Sunday, June 26, 2011

Contract Signing and Starting Thoughts

This is all about loving myself and doing something I need!

Contract

I, Kim, understand that I am undertaking an intensive, guided encounter with my own creativity.  I commit myself to the twelve-week duration of the course.  I, Kim, commit to weekly reading, daily morning pages, a weekly artist date, and the fulfillment of each week's tasks.


I, Kim, further understand that this course will raise issues and emotions for me to deal with.  I, Kim, commit myself to excellent self-care--adequate sleep, diet, exercise, and pampering--for the duration of the course.


Signed: Kim
Date: June 25, 2011


I'm going to print this out and glue it to a cool, painted background I made months ago, then I'm going to hang it on my board in my studio.

Signing the contract--easy.  Now to get down to the work.



Morning pages for me are going to be pages that happen later in the day.  As I mentioned in my first post about this project, trying to do them in the morning derails me.  I love the romantic image in my head of myself as writer, getting up, taking my coffee to my desk, and writing in the early morning light.  I hope someday to work from home so I can make that happen.  But now, with a day job, it just doesn't work for me.  I'm going to be a little more Natalie Goldberg than Julia Cameron on this one and just write and write until pages are filled, but I'm going to do it whenever and wherever it fits each day. (As an aside, did you know that Natalie Goldberg and Julia Cameron did a project together?  It's called The Writing Life, and it's an audio presentation.)

Artist Dates!
I also realized as I was reading the introduction in The Artist's Way that I need to plan ahead for my artist dates or they're never going to happen.  I mean way ahead, not just, "This week I will go to such-and-such."  I am going to work on a list of artist dates today so I always have a lot of things to choose from each week when it's time to make my plan.  I've already started the list and found that cool, independent toy stores are really appealing to me for this right now, so I think my first artist date may be to one of those.

Those are my thoughts after reading the introduction.  I'm going to go have a bit of breakfast and do my morning pages--and it's even still morning here!  More later, I'm sure...

5 comments:

Ileana said...

I do my morning pages after I get my son off to camp but before I wake my daughter, so 7 am is the perfect time for me, but I think it'll be different for everybody. I like your approach...doing it when it works best for you.

Natalie Goldberg wrote "Writing Down the Bones," right? Read her book many, many moons ago. I will check out the NG/JC link soon.

Best of luck to you on this little journey of ours! I think we'll be getting a lot out of it.

Anonymous said...

So true what you said about planning ahead for the artist's date. I will have to do the same thing because, though I'm psyched right now and I have all intentions of following through, I should know from my own experience that, if I haven't planned it out ahead of time, it ain't likely to take place in the moment. Good luck on your journey and I'm so happy to be undertaking it with you!

Beverley Baird said...

I've written a few pages - not really in the routine yet. But school finishes thisweek and it should make it easier to set a better routine. Love the idea of planning aways a head. Then you can plan better.

Paula - Buenos Aires said...

What a cool idea to have a list of artist´s dates beforehand!
Yay for you on signing the contract. :) I do the "daily" pages instead of morning pages. If they are early ok, if not, that´s ok too.

Lucy Ladham-Dyment said...

Great to read your post and see your signature. Love that you were able to do it. I am really looking forward to this.

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