Second Time's the Charm?

January 16, 2011 2:07 PM

JuliaCameronFilter: Have you done The Artist's Way program multiple times, and if so, what was the cumulative effect?

I bought and followed Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way book/program last year about this time, and had pretty dramatic results from the 12 weeks-- as a result of the book, morning pages, and all the exercises, I started gleefully making art again, and also jump started a few writing projects that had been languishing.

My question is: I'm thinking about doing the whole program again, starting soon. I'm wondering if I'm going to get a similar kick, or whether The Artist's Way, like coffee, begins to lose its punch when overused.

Have you done the program multiple times? What has your experience been?

Also interested in hearing from anyone who's been following the morning pages/artist's date routine for a year or more about the effect of the program over time.

posted by enzymatic to media & arts (3 answers total)

Wow! No one has done her program more than once? I'm surprised! But maybe it's designed to be used only once...?
posted by enzymatic at 10:41 AM on January 17, 2011

I've done it two times (started it four times... uh, yeah). I got a lot out of it the second time. It was easier to keep habits like morning pages and artist dates. So creating became more like second nature instead of some chore I was avoiding or had to schedule. Funnily, I'm thinking of starting from the top again since my art habits are currently spotty.

I think because of its "12 Step" nature there is always more to find out about yourself going through The Artist's Way multiple times. People in AA, Al-anon, NA, etc are encouraged to start from the beginning right after finishing the twelfth step. With recovery the work is never over and going through the steps again help keep bodies and minds clean. I'm sure there are parallels for "recovering artists."
posted by montaigneisright at 10:42 AM on January 17, 2011

Thanks-- interesting. I assume that one might continue to learn interesting things, even when revisiting the same questions and exercises... perhaps additional iterations allow one to go more deeply, since the area has been plumbed already!
posted by enzymatic at 10:51 AM on January 17, 2011