If this is your first article of mine you’re reading then, hello and welcome to The Practise, a series where I work through different programs designed to improve creativity. This article is episode four of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way.

To see how we got to this point make sure to check out the rest of the series:

Check out the rest of the series:

Episode 1: The Artist’s Way: Week 1
Episode 2: The Artist’s Way: Week 4
Episode 3: The Artist’s Way: Week 8

Week Nine: Recovering a Sense of Compassion:

Tasks: Completed

Overview:
Straight off the bat Cameron says that this is one of points in the book where its many users are wanting to jump ship, me included - I just felt like I had my fill of internal introspection, but regardless week nine is complete.

This week established the relationship between your inner artist and the trifecta of guilt, fear and anger. Cameron urges us to just let go of the idea of being a great artist “The need to produce a great work of art makes it hard to produce any art at all” - which of course, is just perfectionism again. I think this week, I’m just going to focus on painting for painting’s sake. Just picking whatever art I think looks good on Pinterest, or any other inspiration and attempting to copy it or make it my own - just to put in my own little creative space.

Favourite Quote:

Painting:
That big canvas I bought a couple weeks ago? Haven’t touched it since. I also haven’t made any paintings this week either. I don’t know if my inner artist is on sabbatical or taking a nap, but this week, I just did not end up picking up a paintbrush.

In other news - the winners for the tiny art show have been announced and it is not me. But I did go and pick up my canvas from the library and now it’s sitting proudly next to my T.V.

Blueberries, anyone?

Writing: 56,000k

Quite disappointed with my word count this week, but this week again, just wasn’t it. Hopefully things change next week, but I’m hoping to get to at least 60k soon.

Morning Pages: 7/7

Artist Date: Movie night! Coraline.

Bought Coraline, a film I hadn’t seen since I was a little kid and had a solo movie night in my house. This is the first artist date that’s technically been inside my house, so I’m not sure if that counts or not, but since technically I’m in charge, I’m saying it does count.

Coraline, is of course a very very good film. It’s a bit saddening to watch now, with the Niel Gaiman controversy, but the artists and stop motion animators behind the scenes still deserve some love and praise.

Week Ten: Recovering a Sense of Protection:

Tasks: Completed

Overview:

Monday: In other news, I experienced some synchronicity today! It’s Monday - during my Morning Pages I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do as a second job. With my current WFH job, I spent most of my time indoors and I found that that’s not good for my creativity. For a few weeks I was tossing and turning between a Barista job and something in production management. Today I decided that I would get a Barista job for the rest of this year just to see if it works out. After I finished my morning pages I went on Indeed and found a job opening for a cafe near my house that had just been posted a couple days before. I decided to go into the cafe to check out the environment and ended up talking to one of the workers there, and her name was Grace - as in my DnD character! I’m deciding that’s a good sign. I’m going to put in my resume today.

Tuesday Update: Got a call, interview scheduled tomorrow!

Wednesday Update: Got the job!

Thursday Update: Got my schedule, I start on Monday!

Favourite Quote:

Painting:
Started and finished a painting this week! A huge difference from last week. A couple of years ago I took this photo of my car after I had finished tutoring a student at the library and really loved the composition. I had painted it last year but suddenly this week I thought that I could give it another go and see how my painting has progressed. And I’m really happy with the final result.

I think this painting is the one I’m most proud of, because it’s completely original. I took that photo and I painted it - and I think my blending and proportions have gotten a lot better too.

Passenger Seat

Writing: 58,000k

Got some writing done before I could start my new job, still not at a place that I wanted to be, but at least things are getting written, so perhaps the 100k word count isn’t feasible by the end of Week 12, but we gave it a shot, and maybe I just need a couple more weeks to settle into my new timetable.

Morning Pages: 7/7

Morning Pages have really been interesting this week, on Monday I had the sudden clarity of what I wanted to do, and during my Tuesday morning pages I got the call for an interview.

Artist Date: Boba Tea and a walk.

Not much to update on, this Artist Date wasn’t as good as the others, I left it too late and had a limited amount of options before things were closed, so I did try a new flavour of boba, but just did a short walk.

Week Eleven: Recovering a Sense of Autonomy

Tasks: Completed

Overview:
This week focused on acceptance of our identity as an artist. Cameron makes the distinction between fame and success, which I think is vital to our perception of ourselves as an artist. From an onlooker, especially a non-creative onlooker, the success of an artist is synonymous with the fame of the artist and putting that perspective on ourselves can be damaging to our inner child and our ego. “Success comes to us, we must be vigilant”

Cameron makes a note to “be very careful to surround (yourself) with people who nurture (your) artist”. I’d like to add that this doesn’t work if you don’t nurture yourself first.

