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

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