Yesterday I mentioned how I was throwing out some morning pages and night journals. Just in case anyone wanted to know what exactly makes up a night journal, I thought I’d write an entry about the topic. I’m pretty sure I got the idea from another of Julia Cameron’s books, but I can’t recall which one now. The idea was to spend a short time, perhaps only writing one page, to recap the day. I tend to list achievements and any significant event. I also jot down ideas for visual journal pages, jewellery I’m designing or anything else creative. Often …read more

Have you ever noticed that sometimes people misunderstand the things you say? No matter how hard you try they just keep on getting the wrong message. I had an incident like this today. The woman was a pleasant enough individual, but she seemed to have a defensive attitude, so it didn’t matter how much work I put into forming my words, she still jumped to the wrong conclusion, most of the time before I even finished speaking. Later I reflected on this in my journal and realised I wasn’t the one with the communication problem. This woman was not very …read more

Some time ago now I worked through the book The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. One of the many exercises included collaging your goals, hopes and dreams. I found this an excellent exercise for writers and adapted it to work many different themes for workshops I held while part of a writing centre here in Perth.
Today someone from a forum I’m in was kind enough to share an article, Creating a Treasure Map, which is very like the exercise by Julia Cameron. Actually, I found the descriptions in this article more thorough. I hope you use this one for …read more

While reading Journal Fetish today I found another interesting blog; First 50 Words. The concept for this blog is simple enough. Based on the idea of practice writing, such as Natalie Goldberg, Judy Reeves and Julia Cameron promote; First 50 Words supplies the prompts and you write the words. You are also encouraged to leave those first 50 words in the comments section.
Looks like a great place to find prompts.
Heather
Journaling Tools – Go deeper and reach higher with hundreds of journal writing resources.
Life Journal Software

Another aspect of journal writing I really enjoy is how I have room to explore my own creativity. Taking this seriously, you can read books by Julia Cameron, such as Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, and Eric Maisel, such as Fearless Creating (Inner Workbook.) Less seriously you can read anything by SARK, such as Fearless Creating (Inner Workbook.).
But really, all you need to do is decide you want to work on creativity and explore that in your journal. Books are great and give you guidance and ideas, but simply writing your thoughts on the process and …read more

The idea of taking adventures specifically for the purpose of renewing yourself and your perspective is not a new idea. Both Julia Cameron in her book Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity and Judy Reeves in A Writer’s Book of Days: A Spirited Companion and Lively Muse for the Writing Life suggest exactly this. Cameron urges those desiring a new angle on creativity to take an Artist Date once a week. Reeves encourages us to wander and “get lost” occasionally.
So, today I’m saying exactly the same thing. Go somewhere different, take a different route, visit a …read more

A few entries ago I mentioned Morning Pages and promised more on the topic. While reading and researching online I came across Angela Booth’s blog where she describes using Morning Pages in her writing. Angela links to a good description on how to do Morning Pages.
David LaMotte, a songwriter, gives an excellent description of how he uses Morning Pages on his website in his advice to aspiring songwriters. Scroll down the page until you find the heading Warming Up: Free Writes.
I used Morning Pages consistently for over four years and found them a powerful creativity tool. While writing those three …read more

Since I read The Artist’s Way several years ago I’ve been a fan of Julia Cameron. Not a totally sold out fan, though. There’s some things she says that are spot on, in my opinion, yet some of her beliefs are simply that; beliefs that I could never agree with. But as I’ve discovered there’s no need to discard a book or idea just because I don’t see things the same way as the author. I’ve come to learn to take what I want from a book and leave the rest right where it is.
I did take away the …read more