Favourite Quote:

Painting:
A great painting week again! This time I painted Lorde’s Melodrama album, the time it took from buying the canvas to finishing painting was 2 days, which is probably my quickest painting ever. I’m really happy with the way it turned out. This was my first attempt at painting faces and I’m quite happy about it. I think I’ve improved my colour mixing skills - that used to be a sore point for me. But after going down a rabbit hole on Youtube, I’m a lot better. I’ve linked some of the videos I learnt from below. I think for next week, I’ll focus more on drawing than painting.

Writing: 60,000k

Writing took a hit this week too. I’m happy I still visited my manuscript this week, but the 100k by the end of week twelve ship has definitely sailed. Again disappointing, but I will say, I’m finding it easier to get into the rhythm of writing and I’m a lot less judgemental of my work.

Morning Pages: 3/7
I’m going to be honest, of the days I did do my morning pages, I don’t think I finished them. I’m a bit disappointed that I couldn’t commit to more this week, especially being one week away from finishing The Artist’s Way, but it is what it is and I think this week sleep won out.

Artist Date: :/ got sick.

Unfortunately I got super sick this week. I did put on a movie this week - not sure if this really counts as an Artist Date, but I think the point of them is to do what your inner child needs and this week, I just needed to stay home and watch a new movie. I ended up watching The Departed, which is actually my first Scorsese movie, (who coincidentally was married to Cameron for a while). I quite enjoyed it, I think I gave it a 3.5 /5 on my Letterboxed. I quite liked the dual timelines and how action packed it was. I will say that I never realised how much Dicapiro and a blonde Matt Damon look alike.

Week Twelve: Recovering a Sense of Faith

Tasks: Completed

Overview:

Last week of The Artist’s Way, the majority of this last week was reassurance that my creativity journey isn’t over when I finish the pages of this book and to trust myself to continue the journey. I do like that this book ends with a ‘creativity is a never ending journey’ and I think I still have gotten a sense of closure from it.

One point that Cameron makes is to establish that when you’re being creative = you’re being productive. She also says to be very protective of our art, our vision, what we see ourselves doing with our career - to “zip the lip. Button up. Keep a lid on it. Don’t give away the gold…only then will you be able to manifest what you desire”

Favourite Quote:

Painting:
No paintings this week, but a few sketches of faces and I think I’m getting better at them! I’ve decided that I want to get really really good at sketching/ painting portraits.

Writing: 60,346 / 100,000k

And officially the last word count of the Artist Way. I started with 31,000k, which means that over the course of the twelve weeks I have written 29,346 which averages out to 2,445 words per week, which is a lot smaller than I would of liked, but work i work and considering my schedule got jam packed the last 3-4 couple of weeks and I’m editing a manuscript too, I’d say that all in all, I’m happy with the result.

Morning Pages: 5/7

In a poetic ending, I finished my notebook! It was like I was meant to use this book for my Morning Pages. There was no dramatic, eureka moment, but it was so nice to get to know me every morning and see what where my mind took me.

Artist Date: : Almond Croissant at a small Cafe.

A calm and soft ending to the Artist Dates. Will I continue to do them - absolutely. Even if it’s just a - I’m taking time out of my day today to go and sketch in the park, it’s going in the schedule. I had a lot of the fun these Artist Dates, I remember at the start of the weeks I was very nervous to do them, but because of the Artist Dates I’ve done a Dnd game, I’ve gone rollerskating, seen good movies and met so many cute dogs alone the way.

So, would I recommend this book?

Yes, but with some notes.

Firstly, the main reason I was able to complete the tasks in the book was because my schedule is quite flexible. Most of my days have a late morning start, so I have time to get my Morning Pages done. I also have flexibility on the weekends to complete an Artist Date. Basically - I have some time on my hands to experiment and play with my creativity which is not something that everyone has. For a 9-5’er or parents, it’ll be quite hard to complete. The tasks at the end of each week can be done in a quick free one hour, but I think that morning pages will be the crux of the working parent.

I would say though that even a half-page of morning scribbles are still beneficial in a way that it’s calming to the mind to just take a minute to do one singular motion -writing, which requires all of your attention.

Secondly, in some parts of the book, the financial difference between artists is quite vast. All the content on trusting and loving your inner artists is accurate but the ability to follow up on that inner work and experimentation relies on taking the time to be in that frame in mind and then doing the work and that’s much more easily gained with the privilege of not having to worry about rent.

Despite this, I would recommend this book to others. Even if you don’t actually do the twelve week course and just read through the book, you’d still get value from it. The joy, pain and endless cycle of tweaking and tinkering with your art is something that Cameron understands very well and a lot of the chapters act like a hug towards that inner critic we all have. It’s worth grabbing a highlighter or just writing out some quotes to put on your wall if you’re particularly negative about your art.

