Book Nine: Write for Life by Julia Cameron

 

Julia Cameron's Write for Life is an inspirational and useful book full of  warm and cozy essays, filled with tidbits on nature and her dog Lily, as she provides the gentle keys to writing.  I didn't take 6 weeks to read as I wanted to find out all she had to offer, sooner than later. 

She begins with the beneficial reminder that morning pages are essential in letting your words flow on the page, artist dates are needed to fill the well as it empties, and walking helpful to your  health and imagination.  

"Morning pages train us to take risks. They dare us to move outside our comfort zone... They are a tough love friend. They challenge us to change our size, to become larger, more daring... They urge us to be more honest, to take action where action is needed... "

You aren't being negative, "You're ventilating the negative feelings, not increasing them."  And in the pages, "we face our demons, and when we do, we find we have room for new and positive endeavors."

I found the morning pages to be beneficial over the years in working out problems, both with my family, and with my characters. I stopped doing them again but committed to taking them up once again. True story. This past week I set my alarm to go off 15 minutes early so I would have time to write before work, and found myself getting to work 10 minutes late. Good think I'm the boss.  LOL!  

After your morning pages, she recommends setting an easy daily quota of two to three pages, and 'laying tracks', slowly and steadily from a to b to c.  And schedule your writing by your mood rather than the time of day and grabbing time, rather than waiting for the big chunk of time that you're never going to find.  

I went through my current WIP and figured out if I revise two to three pages five days a week, the revision will be done at the end of August. 

I highlighted quite a bit and took copious notes, talking to myself on the page, setting her advice in my head.  She also provide useful advice for how to outline and revise your story once the first draft is finished, which brings clarity. 

"A well executed outline resembles a train track with each entry a tie."

Which I really need to do, rather than relying on the outline in my head. I need to see the visual reminder to make it concrete and make better progress. 

Although The Artist way is wonderful,  Write for Life is a shorter version, told through wonderful essays which reiterates some of the ideas including synchronicity, crazy makers, toxic friends,  patience, and asking for guidance.  Well worth reading. 

Nonfiction, Writing Life, 181

BW4: Magical Realism, Historical Fiction, and Writing, Oh My!

 

Happy Chinese New Year! It's book week four in our 52 books quest and this week is all about the Year of the Rabbit. 

“Rabbits are known to be incredibly witty, outgoing, well-spoken, creative, empathetic, thoughtful and meditative; the water element of 2023 means this year will bring even more introspection, peace and hope… It’s a season to hone into your imagination, intuition and instincts. With artistic inspiration as a focal point, the rabbit encourages you to fill your heart and soul with hobbies and crafts. Poetry, painting, making music—any activity that instills inner harmony will reign supreme.”  Stylecaster – Cam Zhang

Good thing I’m in a creative mood this year.

I love following rabbit trails and have been following a lot lately on Instagram with posts about books and bullet journaling and writing and books, books, and more books, and a little bit of self help thrown in, along with a smattering of celebrities. Which brings me to the point of this post – we’re going to dive down a rabbit hole this week and read something with or about or symbolizes rabbits this week.  No, it doesn’t have to be an actual rabbit.

While reading Julia Cameron’s Write for Life this week,  I was reminded of the story, The Tortoise and the Hare with Cameron reminder that writers should take it slow and easy and not race ahead. “Slow and steady wins the race.”

I’m still working my way through Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 (80%) done. As well as The Blue by Nancy Bilyeau (45%).  On my second reread of Julia Cameron’s Write for Life and writing down all the stuff I underlined.

More Kitty Norville with Kitty goes to Washington in which she goes to Washington to testify before a senate house hearing and gets herself into a mess with the nasty senator and more vampires. (book #7)

The suburban has been loaded with multiple bags of books: fiction, nonfiction, and a bunch of homeschool books to take the friends of the library.  Have been going down memory lane culling through all the homeschool memorabilia – what to keep, what to get rid of.  We may be able to fit the car in the garage by the end of the month.  Woot Woot!

BW3: Perfectionism and Procrastination and books! Oh my!

 

Happy Sunday! It's book week three in our 52 books quest and this week's mission is to read something with Blue on the cover or in the Title. 

This past week I finished Black Orchid Blues which was icky, and needed a brain bleach after finishing it so I reread Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn.  I can see I'll probably end up rereading the whole Kitty Norville series this year, now that I've finished the first. 

