…What, you think you’re better than me?
This past summer (2025) I decided to start The Artist’s Way and only made it to the end of week three. I could go on about my busy teaching schedule or the many grad school applications I was working on or any number of excuses. But, really, I just didn’t commit. The task that proved the most difficult for me was the daily writing. I am someone who tends to write in intense bursts—often for organizational or planning purposes—and that is it. Journaling has never been an alluring activity for me, and I often find journaling for the sake of journaling to be difficult and exposing. So, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a bit of resentment feeling like I have to write every morning…
However, I did find that when I completed my morning pages, I was able to get ideas on paper that I hadn’t attended to in some time, and, even in that brief span of time, some really exciting ideas did start to appear in those morning pages. So, in order to successfully complete The Artist’s Way this time (and to reap those juicy creative rewards everyone is talking about) I am going to do what I do best: make a plan. I pretty much can’t function without short-term and long-term goals that are set in stone with dates and times. Even with the weekly structure of The Artist’s Way, I, apparently, need even more structure. So, I’m Starting the Artist’s Way… Again…
What is the artist’s way?
The Artist’s Way is made up of 4(ish) main components: morning pages, artists dates, weekly reflections, and reading for the week ahead. Each week it looks something like this: write your morning pages every day (30 minutes); attend your artists date (2+ hours including planning time); finish your weekly review (30 min-1 hour); and read the chapter for the next week (this always took me like 2 hours…which is probably why I stopped doing it…give me a break, I’m a slow reader!). To make sure I attend to these tasks, I have chosen Fridays and Saturdays as my obligatory “Artists Way Days” for the next 12 weeks. My goal is to have my artists date and my weekly review finished on Fridays, and then carve out time on Saturday mornings to read for the week ahead (all this planning and I feel like I’m back in undergrad).
What i’m doing differently
But, come on, I don’t want to schedule this all out like some daunting 12 week task, I want to get back to that feeling I had when I first picked up the book! I was so excited to dedicate some mental time to art, and the prospect of spending 12 weeks to cultivate a more creative and art focused mindset had me absolutely giddy. But, really, I often forget what a programs like this are really like: work. It is a task, and it is work, and this feeling of strain I experienced is because I thought The Artist’s Way was going to be a creative free-for-all filled with surprising moments of spontaneous mastery and skill, and that is not necessarily the case.
This time, I want to face The Artist’s Way head on, as work. I realize that, for me, The Artist’s Way is not 12 weeks of creative daydreaming and play (though those moments do occur!), it is 12 weeks of showing up and letting it just be work sometimes. That doesn’t mean there is no room for play, but that the moments of play (like artists dates or discovering something cool in the morning pages) should simply be cherished and explored while maintaining a focus on the real goal; to understand yourself better as an artists and to grow. And growing, well, it’s work.
p.s. – I realize that for some individuals, this book may, in fact be a creative free-for-all, and power to you! My brain just doesn’t work that way :[
So, it’s time for me to get to work… again. I hope this post brought comfort to anyone like me who may struggle with programs like this, and, for 2026, let’s get to work to become our most creative selves. You can find all articles in this series here.