In turns of if it improved my own art, I think it did, but very slightly. Over the 12 weeks, I painted more than I was doing before, but I think the real change was how much less judgemental of my work I now am and how much more curious I was about things I didn’t know. Basically, my internal environment became more habitable for artistic play. I really do think the real results will occur after 3-4 months of completing this book, so I’ll check in after that.

I will say that there has been a shift in my mindset of prioritising my art. For the first time I’m actively putting my writing and creativity as a top priority in my life and I’m much happier about it - again, I can do this, because my schedule allows. Usually, I’d sideline my writing time if something came up, but this time around there’s deliberate allocation of time during the day or week. And deadlines! I’ve found that deadlines are very helpful to actually get stuff done. Shocker.

So yes, I will check back in after 3 months to see where I go. I’ll give updates on my writing and my painting but I’m excited to see what’s coming next.

And thank you for reading this series, if you enjoyed it, let me know! It was super fun experimenting with my creativity and seeing what I was curious about. I learnt so many new things on my Artist Dates, my morning pages and I’m very happy I went through this.

Till next time,

Kaye.

Ready for more?

Read the last issue of The Practise: The Artist’s Way: Week Eight

If you enjoyed this article, you might like to explore the last issue of The Practise, where Kaye goes through Week 5-8.

Thanks for reading Front Row

If you’d like to back what we’re building, going paid helps us produce our online conferences for creatives and gets you Front Row perks too.

Subscribe now

You can also find us on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, or connect with Steve on LinkedIn.

In case you’re new here, hello and welcome to The Practise, a series where i work through different programs designed to improve creativity. This article is episode three of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way.

Check out the rest of the series:

Episode 1 - The Artist’s Way: Week 1
Episode 2: The Artist’s Way: Week 4
Episode 3: The Artist’s Way: Week 8
Episode 4: The Artist’s Way: Week 12

Last we left off, Julia Cameron was accurately predicting every major self revelation I was having and my skepticism of the first couple weeks had melted away.

Super excited to dive into the third instalment. Let’s go!

Psst.. If you’re not already subscribed to Front Row, consider joining us so you don’t miss a thing!

Subscribe now

Week Five: Recovering a Sense of Possibility

Tasks: Completed

Overview:

Again, this book has predicted almost word for word my thoughts the week previously. I thought I was a unique person, but apparently not. There have been multiple times I have written ‘this woman is in my brain’ in the margins of this book.

It’s quite confronting to know that your procrastination, hesitance, nervousness, confusion, apathy and anger is textbook. But it’s also quite liberating. If it can be predicted, it can be handled. This week slightly skims into a heavier topic surrounding mental health, so depending on which way on the pendulum you are, the text for this week might be easier to read in intervals.

Favourite Quote:

Painting:

Bought the biggest canvas I have ever bought and decided to paint a photo from when I surprised my friend with a surprise picnic in the park. Right now only the underpainting is completed, but I’m excited for it to go on my wall.

Also, to note - usually it takes me forever to decide what to paint, but this was such a quick decision.

Writing: 48,000 / 100,000k

3k this week. A bit slow but I think this weekend I’ll be writing a lot more. Also - almost halfway through my manuscript!

Morning Pages: 7/7
I’ve been doing this for five weeks now, and this week it was really getting to me. The first couple of days were tiring and annoying. I feel like I’ve leeched my brain of all interesting, subconscious anecdotes that have made me act and become who I am. I’m getting quite tired of introspection.

Artist Date: The Odyssey in IMAX

If you haven’t been to the movies by yourself before, I highly recommend it, it’s great - especially in the middle of the day, if your work schedule allows. And in this instance if you have a spare 3 hours.

So - my review of the Odyssey. I really liked it. I’ve enjoyed Christopher Nolan’s movies and I think this is my favourite of the ones he’s done, seconded by Momento. I think Nolan does cinematography and plot very well, I absolutely loved all the visual effects, the sets and the animatronics, the score - I think it was all masterfully done and it easily makes it into my top ten favourite films.

The pacing was very good too, despite being 3 hours long, there was no lull in the storyline and the only movie that I wasn’t looking at my watch around the 2 hour mark.

All the actors were great - obviously, they’re all household names for a reason but it would have been easier to immerse myself in the story if it had been faces I hadn’t seen before. I also would’ve liked Penelope’s character to be fleshed out more. I do recommend reading The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood.

I have not read the Odyssey yet - but I have read surrounding texts, as well as being a loyal Percy Jackson fan.

Week Six: Recovering a Sense of Abundance

Tasks: Completed

Overview:
This was the first week of the book where I lost the message a little bit. This week was all about money, and how to overcome your ideas that your art won’t pay your bills. The book talks about ‘luxuries’ which might be fresh fruit, or a subscription to a magazine - it asks you to examine where your money goes and what you spend for your own little luxuries. One of the tasks this week was to keep a pocket notebook and write down where your money goes - and I happened to buy a pocket notebook on my Artist Date two weeks ago, so that’s another coincidence in the book.

