's Way - A Free Course for Subscribers

I've decided I'm going to give away something for free - as they advise folks who want successful blogs.

That something will be a course on few things I've learned about being a writer - for all those aspiring writers out there.

To start, I'm going to feature a few quotes from a great book on writing and creativity - The Artist's Way, by Julia Cameron.

Then I'm going to provide an assignment or two. Hopefully some folks will do this and I will end up seeing all the great writing here on this blog or in Facebook.

Write Away!!


To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong. - Joseph Chilton Pearce

Undoubtedly, we become what we envisage - Claude M. Bristol

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler. - Henry David Thoreau

Your Assignments:
1) Take yourself on an artist date. You will do this every week for 12 weeks (the duration of this 'Artist's Way Course'. A sample artist date: take five dollars and go to your local five-and-dime. Buy silly things like gold stick-'em stars, tiny dinosaurs, some postcards, sparkly sequins, glue, a kid's scissors, crayons. You might give yourself a gold star on your envelope each day you write. Just for fun.

2) Keep a journal for two weeks, even if it's just a paragraph or two. Decide not to let it slide for even one day. Use a freewriting technique. That's the notion of getting something, anything, down on paper. Don't worry about spelling or grammar or the subject matter. Just write whatever comes into your head. Here's an example:

"I am going to put anything on paper - that is my assignment. And I mean anything. It doesn't matter as long as it's coming out of my head and the tips of my fingers, down ont the page I wonder if;m improving, if this is getting me going better than other stuff--however many years ago? I know my typing is getting worse, even as we speak (are we speaking? to whom? IN what forM? I love it when i hit the caps button by mistake, it makes me wonder whether there isn;t something in the back or bottom of the brain that sez PAY ATTENTION now, which makes me think of a number of things, freud and his slip o tonuge, self-deception, the way it operates in everybody's life, no not everybody's but in my own exp. llike Aunt Ch. mourning for the dead cats whenevershe hasn't got her way. I wonder if we ever disconnect kinds of sadness, the homesickness for grandma's house, the dog rolling under the tree, the empty weight of loss, loss, loss"
(loosely quoted from The Artist's Way)

See you again next post: Sheila Ortego, Author of The Road From La Cueva
Available on Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/Road-Cueva-Sheila-Ortego/dp/0865345880/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237816860&sr=8-1

1 comment:

Terri B. said...

I love the Pearce quote. Reminds me of a book I read years ago titled: Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway.

I got the comment you left on my blog. I have your book in hand and will be reading it just as soon as I finish Sea of Poppies (it is a long book, but I'm close to finishing). I'm looking forward to it!

I tend to cross post my reviews at: my blog, GoodReads, LibraryThing, and Amazon.com