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Words to inspire from ‘The Artist’s Journey’ by Steven Pressfield

September 27, 2018

On our artist’s journey, we move past Resistance and past self-sabotage. We discover our true selves and our authentic calling, and we produce the works we were born to create.

The Artist’s Journey, Steven Pressfield

artist's journey

The Artist’s Journey

I’ve just read The Artist’s Journey: The Wake of the Hero’s Journey and the Lifelong Pursuit of Meaning by Steven Pressfield. It’s a new book and follows The War of Art on resistance and Turning Pro on moving from being an amateur to a professional.

The Artist’s Journey is about how in shifting to being more professional in our habits, we move from the hero’s journey to the artist’s journey. This focuses on our pursuit of meaning, our calling and our ‘daimon’:

On our artist’s journey, we move past Resistance and past self-sabotage. We discover our true selves and our authentic calling, and we produce the works we were born to create.

I’m a big fan of The War of Art and Turning Pro, both books being pivotal in my artistic and creative development and featuring in my 36 Books that Shaped my Story. What I love about this book is how it relates our artist’s journey to our lifelong muse and voice. Each piece in our body of work is a piece discovering our voice and story:

We find our voice that same way. Project by project. Subject by subject. Observing in amazement as a new “us” pops out each time.

This is such a great book by Steven Pressfield, more spiritual in focus than the previous two books in this vein. It’s as if the journey continues through resistance and past it. We turn more professional and sit down to write and in this we discover our artist’s journey. It’s another book to read over and over.

Words to inspire you

Here are a few words to inspire you from The Artist’s Journey:

On hero’s journey + artist’s journey:

What counted was that I had, after years if running from it, actually sat down and done my work. This was my epiphanal moment. My hero’s journey was over. My artist’s journey had begun.

On gifts:

What gift do you bring for the people? You will learn that, now, on your artist's journey. Click To Tweet

On your subject + niche:

You have a subject too. You were born with it. You will discover it on your artist's journey. Click To Tweet

On style:

Style is inseparable from voice. It evolves out of subject and point of view and blends seamlessly with medium of expression.

On the “true work”:

The thesis of this book is that the artist’s journey, which follows the hero’s journey chronologically, comprises the true work, the actual production, of the artist’s life.

On “write what you don’t know”:

The conventional truism is “Write what you know”. But something mysterious and wonderful happens when we write what we don’t know. The Muse enters the arena. Stuff comes out of us from a source we can neither name nor locate.

On process:

The artist's journey is an alchemical mixture of the airy-fairy and the workshop-practical. Click To Tweet

On skills:

On the artist’s journey, we develop skills. Skills we did not have before. We teach ourselves these skills. We apprentice ourselves to others wiser than we are.

On body of work:

You can practice your art. You can produce, over time, a body of work that is the produce of your calling, the fruit of your authentic being, the full expression of your truest and highest self.

Other posts and a podcast chat on The Artist’s Journey

You can read more from The Artist’s Journey in How to Undertake the Artist’s Journey.

Marie Forleo has shared her thoughts on the book here.

You can also learn more about The Artist’s Journey via this fabulous The Creative Penn podcast chat with Steven Pressfield:

The Artist’s Journey with Steven Pressfield .

Here’s a beautiful snapshot of me in action, quietly writing in a sacred creative space at our recent retreat in Hoi An, led by Kirsten Pilz of Write Your Journey. The retreat was a critical step in my continuing artist’s journey, finding my voice and gaining confidence. This image is by Nigel Rowles and used with permission and thanks.

artist's journey

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How to know and honour your special creative influences

NaNoWriMo – 10 lessons on the value of writing each day

Doing the work: 21 valuable quotes to help you show up

Practical tools to increase writing productivity

Free ebook – 36 Books that Shaped my Story

#quietwriting – growing creative community and connection

planning & productivity writing

Doing the work: 21 valuable quotes to help you show up

September 26, 2017

doing the work

As I was working on my post, 20 Practical Ways of Showing Up and Being Brave (and Helpful), I went back to my collection of quotes to consider different angles of showing up and doing the work. This was such a valuable exercise in itself, so I thought I’d share the quotes that popped up.

They tell a story about the different dimensions of doing your work. As a collection, they highlight values such as courage, action, uncertainty, mindfulness, prioritising, soulfulness, mystery and trust. I flag these many dimensions of doing your work here too to inspire you from all these angles.