I rarely give up on books once I start them, but unfortunately had to give up on Rebecca Roanhorse's Black Sun.  The first chapter was cringe worthy, then it got more confusing from there. There is a character who is referenced as xe or xir or iktan interchangeably, within the same sentence, within the same paragraph, within the dialog,  which not only confused the heck out of me, but was annoying as well. I couldn't follow the discussion because it kept throwing me out of the story. The rest of characters are equally unfathomable. Unfortunately I wasn't enjoying the story, so decided it was time to give up. I enjoyed Roanhorse’s Trail of Lightning, this one not so much.

So I turned to Keri Arthur’s stand alone book Who Needs Enemies which was good. I like her writing. The poor character was battling trolls through out the story. She had remarkable recuperative powers. LOL! (Book #6)

Got through vol 1 of 1Q84 and now onto vol 2. It’s not at all like I remembered it.  I think I mixed it up with Wind Up Bird Chronicles. 

Time for something different. I pulled up dusty ebook The Blue by Nancy Bilyeau which is a historical fiction novel about a character finding out the secrets of making porcelain and the color blue.  Enjoying it so far. 

I'm also reading Julia Cameron's Write for Life which has prompted me to think about perfectionism versus procrastination. Is perfectionism the same as procrastination? Which came first, the chicken or the egg?  Do I procrastinate with my writing because of perfectionist tendencies?  Am I really a perfectionist or do I just have a tendency to procrastinate.  I do like to have huge chunks of time to write, rather than grab small chunks, so as she suggests, I need to grab those moments and write. 

Do I overthink the story to the detriment of the story, to the detriment of my imagination. Probably. I've been avoiding my story, avoiding revising and finishing it. Why, I don't know. Writer's block or procrastination?  I know the minute I open the document, I'll change the same darn sentences for the millionth time until I warm up and wonder why I'm not making progress.

Cameron would say, as she says multiple time in Write for Life as well as The Artist's Way and all her other books, to take it to the page. Do your morning pages and figure it out.  Which I will, when I find the time. LOL!  Just kidding. I've done morning pages off and on over the years and they've helped me work out all kinds of problems.  

It's interesting because last night I watched a zoom conversation between Jayne Anne Krentz and J.T. Ellison and although they are seasoned writers, they go through the same self doubt with the beginning of every story.  So I guess it never goes away, you just power through it. Time to through my inner critic, my doubting Thomas in a box and lock him up, and back to the morning pages I go...

Life wise, we continue to clear out the garage and I've been going through all the years of  homeschool curriculum and household records as well as all our stored books. . Deciding what to keep and what to let go.  All of it is bringing back lots of memories, and working through the good, plus the bad which isn't always cathartic.  More of a reason to do morning pages, so I can work it out of my system.  On the good side, have been 'finding' a lot of books that I want to reread and even rearranged our shelves in the house to accommodate a few. Shh, don't tell hubby. 

BW50: Creativity and Books on the Nightstand

 

It's book week 50 in our 52 Books quest and our last 52 Books Bingo Category for the year is Creativity, my favorite subject. It's time to unleash your inner Creativity. 

Creativity takes all shapes and forms from the physical to the intellectual, from the deliberate to the spontaneous.  Whether you have a creative mind or creative hands, there are a wide variety of ways to be creative and things highly creative people do differently.   What is the difference between Artistic and Creative ability?   And then there is Creative Leadership Lessons from Star Trek.    What do you think? 

15 Books About Creativity to Get You Out of a Creative Rut.  One book I revisit over and over is The Artist Way by Julia Cameron which unlocked my imagination. 

Creativity books added to my shelves to read through out next year:

Another Julia Cameron - Write for Life: Creative Tools for Every Writer (A 6-Week Artist's Way Program), and  Amber Kuileimailani Bonnici’s Creativity Unleashed: A Woman's Guide to Unlock Flow and Finally Finish Creative Projects Every Day. 

Finished Louise Penny’s The World of Curiosities which was quite good which included the origin story of how Gamache met Beauvoir and brought him into the surete. How that origin story ties an old mystery and a new mystery together. A few red herrings are thrown in along with some vague clues, a few twists and turns, and it made for interesting reading.

The next book up is Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke 

"When it comes to law and order, East Texas plays by its own rules -- a fact that Darren Mathews, a black Texas Ranger, knows all too well. Deeply ambivalent about growing up black in the lone star state, he was the first in his family to get as far away from Texas as he could. Until duty called him home.

When his allegiance to his roots puts his job in jeopardy, he travels up Highway 59 to the small town of Lark, where two murders -- a black lawyer from Chicago and a local white woman -- have stirred up a hornet's nest of resentment. Darren must solve the crimes -- and save himself in the process -- before Lark's long-simmering racial fault lines erupt. From a writer and producer of the Emmy winning Fox TV show Empire, Bluebird, Bluebird is a rural noir suffused with the unique music, color, and nuance of East Texas."