However, one sentence in particular that threw me off was “Recently, I bought myself a horse for the first time in a decade”

I’d say up to this week, the advice in this book could be broadly applied to every person, but this simple phrase just took me completely out of it and was a stark reminder that the ‘starting point’ varies a lot for each artist.

I wouldn’t say that it’s enough to not go through the book though, and flicking through the rest of it, it seems that this is the only ‘money’ chapter. Though if similar phrasing pops up it is definitely disengaging.

Favourite Quote:

Painting:
My local library has a tiny art show and this week I gave in my piece - some small blueberries, inspired by a browse through Pinterest. Winner gets a gift pack from Officeworks, so fingers crossed.

Writing: 52,000k / 100,000k

4k this week and officially past the halfway point - this is the point where I actually start to lose momentum in my manuscripts so we’ll see how the next couple of weeks fare.

I’m aiming for 100,000k for draft one of my manuscript, which is Book 2 of a series I’m writing. Book 1 is being sent to an editor at the start of October so another thing on my radar before I send it off is to do a couple of passes of editing. So that might halt my word count, but hopefully, we will still make steady progress on both.

Morning Pages: 7/7
Again, I really struggled this week. I really did not want to write. For one of my journals I just wrote the word ‘yes’ for half a page because it was really not coming to me.

Artist Date: Rollerskating Lesson

Do I know how to rollerskate? No.
Did I cling to the wall for all of it? Yes.

But it was super fun! Apart from a long forgotten kids birthday party I attended as a child, I have no experience rollerskating, so it was fun and interesting to go to a session. I think I would have been embarrassed if it was only children there, but luckily, there were the parents of a kid that was in the class and they graciously adopted me for the majority of the lesson which was great. I’ve been recovering from an injury for the greater part of last year, so it was a big mental hurdle to go and do an activity that pretty much guarantees at some point you will fall over.

I’m quite envious of people that can glide easily in the rink, so I think this might be a fortnightly activity for me. I’ll check in on the next couple weeks to see if I go back and if I gain a little bit more grace than looking like a giraffe on ice.

Subscribe now

Week Seven: Recovering a Sense of Connection

Tasks: Completed

Overview:

This week focused on perfectionism and jealousy. We’ve begun shifting our perspective from discovering what our subconscious thinks about the creative practise to to making the right attitude to begin creating. I think there will be a big difference between the second half of the Artist’s Way and the first.

Favourite Quote:

Painting:

This week is voting week for the Tiny Art Competition at my library, so fingers crossed. Two winners and around 30 people have submitted canvases, so a 1/15 chance if my maths is correct. The politics of the Tiny Art Show has become the most talked about subject in my friend group, which gives you a glimpse into the riveting worlds of our lives.

In other art news, I did a couple of random oil pastel drawings. Put the timer for 10 minutes and just doodled. I always wanted to make a range of cards, but always get stumped on what exactly to put on them. There’s a couple friends’ birthdays coming up at the end of this year, so I’d like to make something for them.

Writing: 53,000k / 100,00k

Unfortunately, I got sick this week! So it was three days of being completely out of it. The writing definitely took a hit but I managed to put a book on editing on hold at the library and I’ll be going through that this week. Funny how 100,000k by Week 12 seemed so doable 2 weeks ago and now seems way too little time.

However, as I work through the book and shift some chapters around, I think the final count for Draft 1 may land somewhere between 90,000k and 100,000k, so I might just be on track.

Morning Pages: 5/ 7

5/7 due to getting sick. More than a few of the morning pages where done mid morning but regardless they were done - I’ve found myself suddenly infused with ideas about my manuscript. I’ll be writing about my life and then suddenly start writing about the decision my main character makes in chapter 3.

Artist Date: Dungeons and Dragons

Over the years a couple of people from different friend groups have said that I’d enjoy D&D, so I looked up games in my area and found one that runs every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month. I wasn’t as anxious about this Artist Date as I was rollerskating and I had a lot of fun.

For those who don’t know, D&D is a role-playing game where players create characters that exist in the world created by the Dungeon Master. Characters can roam freely within the confines of the game, completing quests, defeating enemies and adventuring.

As it was my first time, I was given a character type, I believe it’s called and I was an Elvish Solider called Grace - why ‘Grace’? because I had recently re-watched Project Hail Mary (5/5 amaze, amaze, amaze). We ended up defeating a bad guy for the whole session and it was a lot of fun.

There was a lot more maths and acting that I anticipated, everyone around me was pulling grammy award winning dialogue at the drop of a hat. It was overall a fun experience but I’m not sure if it’s my thing. The sessions went for 5 hours, which I think is a standard session for D&D and I don’t know if my attention span allows that. Still, I’m so glad I checked it out and everyone I met was super lovely. I also gained 350exp and a flaming sword, so, a great Saturday night.