Which one resonates with you the most right now?

1 INFLUENCE

Don’t underestimate the extraordinary effect you have every single time you show up to a situation with an open, loving heart.

Scott Stabile, in Big Love: The Power of Living with a Wide-Open Heart

2 MINDFULNESS

Let’s pay attention only to where we are.
There’s only enough beauty in being here and not somewhere else.

Fernando Pessoa, in A Little Larger than the Entire Universe: Selected Poems

3 COURAGE

So this, I believe, is the central question upon which all creative living hinges: Do you have the courage to bring forth the treasures that are hidden within you?

Elizabeth Gilbert, in Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

4 ACTION SPEAKS

You are what you’ll do, not what you’ll say you’ll do.

Carl Jung

5 UNIQUENESS

The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can.

Neil Gaiman, Make Good Art – Inspirational Commencement Speech at the University of the Arts

6 BE YOURSELF

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

7 FOCUS ON ESSENTIALS

I can’t think of anything else necessary to a writer except a story and the will and ability to tell it.

John Steinbeck, Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters

8 LISTEN WITHIN

Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.

Steve Jobs, 2005 Stanford University Commencement Address

9 HARD WORK

Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.

Stephen King, from an interview in the London Independent (March 10, 1996)

10 SOULFULNESS

The soul always knows what to do to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind.

Caroline Myss

11 UNPLUG

Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.

Anne Lamott, TED Talk

12 BE SEEN

Courage starts by showing up and letting ourselves be seen.

Brené Brown, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way we Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

13 DO IT NOW

Do not wait; the time will never be ‘just right’. Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.

Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich

14 PRIORITISE

What’s important is the work. That’s the game I have to suit up for. That’s the field on which I have to leave everything I’ve got.

Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

15 CONSISTENCY

I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.

Somerset Maugham (as quoted in The War of Art – see #16).

16 FACE RESISTANCE

In terms of Resistance, Maugham was saying, “I despise Resistance; I will not let it faze me; I will sit down and do my work.”

Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

17 TRUST MYSTERY

The professional trusts the mystery, He knows that the Muse always delivers. She may surprise us. She may give us something we never expected.

Steve Pressfield, Turning Pro

18 INTENTION

…that practice must be focused. It must possess intention. Our intention as artists is to get better, go deeper, to work closer and closer to the bone.

Steve Pressfield, Turning Pro

19 DO THE BASICS

If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcuts.

Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

20 UNCERTAINTY

Embrace uncertainty. Some of the most beautiful chapters in our lives won’t have a title until much later.

Bob Goff

21 PRACTICE

Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.

Martha Graham

Which quote sings to you? Or share your own special quote!

I’d love to know which words sing to you the loudest right now!

Or share your own special quotes that motivate you in showing up and doing the work, day in and day out.

Let’s create a whole army of inspiration to help us (or make us) do the work.

Share your story in the comments below or on Instagram or Facebook!

Feature image from pexels.com

Below pic features my desk inspiration with card #42 The Word Wants to be Written from the Sacred Rebels Oracle Deck.

Note also: the nearly empty bottle of ink – work has been done!!

doing the work

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creativity writing

The subtle art of not writing

September 27, 2016

pexels-photo_writing

It’s a subtle art, the art of not writing. I have not written now through many years, filling and part-filling many journals and notebooks, drafting hundreds of poems and compiling numerous blog posts over more than six years. I’ve not written in the workplace for over 30 years – including writing for and editing publications, writing a handbook of research and influencing many business outcomes with my writing skills. I’ve not written my way to publication in a few cases, so much so that the Australian National Library, a number of literary journals and the AustLit database of Australian literature know about me. And there’s so much not writing paraphernalia around me here as I sit, that I can hardly move.

It seems I am a master of not writing, spinning a myth about myself over the years that to this day can see me looking achingly at writing texts and courses as the cure to this ailment. It’s true, their balms and solutions may help me to move through this impasse. But to allow them to make me feel that I am a complete novice in this art and space, with no track record or prior experience, is all my own work.

It seems that just as I have tricked myself into the subtle art of not writing, I could just as easily trick myself into the art of writing. They seem to be transferable, almost the same skills, that could be shifted in focus. Perhaps I need to chunk it more, break it down into parts I can think of as projects, to make it easier to manage. Calling one focus something like ‘The Poetry Project’ would help make the work all the more tangible and achievable. Now I come to think of it, this blog is a little like that.

