Starting The Artist’s Way (with ADHD)
I had to ask for help. The book I sought was not in the “Art” or “Self Help” section of the bookstore, and I was out of ideas. Without checking the computer, the polite young man smiled and led me back into the rows of used books. I was clearly not the first lost artist he helped on their journey to find “The Artist’s Way.”
This book or course by Julia Cameron has been around for decades. I heard other artist’s rave about how it changed their lives. They awoke from a deep uncreative slumber into a bright rainbow-filled world of endless creativity or some other feel good self help chatter. As a new writer terrified of a blank page, I wanted to try it.
We bypassed the “Self Help” section. My bookstore navigator stopped under the “Spirituality” sign, and my religious trauma screamed at me to run. But the poor guy was so proudly handing me the book I asked him to find. So I accepted the slightly beaten copy.
What got me past the spiritual beginnings of the book were the pencil notes in the margins. Some previous artist with much better handwriting than me went through this course first. I was not alone. She and I would do this together. The very first thing she highlighted was this passage, and it spoke to me too.
“Get out of the way. Let it work through you. Accumulate pages, not judgments.”
The pencil notes go all the way to the end of the book. My fellow journeyer finished the course. As with most things in my ADHD life, I’m not sure I’ll see this all the way through. There’s 12 weeks of courses with daily writing (morning pages) and weekly dates (artist dates). I’m on week three, and I’ve skipped a lot of days. ADHD and consistency are mortal enemies.
But I have not stopped.
It’s not my ADHD that wants me to quit. It’s the struggle between my ADHD and my perfectionism. For me, the key is to abandon all concepts of how it should be done and do it my own way.
I mentioned I’m on week three. I started eight weeks ago. It would be easy to judge myself, but I am taking the advice my pencil friend highlighted and accumulating pages, not judgments.
After these eight weeks on The Artist’s Way, a blank page scares me less. The vision of my desired future is clearer. It is worth the work.
If you want to do The Artist’s Way, whether you have ADHD or not, don’t be afraid to do it your own way. Nobody is grading you. Do the course backwards. Skip half of it. Don’t do artist dates. Only do artist dates.
It would be boring to assume the way to art is the same exact twelve weeks for everyone. The point is to do something. Don’t get stuck in inaction. Shake things up. Play. Whatever happens, leave judgment behind. It has no place in art.