Week Eight: Recovering a Sense of Strength

Tasks: Completed.

Overview:
This week - revolved around the actions that you are taking - or not taking. The chapter talks about ego deaths, the survival of the inner artist and the roadblocks that you’ve subconsciously digested over the years, especially since you were a child. One of the tasks consists of you filling in the blank on role models you had as a child and how that affected your view of creativity.

It’s interesting to note that creativity - the actual act of creating has been framed as a side effect in this book. At no point so far as Cameron instructed the reader to spend 30 minutes a day on their craft, or set a goal for a crafting business. All the work is intrinsic, aimed to get into the core root of your relationship with art. And I think it was an excellent decision to frame it that way. I’ve picked up a paintbrush more times these past couple of months than I have this year.

This chapter had a lot of tough love as well, it asks us to remember times we betrayed or shut down our creativity and allow ourselves to firstly grieve and then move on.

Favourite Quote:

Painting: Bad news friends, I don’t think I’ve won the Tiny Art Show at my local library. Winners are apparently contacted this week and my phone has stayed silent. I know it’s devastating news, but hey, we took a shot, it was a fun time and I got a free canvas to paint on.

Writing: 55,700k /100,000k

Slowing down with my writing this week, I really have to put it into gear for the next coming weeks if I want to make my 100,000k limit in 4 weeks. By quick maths estimation ~ 44,000 words / 4 weeks is 11,000 each week, which is…rough. Don’t know how that happened.

Morning pages: 7/7
Back in the flow again this week and also nearly finished my notebook!

Artist Date: Spa
Used a gift card from my birthday months ago and booked a spa appointment. 10/10.

Final Thoughts

I think the biggest change I can see is my feelings about the Artist Dates. I think I’m going outside my comfort zone a lot more. I’m also much less anxious than I was before, which is interesting.

I think I’ve been looking at creativity through the output - how do I measure creativity, through a word count or a finished painting, but I’ve been implementing it in other aspects of my life. I’ve been wearing different combinations of outfits, going to see different things. I’ve also ventured out to different items off the menu whenever I go to restaurants. A couple weeks ago I tried coffee and now I’ve started drinking it. My morning and evening routines have been switching up too.

This week - as a self proclaimed night owl - I woke up extra early just so I could eat breakfast and watch an episode of The Mentalist before starting my day. These little things don’t seem like such a big deal, but they’ve been little tests against the invisible structures that guard my day - I’ve never watched TV before 12pm my whole life, because that was just something I never did, or questioned. I’ve always chosen a hot chocolate over a coffee - it’s just interesting to note how creativity infuses throughout the rest of my life.

My writing consistency has stayed the same, but my scrutiny of my work has lessened. I used to re-write specific scenes in my drafts over and over because I didn’t like how unpolished they looked, even though that was the point of the first draft. Now I’m happy with the imperfections, happy enough to leave them and continue on with the big picture changes rather than fussing over every single little detail.

Something else I’ve been toying with is maybe selling some art. I quite like the business aspect of it, but I always fell flat at what I’m actually going to paint. I tend to paint things for people in my life, rather than just create art for art sake. I also shunned away from the idea because I don’t really paint that much, I also don’t hold it to such high regard as writing. I think of myself as a writer who paints, not a painter who writes. But maybe that descriptor is good, maybe it lessens the grip of perfectionism. I’m not sure. I guess a couple more weeks of The Artist’s Way and some more morning pages will help me figure out what I want to do.

But I do have a new goal - create some greeting cards! I think that’s a nice chill activity I can get into. They’re also easy to create too - make a print and send it to either an Officeworks or Kmart (or canva!). So we’ll see how that goes.

Goals:

1. 80% finish editing Book 1 Manuscript

2. Finish Draft 1 of Book 2 (90,000 - 100,000k) (currently at ~55k)

3. Make x2 paintings for myself to put on my wall.

4. Create x5 greeting cards.

Artist Dates so far:

Week 1 - Local shopping centre.

Week 2 - The Nutcracker Ballet

Week 3 - Aimless driving

Week 4 - Bookstore

Week 5 - The Odyssey in IMAX

Week 6 - Rollerskating Class

Week 7 - Dungeons and Dragons

Week 8 - Spa

Week 9 -

Week 10 -

Week 11 -

Week 12 -

I’m excited to see what I get up to in the next 4 weeks. Hopefully, my writing amps up so I can make my goal, and I’ll know more about what I want to do with my paintings.

Next week is the final instalment, and I will officially be an alumni of The Artists’s Way so make sure to check that out, and I’ll see you in another month for Ep 4 of The Practise.

Catch you later,

Kaye

Subscribe now

Ready for more?

