Artist's Way Check-in Week 3

I completed my tasks and wrote Morning Pages every day, but I skipped the Artist's Date. I have to admit that I feel guilty about that, which is also quite irritating. I hate feeling guilty, worked many years to avoid feeling it, and here it is back again. Maybe this is one of those "stuffed" emotions she talks about that needs to come out. It doesn't feel like a good thing.

More anger surfaced at one of the rules for Week 4. No reading. At all. Does anyone ever really do this? I think not. Deb admitted that she just stopped reading for pleasure during her fourth week. When you have a job that requires reading, even just email, how do you say you won't? Sorry, boss, I will answer that email next week? No.

I'm noticing a lot of repetition in the tasks and exercise. List five things you used to like to do. List five hobbies it would be fun to try. Write, "It would be fun to....." List five things you would like to learn. All basically the same question from different angles. It feels like she didn't have 12 weeks worth of exercises so she's cheating.

Yes, I am balking big time this week. Which is the week she says we will start making big changes. But you may not feel like you're changing or growing. How convenient.

Fate Also Abhors A Vacuum

It always seems that just when you unload one job, three other rear their ugly heads to fill up the space. That happened this week.

Fleur very kindly offered to take The Writer's Life column in the PPW NewsMagazine off my hands. Not a lot of time open, but one less thing to worry about. Then I finished my rough of HM. I want to let it sit for a while before I make a few changes I know it needs. Then I will give to any Pirates who wish to read it.

This should mean that I have time to work on D&D now. My lighter, probably even more marketable than HM, cozy. Instead, I am dealing with plumbing. Yes, you read right. Plumbing.

A while back I posted about the danger of letting little problems grow into big problems. In this case, there was very little warning. A leak under the kitchen sink on Saturday. I used Plumbers Putty to fix the seals on either side of the trap. 24 hours later the leak was back. I then replaced the washers. Another 24 hour reprieve. As I was adjusting the pipes, my thumb poked right through one. It seems the pipes are as old as the house.

I planned to leave work a few hours early today to await delivery of my comfy recliner. Now I'm taking a half day so I can go home, take out all the pipes under the kitchen and bathroom sinks, and go to Home Depot for replacements. Then as I wait for the delivery truck, I will be replacing metal pipes with PVC.

The good news is that this may be fodder for future installments of HM. Maybe even a short story. But right now, it's time I am not writing.

Artist's Way Check In - Week 2

I did finish Week 2 along with Morning Pages, Tasks and the Artist's Date. I actually did 9 of the ten tasks. After reading Week 2, I realized that there were tasks I'd like to do that built on tasks from the first week that I hadn't chosen. In order to avoid that in future, I went back and completed the other 5 tasks from Week 1 and then all but one of the tasks from Week 2. I had planned on doing the last task, but just ran out of time. Maybe this week.

The Artist's Date for this week was a trip to American Furniture Warehouse. It's been a while since I had a comfortable chair. My rocking chair looks good, but it's wood. Even with a cushion, it's not good for the long haul. The chair that matches my living room set is twenty years old like the rest of the set. Again, not comfortable. It doesn't even look good. So I sat in chairs. Many chairs. I decided on an inexpensive, but very comfortable, recliner. It should be delivered by the end of the week. Not only did I have fun looking, but I'll have something to keep.

I'm seeing one of the down sides of The Artist's Way when the writer has a full time job. Sometimes the tasks leave little time for actual work on your project. I know the program was designed for people who are blocked. I would assume that most who start this are not working on anything at all. I also know that I am experiencing a bit of cognitive dissonance about the whole thing. So I am going to keep going.

Week 3 is titled, "Recovering A Sense of Power." John had posted something about ending up on a comfortable couch in an office somewhere. Week 2 and Week 3 feel as if they are substituting for that couch. It may be the way the whole thing feels. If it works, I won't mind having some of these issues dredged up. If it doesn't......I don't know. Maybe I still won't mind.

Artist's Way Check-in

Completed Week 1.

I did morning pages every morning. There were a few mornings that I was surprised by what I wrote. I have to admit it was fun.