52 Lists: Favorite quotes

"Life is a balance on holding on and letting go" -- Rumi

"With God all things are possible" -- Matthew 19:26

"Sometimes you have to let go of the picture of what you thought life would be like and learn to find joy in the story you are actually living."  Rachel Marie Martin - Brave Art of Motherhood.

"Let go and let God"  - Daily word 

"Pray to catch the bus, then run as fast as you can."  Julia Cameron 

"As you move toward a dream, the dream moves toward you."  Julia Cameron

"Leap and the net will appear."  Julia Cameron 

"Creativity requires faith. Faith requires we relinquish control."   Julia Cameron

"The key to becoming a writer is a paradox: you must believe that your writing, your story, is important, vital, and a sacred task. At the same time you must be able to write even when writing feels like a job that you are not very good at." Barbara Abercrombie - 

A to Z Poetry: Artist Way

A is for Artist's Way 

Guide my hand,

Guide my words.

Fill me again,

Pour down your rain.

Open my eyes,

Open my ears,

A rainbow, a Kaleidoscope,

Sparkles and spins

Beauty, enlightenment

Laughter and tears,

Fill me again,

Pour down your rain.

I give to you

What you gave to me,

Epiphanies and Insights

Words to spill.

No fears, no tears

Love, laughter and cheer

Fill me again,

Pour down your rain. 

~ R.Lee. McCormack~

Flash Friday: He haunted the night...

So far, I've managed to write every day and 4 days of morning pages this week.  Taking it day by day, week by week seems the better route to take, although in my mind, I've committed to the month of June to get back in the habit of morning pages, writing prompts and blogging.  Sitting my butt down and showing up at the page is the most important thing right now.  We've started setting the alarm for 8:30 so I have time to write and hubby has time to do his 10,000 steps before work.  Yes, we are night owls so getting up early is a bear, especially since the time change.  Hopefully after a week or so of rising earlier, it will stick with our body clocks.  Funny that now it's summer and no longer doing lessons, here we are getting up early. We are so backwards. 

Writing prompt:  He haunted the night.  

He haunted the night, the stygian darkness hiding the traces of his footprints through the wet streets.  By the time he arrived home, Oliver was soaked as usual. His insomnia driving him out into the wet, the cold, the dry and the humid most nights.  Thoughts piled upon thoughts, stories coming to him from the characters he encountered on the streets, the boulevards just as busy during the night as the day.  Different people, different in a way one wouldn't expect.  Shady and careful, friendly yet cautious.  Those who hid from the day, didn't want their secrets revealed. Yet they talked to him.  Maybe because he looked harmless.  You'd think that would set him up for trouble. But he looked like every man. He blended in, his bland features registering as a blank to the bad and the good. 

Oliver soaked in the tub, legs throbbing from climbing the high hills of the city. Tonight he'd encountered a woman, a lioness with sharp claws, blond mane flowing around her face, highlighting her ebony skin.  A saint or a sinner, he wouldn't, couldn't say.  She roamed the streets, snarling at any who came close. Yet she'd sank down on the bench next to him, handed him a Starbucks cup and proceeded to slurp from her own cup of steaming brew.

"You know?"  Her deep sultry voice reminded him of a singer he'd once heard at the opera. "Life didn't begin on this planet."

He hmmm'ed, sipped his drink and waited, knowing better than to speak, not wanting to risk the lash of her sharp claws.  

"Where do you think I come from?"  Her eyes flashed, teeth bared at another man who paused close by. 

"No idea." Oliver murmured when she didn't speak for several beats.

"Ah, my dear, but you do. I came out of the night, same as you but farther from the storm.  Life is a storm. Violent, clashing, hearty and hail. Beautiful, yet deadly.  Do you think I'm deadly?"  She all but purred the words.

"I think." Oliver began, then paused to sip the hot brew as a shiver chased up his spine. "That you are true."

She titled her head, a sly smile creased her face. Then she chuckled and slapped his knee. 

"I like you."  She stood with a shack of her long mane of hair. "Beyond the stars, lives a planet, a country, a town, a house. In it a babe who cries for her father.  Do you think you can find her?"

"Possibly." Oliver blinked.

"Good."  She dropped an envelope in his lap.  "Luck," and slunk off into the dark.

*******************

A mystery in the making? Possibly?  Who is Oliver? Who is she? Where is this town with high hills?  So many questions popping into my brain. All from one little ole writing prompt. I like Oliver's voice. I'm intrigued by her.   Do I let it end without resolution or do I pursue?   Hmmm!