Read the last issue of The Practise: The Artist’s Way: Week Four

Front Row by Futureative is where we explore & document the future of creativity. Built by, for & with independent creatives.

We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads

This article is episode two of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way.

In this issue I’ll be going over Weeks 2, 3 and 4 of the Artist Way!

A quick reminder on the structure of this series:

Episode 1 - The Artists Way: Week 1
Episode 2: The Artists Way: Week 4 Check in
Episode 3: The Artists Way: Week 9 Check in
Episode 4: The Artist’s Way: Week 12 Check in.

Without further ado, let’s jump in : )

Psst.. If you’re not already subscribed to Front Row, consider joining us so you don’t miss a thing!

Subscribe now

Week Two: Recovering a Sense of Identity

Tasks: Completed

Overview:

This week was all about protecting your space from people and thoughts that might get in the way of your creative desires. A lot of the tasks ask you to figure out who specifically in your life might be blocking you. Cameron calls these people “Crazymakers”.

Crazymakers could also be in memories that have stayed with you since you were a child. Somewhere along the way you’ve internalised whatever they said about you and constructed it as a prison where you place your art.

Favourite quote:

Painting:

Attempted to continue x2 paintings this week and absolutely failed, nothing went the way I wanted to. It was just one of those weeks.

A couple of months ago, I found that my local library is having a mini art competition, for a small painting on a mini canvas - I tried to paint something small this week but the artist block was completely immovable. I’m taking this to mean the process is working?

Writing: 32,000k / 100,000k

Only a thousand words this week, a bit of a slow week but I’m still taking it as a win. I think because I’ve been writing more than I’ve been painting, it comes a bit more quickly to me, or I’ve stayed consistent enough that writer’s block is just something that’s easier for me to work through.

Morning Pages:

7/7 pages done this week, a step up from last week. I am not a morning person, however this week I found myself actually writing the pages in the morning. It was still hard to fill out the third page, but yet to find it tiresome or rewarding.

Artist Date: The Nutcracker Ballet

A step up from last week - went to opening night of the Australian Ballet, as they begin their National Tour. I haven’t been to the ballet before and I think I’m a fan. Act I was a couple of contemporary dances and Act II was the second act of The Nutcracker. Though I had a limited knowledge of the Nutcracker story beforehand, the story was easy enough to follow and it was very interesting to consume content I hadn’t before.

It was also nice to dress up and go by myself. I’ve been to quite a lot of musicals and theatre shows, (Favourite: Hamilton and Phantom of the Opera) but this was my first Ballet. I do know that Dracula is coming to Melbourne later in this year so potentially another Artist Date for that!

Subscribe now

Week Three: Recovering a Sense of Power

Tasks: Completed

Overview:
Somehow, this book is predicting exactly what has happened the week previously. I haven’t skimmed through the book before starting this journey, and there’s been a repeating instance of a specific action or thought the week before cropping up in the text. It’s quite eerie.

Although I’m not seeing a rise in how creative I’m being per say, I do feel a sense of unwinding - like I’m tackling deep rooted issues first before I can start being creative again.

Favourite Quotes:

Painting:
Again, another painter’s block week! Though not for lack of trying I might add. The weekend mostly consisted of painting over and over a painting, including multiple re-coats that the canvas is looking a little worse for wear.. Despite much concentrated effort, the best thing I could end up with was blacking out the canvas and giving it a rest.

Writing: 40,000k / 100,000k

8k this week which I am much more happy about! In my dream productive week I do around 10k a week, but I take it as a win when I return to my manuscript consistently. I find it quite hard to continue with writing when I’ve had more than two days break.

For context, whilst I’m in the editing depths of my first manuscript, I’ve been working on the first draft of my second. My goal is to reach 100k until I move into editing and draft 2. I think draft 2 will be around 120 - 130k.

Morning Pages: 7/7

I came into my stride with my morning pages this week, started writing some random book ideas - rambling prose style and ended up filling up my three pages each day quite quickly. A huge difference from last week.

Artist Date: Aimless driving around my neighbourhood

This week was quite hectic and socially draining, so a good half an hour in my car driving around on a calm Sunday evening was just what was needed. Quite a step down from going to the Ballet from last week, but I think that the point of an Artist Date is to fuel yourself and this week, my inner child needed to just relax and cruise through familiar streets.

Subscribe now

Week Four: Recovering a Sense of Integrity

Tasks: Completed

Overview:

Last week I went through my wardrobe and packed a lot of boxes to donate clothes to an Op shop. I didn’t think much of it until this week’s text, which said that had probably happened by now. It is like this book is following my thoughts. It’s the spiritual creative version of House of Leaves. There have been multiple instances where something will happen, or I’ll have a string of thoughts that I’d put in my morning pages, only to read the text for the next week and have my past actions described to me in a casual accuracy.

