The Artist's Way and Finding Water Book Reviews. Finally.

It's been months since I finished The Artist's Way and I finally feel that I can give more of an honest perspective of the book for all of you curious creative people out there!  (I also read her follow up to this book - Finding Water - which I will also describe a bit in this post).

Okay, so at the end of The Artist's Way I felt a bit like I was reading a verson of the song "This is the song that never ends...yes, it goes on and on, my friends..."  Because immediately as you finish reading it has yet another contract to sign about re-reading the book and doing it all over again for the following 90 days.  I stared at the page with an open mouth followed by a roll of the eyes.  Really, Julia?  But I just did all of it!  ....and this is my thanks?!?  I was a bit pissy about it to tell you the truth, but I understand the point she was making and why it would help someone who was creatively blocked.  The first journey through the book would be spent getting unblocked and then the second read through would be to really begin to dive into whatever you were working on.  Also, of course, a creative life is unending, and is a continual journey.  I get it.  It still didn't make me read it again though.  Not to say that I won't in the future.  I probably will, but at the moment all I was was annoyed with the new contract.

One of the questions I had upon finishing the book was whether or not I would keep doing the morning pages.  I did for about a month or so and then stopped.  It was stupid for me to stop, because actually they did help me quite a bit with just purging stressors and ideas out onto a page to clear the brain.  I'm not much of a morning person, so it took me an hour and a half on most days to write the morning pages (according to the book it should take around 30-45 minutes if I remember correctly).  Well, if my morning pages were honest free flow, my entries would have been consisting of a lot of "Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhh....more coffee,.....mummummum....pen, page, book, pen...duhhhh...".

Not exactly a groundbreaking mental exercise if I did it that way.  So it took a bit longer for me than for most people...I'm sure that other people were in the same boat as I was when it came to the morning pages.  They were great to clear a space in the brain to get going on creative work, and I really loved it for that reason.  It also helped me organize my time and establish a routine.  In fact, I think that I should probably start them up again, because they really did help.  I'm not sure exactly why I stopped.

The book was motivational and helped to examine my own myths about creativity, success, and money.  It was eye-opening at times.

Other times, things didn't apply, or seemed a bit hokey.  I just tried to get what I could from it, and it did help me push past a few items of false thinking that I had held onto throughout the years.  I would suggest this book to anyone, and I think that everyone could gain something from it, no matter where they are at in their artistic development or achieving creative goals.  It is especially geared towards people who are blocked or who let their artistic side go throughout the years and would like to get back to creating.

All in all, it was good and I would highly recommend it.

Instead of reading the book over again, I went on to the next book called Finding Water.  This one I found to better than the first book.  It was a great motivational tool and inspired me quite a bit.  This book doesn't have as much of that "hokey" factor, and I found it more useful.  It still continues the morning pages and was a great follow up to The Artist's Way.  I actually found it to be more relevant to what I was looking for at the time.  The only thing I found annoying was the way she talked about her struggles with alcoholism so much.  I understand the relevance of some of her anecdotes, but by the end of it, I wanted to shout "Enough already!  Shut up and Cheer up!"  Immediately, I would feel like a jerk for thinking that way and eat a bag of potato chips. (Just kidding, but seriously, there's just so much of the "I have such problems" mentality that I can take before my energy starts draining.)

But guess what?  I would still recommend this book. haha!  It makes one understand that they are not the only one who struggles to keep the fire going and it also helps one develop some gentle discipline.  I loved it for that reason.