I also did my five tasks. Each week, she lists ten possible tasks and you pick five to do. Those were interesting. They definitely brought up some old issues with people from my past. Having read Week 2, I think we're going to be revisiting some of those issues.

Read the Basic Principals and some of the affirmations daily at Deb's suggestion. These seem pretty hokey. I have to say this turned out to be the hardest for me to do daily.

Forced myself to go on an Artist's Date, and surprised myself by really enjoying it. Old Colorado City is now a tourist area of Colorado Springs, but there are some neat restaurants and different shops there. The kind that are locally owned. I went there yesterday afternoon and walked around, but I forgot that in the winter most of the shops are closed on Sunday. It didn't matter. The Soap Box was open so I bought some of the lotion I like. Holly Berry House Crafts was open, too. They've changed their stock a lot since I was last in there--hardly any cross stitch, but so many different kinds of yarn that the skeins almost spill out of the store. Then I found the bead store, also open and having a sale. The containers of beads that look like small prescription bottles were buy five, get one free. Then the woman working there let me use a coupon for $8.00 off my purchase. I bought nearly fifty dollars worth of beads for thirty dollars. Between open stores, I window shopped. Just a lovely way to spend an afternoon.

So far, so good. I've read Week 2 and will decide which tasks to do.

More Conflict!

I am very close to finishing the first draft of HM. Almost too close. At the rate I'm going, it will be less than 200 pages long. However, I suddenly realized yesterday that I still need to add more conflict. The good news it that I know exactly where to add it. This time I will finish it as is and go back and add a little later--just prior to letting people read it.

I did not have my revelation during Morning Pages, which I am continuing to write daily, but not long after finishing them. Connection? Possibly. I am just happy to have had it. I think the more conflict, the better.

I think it's interesting studying one's own process or processes in some cases. The Writing Nag posted the other day about writing being like sculpting. You start with a large block of marble and chip away the extraneous. Someone commented that they write skinny first drafts and add on as they revise so they thought the analogy did not apply to them. I, obviously, build as I go. I know Deb does, too. Deb responded that the sculpting analogy applies if you look at it as working in clay rather than marble. Sometimes you add on, sometimes you scrape away.

Is your writing process more like sculpting in marble or clay? Or is it more like painting a picture, with daubs of paint layering one on top of the other?

The Artist's Way

I started reading The Artist's Way. A lot of it makes sense. Some of it seems like some over-the-top New Age/Christian hybrid mumbo jumbo. I guess I have nothing to lose except the money I paid for the book and a new notebook. And a little time every week. That seems to be the best part--it shouldn't take more than a few hours a week.

The strangest thing she requires is a weekly Artist's Date. I'm supposed to go out, on my own, and treat my "inner child artist" to something fun. Okay. Seems ridiculous to me. I understand "filling the well" or "blowing up the balloon" as I called it. But why do I have to go by myself? And why is it mandated? If my well feels full, what good does it do to add more water to it? I realize I'm whining a bit. I will do it, at least for the duration of the course, but I don't have to like it.

Even though I have been doing what I thought were Morning Pages, I found that I wasn't writing them in the spirit of AW. I was thinking about what I wrote. You are supposed to just write. Stream of consciousness. That was different.

If nothing else, this will give me something to post about each week.

2008

Goals. This is the agreed upon time of year to set annual goals, make resolutions, exam one's life, etc. I've been doing the evaluating, but have been having trouble looking ahead. Possibly because the goals I set last year mostly have not been met yet.

If I use last year as a template, I can maybe add fifty pages to HM this year. That's unacceptable. How do I change the pattern? I'm not big on anything new age-y, but results speak for themselves. Deb and Jenny are both big fans of The Artist's Way and morning pages. I can devote 12 weeks to trying it out. Writing every day also seems to work for most of the Pirates. I am setting aside an hour a day just to write, in addition to morning pages time. That's not a lot, but more than I have been doing.

I have heard goals described as dreams with deadlines. The dream part is to finish HM, submit it to the group and get it ready to send out. Another is to write a D&D and, possibly a second HM. I will also learn more about jewelry making and figure out who my protagonist in that series is.

I also will get back to updating this blog at least twice a month.