This week also had one of the hardest tasks so far - no reading. I was quite annoyed at that, especially since I like to listen to audiobooks while painting. Put me in a terrible mood most of the week, looking forward to breaking my fast next week!

Favourite Quote:

Painting:

After a week break I finally sat down and completed my dog painting! I do think it has some final touches, but after hours re-doing the face, I’m quite happy with it. I’m also realising that it’s the biggest painting I’ve done so far, so I think for the next painting I’ll opt for an even bigger canvas. This painting is also a present - I tend to do paintings and give it to others, so a personal goal I’m setting is to make paintings to put in my house. Right now my painting space looks a little boring.

Quite happy with how it turned out!

Writing: 45,000k / 100,000k

Approaching the halfway mark! Only 5k completed this week, but a lot of plot and character development. I ended up getting rid of two chapters as well, but I think the end goal will still be 100,00k.

By quick maths, I think I can get to 100,000k by the end of Week 12. That is now an official goal of the Artist Way! We’ll see where I end up, but I’m feeling good about that goal.

Morning Pages: 7/7
Again, morning pages came quite easy this week. A lot of social things happened this week, so rambling quickly turned into a gossip session, which was quite rewarding. However, by the end of the week it was hitting me that I’ve been doing this for almost a month and I’ve still got two more to go. I am halfway through my notebook!

Artist Date: Shopping at a big outlet

Ventured out away from the usual shopping centre and went to a big outlet mall a 40ish minute commute away from home. I had a free Friday so it was quite good to stroll around a semi - empty building and explore shopping. I did have one errand, which was to buy my friend a birthday present, but I ended up buying a calendar, small pocket notebook and a boardgame for myself! I’ve been looking for a pocket notebook for a while, to doodle on train rides and in between moments rather than go on my phone, and Dymocks provided. 7mm lined.

Subscribe now

Final Thoughts:

If I remember correctly, I was quite skeptical during Week 1.

I am not anymore. I think this book is very well structured. Over the past couple of weeks it has accurately predicted my reactions to the tasks. I also think that I picked up the Artists Way at the right time in my life - I’m in a position to look inward and diagnose the way I am and my habits.

At first glance, it doesn’t seem like I’m making progress in my creativity, but small actions have been taken that are all adding up, I sorted out my painting supplies, and I reorganised the desk where I paint. Mornings become much easier to wake up to when I have the buffer of 3 pages of prose before I start the day. My wardrobe is cleaner, I’m making an effort to paint for myself. I think about my manuscript more often. I don’t agonise about buying new paint if I need it. Mentally I’m quite all over the place, I think I’ve made quite an improvement - and I’m not even halfway through the book.

So far, I haven’t encountered any advice that isn’t specific to a certain demographic. There are still a lot of references to religion and ‘God’ but not so much that it takes away from the tasks or advice in the book. I would say that this book starts by looking at the bigger picture, there are no instructions on dedication of craft or ‘you must write for 30 minutes every day’ it just positions you to think about your craft and your actions in the in-between moments of each day. Which I think is immeasurably helpful.

I also think that if you’re in a position where you need to heal from something mentally draining, doing the Artist Way could be a light hearted way of figuring out how that affected you. I think Morning Pages have a use outside of creativity and even if you don’t consider yourself a creative person, it could be really helpful to get all your thoughts on a page. There’s something cathartic about putting pen to paper and then never re-reading what you’ve written.

After a couple weeks of doing the Artist Way I now have a list of goals!

1. 100,000k words in my manuscript by the end of Week 12 AKA finish Draft 1

2. Making paintings with the intent of keeping them, rather than making them for someone else.

Feeling good about my progress. See you again for the next issue of The Practise ~ coming out next month, for a Week 8 update - and as always, be kind to yourself!

Catch you later,

Kaye

Subscribe now

Ready for more?

Read the last issue of The Practise: The Artist’s Way: Week One

Read the newest issue of The RoundUp: How do you fall back in love with your craft?

Read the newest issue of The DeepDive: The World Needs What You Make

Read the newest issue of Futureative Favourites: July 2026 Edition

Front Row by Futureative is where we explore & document the future of creativity. Built by, for & with independent creatives.

We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads

For those of you that have been reading the RoundUp - first off, thank you! Secondly, don’t worry, I haven’t pivoted genres suddenly, there will still be a semi-regular RoundUp article from me in the near future, I haven’t run out of creatives to cover.

We’re looking to expand our articles here in our little corner of Substack, so hello and welcome to The Practise, a series where I work through different programs designed to improve creativity, and on our debut episode, we are starting strong with Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way.

The Artist’s Way

Taking the creative side of the internet by storm, Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way seems to be the way to connect with your inner creator and overcome artists’ block once and for all. I first learnt about the book by watching Doechii’s (singer, rapper, grammy-award winning, you know the one) old youtube videos, where she credits The Artist’s Way as being one of the reasons she went out to garner such success.