With a wry smile and a sense of humour, and by some gentle stealth, I could set a time-limited practice and tease a set number of pages or words from each day to get started and call it part of the subtle art of not writing.

I could get the best poems I have written over the years and put them into a small volume that is not really a publication, but just a collection of pieces of my heart in language I have shaped, uniquely my voice. I could craft these small multi-faceted jewels over time and work out how they can best be worn and integrated into a personal style I can step out in.

And I could turn this desire to write into something real that heartens each day, a deft trick of time that makes the minutes count. I could further inscribe the journey already started through miles of lines of ink into artefacts that might light the way ahead, little by little, much as novelist E L Doctorow reminds us:

Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

That delicious journey, and then actually sitting down to (not) write.

Thought pieces:

Writing this piece made me think a whole raft of things: resistance, getting out of our own way, making things manageable, shifting our contexts, small tweaks, tricking ourselves, recognising our body of work over time and self-belief.

In related thoughts and connections:

Courteney E Martin’s article, Writing the Stepping Stone: why you haven’t written your book yet, has some excellent practical suggestions for getting your book written including: recognising that it might not actually be a book but something else; dealing with distractions such as the internet; and realising that the work you are doing actually might be a stepping stone. I love these final words about, yes, getting out of our own way:

If you have a book inside of you dying to come out, close this browser. Close this computer, or turn off this phone. Sit down with a piece of paper and a pen and write a letter to someone you know personally about the topic. The directness of the form will get you out of your own way and on your way to doing what you are meant to do.

How to Write a Novel in Thirty Minutes per day has many strategies for: getting into the habit of writing; controlling or removing interferences and distractions like the internet (including ‘put your mobile on aeroplane mode’ – there’s a thought!); building accountability; and promoting good practice planning, productivity and resilience. It’s a great roadmap for ‘driving at night in the fog’.

Sage Cohen in the wonderful Fierce on the Page (book review coming up here soon!) has a few tips on little shifts in attitude for overcoming resistance. In the chapter, ‘Change your context to regain your appetite’. Sage prompts us:

What if you found a new way to approach an old struggle or stuck place? How could you come at it sideways to find a new perspective? What if you were to make a small shift in attitude or practice – and then another – until you felt a bit more space or ease or fun?

And so many of Elizabeth’s Gilbert’s Magic Lessons podcast interviews touch on this theme of getting out of our own way with our creative ventures, realising we are actually already doing the work, not being so hard on ourselves and just getting on with it. Dive into any of these podcast pleasures but I have a special soft spot for the one with poets Cecilia and Mark Nepo, Who Gets to Decide Whether You’re a Legitimate Artist? It’s about who gets to decide who is a good poet and the value and legacy of poetry. Listening to this one was life changing for me!

Share your thought pieces:

I’d love to hear how you are breaking through any resistance with tricks or shifts in attitude. How are you getting out of your own way or valuing your creative work?

inspiration & influence writing

Novels: lost, found and unwritten

March 22, 2015


The recent announcement of the lost novel from Harper Lee, the unpublished unknown predecessor of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, written before, that tells us the next step in the story, raised many questions.

Firstly it seems incredulous that this could be so. That such an archetypal novel had an earlier sister and that it took the events further was a surprise. How could we have not known all this time? Where was this novel? Why was it not published before?

Then later that some day, the announcement of a new novel by Milan Kundera, author of ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’, again such an archetypal novel and one that had a profound effect on me in the late 80s, accompanied by an amazing film. Now another novel by this great author is to come after a significant silence of more than a decade.

It set me thinking about the ‘inevitability’ of novels, about the novels that get lost (see this article on delayed and lost novels – especially one that got lost in the post!), the novels that are found, the ones that get delayed for a long time. And the ones that risk not being written at all.

It brought to mind ‘The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society‘, “a first novel from a 70 year old former librarian, Mary Ann Shaffer”. According to the book’s bio, Mary Ann first became interested in Guernsey in 1976; then many years later was goaded into writing a book and revisited her thoughts about Guernsey. Mary Ann died in 2008 without seeing her book in print and knowing the fame it enjoyed and the pleasure it kindled in others.

