Journaling as Art
I had heard of Julia Cameron’s book the “Artists Way” and it being real good for writers.
I am one third done with a twelve week program of her other book “Walking in this World”. I am one of sixteen people doing this program with www.journalingsaves.com/. As I surf the other people in the blog roll I see we are all creative in different ways.
There are three major tasks that Julia advocates: a walk by yourself once a week, an artists date by yourself and writing three pages of anything first thing in the morning. The biggest task that has done the most for me is the morning pages. It clears my mind, it gives me ideas for my posts and my WIP and I look forward to it everyday as I wake up. It gets me going. I am a great journaling person any way and to have permission to do it first thing everyday makes my day.
It is when my free spontaneous child is most apt to play. It is before the “to do” list has woken up to hassle me. It is when my muse is most apt to remain active. My inner critic is still asleep, and I can write anything. It certainly wisps the corners of my mind clean and makes ready for creativity. After my morning pages I can face the day.There’s eight more weeks in the book but if all I learn is ‘morning pages’ it has been worth it.
What is your practice to get you writing every day? Do you have a discipline?
You are the light of the world.
Clarbojahn's Blog 
When I’m writing there is nothing else I’d rather be doing . . . so my challenge is to STOP. 😉
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Yes, I can see that is a challenge. Sometimes I see you’ve got more new posts out then I can read a day. Do you write into Word first or put them directly into the WordPress publisher?
I’m curious about how other bloggers work.
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All new posts are written directly into WordPress.
I moved some posts over from WEbook and saved them as drafts.
If the well seems dry, I look through them.
Most days, I post one “regular” post ~ not including weekend theme, flash 55, recipe, and photo challenges.
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I’ve been hearing about We book. What is that exactly?
You must have confidence to write directly into wordpress. Good for you. I need to revise so much I’m afraid to do that.Do you have a backup of all your work?
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I try to get my blog a day completed first thing in the morning so I can go on to other things. The problem is it often takes most of the morning to get it right leving me in a rush the rest of the day.
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My hat goes of to you to do a blog post a day. It often takes me four hours to publish a post. I wouldn’t have a life if I did a post a day. As it is I miss those days when I would read all day. Now the anxiety of what to do about my blog when my grand child visits and I go on vacation beckons.
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I try to get a rhythm going with my blog posts … write it one day, post it the next, and then have a day off … try being the operative word here … I’m struggling to make it a regular habit … but at the very least twice a week…
… I write in a word document first, edit etc, and then go to WordPress where it goes through at least one edit and then a bit of formatting, and then publish it …so I can understand how you take four hours…
… my best writing time is in the afternoon to late evening … I’m a get to bed by 2-3am kinda gal …
… and journaling is the best way to build the B.I.C. habit of writing daily. (Butt In the Chair!)
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You’re a gal after my heart or should I say like minded. I’m glad to hear it takes you as long as me to get a post out. I wish I could use more of my journaling for my posts but it seems to be mostly good for clearing my mind and emotions. Sometimes it’s good for my WIP. Today I woke up at four am and started right in on my WIP because of sad feelings overwhelming me and I couldn’t go back to sleep. I’ll be glad when I finish writing about the grieving process after my late husband died.
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I already do the artist’s date, and cherish it. I will try the 3 pages and walk as well. ^^
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Are you doing either “The Artists Way” or “Walking in this World”? Where you able to link up to Julia Cameron’s name? There is a lot of good discussion on her forums. It was a nice surprise to find that link.
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No, I just read it on your blog and I’m trying it out. The walks have helped more than the pages. I always come home with fresh ideas and a clear mind.
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Interesting how others work, isn’t it?
I tend to post directly into WordPress blog, unless I’m posting a poem, which I will have written over a long period.
Whenever I can I try to make ‘my morning writing’= ‘my blog post’ – but obviously that isn’t three pages of free writing. However it serves the purpose of getting the fingers typing. (But I have to do that after writing the list of ‘must of today’ and seeing the family off to work and school.)
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Thank you for commenting Pseu. I have more freedom to write since this is my second career and my children are grown out of the house. I often would write late at night or early early morning when I was working and being a daily mother. I wonder what I will do in two weeks when my grandson comes to visit for four or five days. Do you have a bunch of blog articles in the wait?
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I had intended on taking that, but with all going on right now did not feel I could commit to it. I have read the book though (even though I did not carry out all the weekly dates etc…) and enjoyed all she had to say about creativity.
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Yes, the book by itself is valuable. I also can’t do the walks as my husband and I go for a two or three mile walk everyday and to try and take a walk by my self felt like I was depriving myself of his company and defeating the purpose. I do go on Artists Dates and find them to be inspiring and free me for more creativity.
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I found your post (and the comments above) interesting because I, too am curious how others work. Writing in the morning doesn’t work because I go to work early, so that leaves evening (after kids are in bed.)
I’m kind of like Widdershins, in that my goal is to write a post one day and post the next (the ‘breathing’ time in between reads helps me edit it.) I’m like you in that a post takes me several hours to write/edit. Longer than it should, I think, based on my end product 😦
Sounds like an interesting course – thanks for sharing!
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Your welcome, Janna. Your posts are always well put together and I stand in amazement that you do all that you do. And do so well. 🙂
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Morning pages ARE awesome!! ‘Course those nachos don’t look too bad, either!!
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Thank you Simply. glad to meet a fellow “Morning Pages” journaler. Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
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