The Artists Way - Toolkit

The Artists way tool-kit was created by Julia Cameron as a tool to help people all of areas develop to help people of all abilities, from all walks of life, bring out their inner-artist.

It's described as follows on the website  "The Artist's Date is yet another tool in your arsenal as you navigate this process of creative renewal and discovery. A festive solo undertaking to explore something that excites or interests you, the Artist's Date is play. This word "play" is pivotal. Creativity comes forward by being coaxed, not bludgeoned. But how can "play" help you work on your art?"


Each day as part of the process we're required to do what's called "morning pages" to write 3 pages, long hand, without our computers, without thoughts, just write each morning.


Then there are prompts and daily inspirations to help write and create.


I've been using this service for about 2 weeks now, and I'm honestly still somewhat confused about why it exists and how to get the most out of it.


I enjoy the exercise of writing, but I have a hard time writing without my computer. I'm of a generation that my thoughts seem to stream better when I type. I can type faster than I can write, and the main benefit is when I'm done writing on a computer I'm able to read what I've written. (I have horrific handwriting).


The weekly challenges and prompts have been okay for me, and I really want to love this product and service, but I honestly am still not sure what the primary goal is.


Perhaps the tool-kit is better understood in collaboration with Julia Cameron's book, or perhaps I'm not the right kind of artist.


But I will keep plugging along. Although I will say that the exercise of writing daily is valuable (even if I don't like writing on paper haha).


I was compensated for this BlogHer Book Club review but all opinions expressed are my own.