It made me go back to some loved works on resistance and silence and to reflect on some words in this space:

From ‘The War of Art‘ – Stephen Pressfield

“Creative work is not a selfish act or bid for attention on the part of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got”.

From ‘Silences‘ – Tillie Olsen

“Literary history and the present are dark with silences: some the silences for years by our acknowledged greats; some silences hidden; some the ceasing to publish after one work appears; some the never coming to book form at all.”

And wise words from Maya Angelou:

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”

Milan Kundera states in a 1983 Paris Review interview:

“A novel is a meditation on existence, seen through imaginary characters. The form is unlimited freedom. Throughout its history, the novel has never known how to take advantage of its endless possibilities. It missed its chance.”

So many endless possibilities, so many chances.

What untold stories ask to be written and how can we make sure they come to light and don’t get lost or forgotten?

Let’s not miss the chance.

Novel pics (2)

 

creativity introversion writing

Making space to speak

July 29, 2012

The balance between partnerships and creativity, between being together and being alone, between doing/being and reflecting on the doing and being, is often a fine line. Like many people, I have sought to manage and maintain the balance. It is often easier to create when you have space and solitude; but relationships, family, work and friends are all so important.

Tillie Olsen’s, ‘Silences‘ published in 1978, is about the conditions for creating art, and the circumstances that inhibit and foster the development of writing and other art forms. She examines what works for creativity; the circumstances that she analyses include gender, race and economic situation. A product of its time, ‘Silences’ identifies the high number of women, for example, who have not married or had children and created works of art. Certainly the personal and social situations we create, choose and find ourselves in are an influence in what we create and the conditions in which it is created.

I wrote about this some time ago in a poem that still holds true for me about the balance between relationships and creativity:

Half a Man

If I had even half a man now
could I write the night,
out into its waiting wings
to penetrate delight.

If I had a part of one
who tried to gather all,
I’d run because his promise
is not wiser than the call.

If I had a whole man
who could teach me to receive,
I’d write between the space he gave
and love with sudden ease.

Sometimes , the space itself, when we do find it, can be almost too much, overwhelming in its vacancy to fill. The feeling of all that open space in which to create, once we have organised it or when it is just there due to circumstance, can in itself be intimidating as May Sarton writes in ‘Journal of a Solitude‘:

The ambience here is order and beauty. That is what frightens me when I am first alone again. I feel inadequate. I have made an open place, a place for meditation. What if I cannot find myself inside it? (p12)

I love the approach of Australian writer, Kate Grenville, to capturing every inspiration and opportunity to create. As she documents in ‘Searching for the Secret River‘, Kate uses a series of mantras to keep herself writing: ‘never have a blank page,’ ‘don’t wait for the mood’, ‘fix it up later’ and ‘don’t wait for time to write’. She further writes:

I learned to work in whatever slivers of time the day might give me – one of my favourite scenes in ‘Joan Makes History‘ was written in the car waiting to pick up Tom from a birthday party, on the only paper I could find, the inside of a flattened Panadol packet. I had slivers of time, so I wrote in slivers of words: a page here, a paragraph there. Eventually the slivers would add to something. (p145)

So it seems there is no perfect formula for making space to speak. Whilst some conditions might make writing and other creativity more likely, if we are serious about it, we need to write and create in whatever situation we find ourselves. It’s possibly also that waiting for the perfect conditions is just another form of resistance to getting down to work.

That’s why this blog is so important to me; it’s a stay against silence, a way of creating space to speak, a way of practising making space, so that my writing here now (nearly) each week is an achievement, a making of space in an otherwise very busy life.

So with all this in mind, what habitat suits you to create? What conditions help you write or create art? What have you learnt from your experiences in creativity over time ?

creativity

Gems #10 On creativity

October 17, 2010

Some recent gems shining a little light on creativity…

I am doing the wonderful Unravelling e-course currently with Susannah Conway and a whole raft of incredibly creative people. It’s very inspiring to see the creativity of others in images and words and also to feel your own tendrils of creativity stretching into new directions.

Here are some recent gems about creativity, resistance, getting moving and what can help and hinder its expression:

Stop Resisting and Start Creating

What’s ROBBing you of your creativity?

How to stop thinking, worrying and analysing and just start creating

That’s all for now, as off to create 🙂

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