Quite a good selling point for the book. So, here I am trying it.

For context, no, I don’t want a grammy, but I am a habitual creative, both a writer and a painter, who has struggled with creative block for a while. I’m in that weird liminal space that is your mid-twenties, where childhood dreams require both raging audacity and dedication to stay alive, especially when it’s so much easier - and harder- to sell your soul to a regular 9-5.

As someone who is a perfectionist, I’m approaching this with a ‘better done than perfect’ attitude. I don’t really have any hard and fast goals for the state of my creativity at the end of this book, but I would like to gently lift the claws of perfectionism that have cleaved itself into my soul every time I pick up a paintbrush or read over my work. : )

The Structure

A 12-week course, with about an hour of tasks per week, as well as:

1. The Morning Pages - 3 pages of prose every day, for the duration of the 12 weeks.

2. The Artists Dates - an allotted amount of time per week to take yourself out on a date. (walk in the park, visit a bookstore, see a movie. Anything really, but you have to do it alone )

I’ll be giving updates for Week One, Week Four, Week Eight and Week Twelve, so stick around if you’re interested, or wait until the very end. Either way, hopefully you figure out if this is something you want to try out too!

Week One : Completed.

Tasks: Completed
Artist Date: Apple juice and window-shopping
Morning Pages: 5/7 days

Notable Changes:

Painting: I picked up a paintbrush for the first time in so long! Dog-sat for a couple of days this week and got inspired by an adorable poodle, won’t be finished with the painting until next week, but here’s a past one I did:

Writing: A couple weeks ago I started looking into editors for a finished manuscript and I signed a contract this week! I don’t think this really has much to do with me doing the Artist’s Way, but the book is quite adamant that there are no coincidences. While I wait for work to continue on my first manuscript, I’m working on draft one of a second manuscript, and am currently at 31,000 words- though I will admit, not much writing got done this week.

Morning Pages: As someone who has the ability to ramble, I didn’t find the idea of the Morning Pages that daunting, but by day three/four they got a bit tiresome. Some days got away from me, but I’m saying it’s a good start.

Artist Date: Went to a local shopping centre on the weekend, bought an apple juice and perused some books. Wasn’t exceptionally profound but surprisingly this is a task that I’m having trouble with - something that I didn’t foresee.

I’m quite an introvert and I am more than happy to go and explore a place by myself, but that’s usually at the last minute, in a ‘oh-that-place is interesting’ way and less a dedicated time in my calendar to pursue. I also work from home, so for the past couple years I’ve made a note to go to new places with other people for the ~ human interaction ~ so planning for myself seems a little counterintuitive, but regardless, an artist date was planned and executed. (Apple juice rating: 8/10)

Tasks: The theme for this week was ‘Recovering a Sense of Safety’ and combatting some of the negative stereotypes about being or becoming an artist - and to square up against these allegations, we use affirmations. I’m still at the part where affirmations seem very silly, but in the moments I start slowing down in my morning pages, I just write down the affirmations.

Subscribe now

Final Thoughts:

Doing some more research into The Artist’s Way and Julia Cameron, I don’t think this book has my specific demographic in mind, but not many mainstream media do. However - the act of looking inward and allowing yourself to pursue your dreams and dissect how you see yourself is universally a good practice; if done with self-love.

So far, this book seems very well structured, it does make several references to ‘God’ and ‘Him’ which could deter some readers, I have just been reading it as ‘The Universe’ instead. There is a section in the book that accounts for this and says to just interchange the word to what you want. Though the book leans slightly religious in some instances, I wouldn’t say it’s a hinderance.

Motivational quotes and instructions can get you so far, the real work is the time you put in on the self-reflective prompts and the morning pages, so you can structure them however you like.

This is my first time doing some type of self-guided creative challenge and I’d say it’s a good bite-size amount. Reading through each chapter takes maybe 10 minutes. Morning pages take me 20 and the tasks just open tabs in your brain that you can flit through when doubts come bounding back - they take around 30 minutes.

As with anything in life, do what you can. An artist date is quite hard if you have to look after kids, or lack a mode of transport, have a chronic illness - the list goes on. Sometimes life happens, weeks vary and plans are sidelined in an instant. Things happen.

Seasons change.

I’ll be back with the second rendition of The Practise at Week 4, hopefully with a much bigger word count and a few more paintings to share. Until then, as always, be kind to yourself and happy creating.

Catch you later,

Kaye

Ready for more?

Read the newest issue of The RoundUp: How do you create consistently?

Front Row is your backstage pass to our essays, workshops, and online summits on navigating the future of creativity. Built by, for & with independent creatives.

We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads

Thanks for reading Front Row by Futureative! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.