My Artist's Way Toolkit - BlogHer Book Club Review

Have you heard of the book, The Artist's Way?  I didn't know anything about it when I signed up to review the online tool, The Artist's Way Toolkit.  I was interested in getting a few months of free access to the toolkit, because I've been trying to find some ways to get inspired and stay creatively productive.

So, what is the toolkit?  When you log in you create a contract with yourself stating that you're committed to daily creativity. You can read some positive words of affirmation and listen to inspiring sound bites, which are like... totally stupid.  Is anybody actually inspired by those kinds of things?  Maybe they are.  I see a lot of posters on pinterest that say things like, "Yesterday is gone, tomorrow hasn't happened yet.  All you really have is today," or whatever.  So, maybe you would enjoy these daily affirmations and sound bites.  All they managed to do was make me roll my eyes, which I'm good at and probably do a lot.

There is more to it, though.  The meat of The Artist's Way Toolkit are exercises like daily pages and artist's dates, and creative prompts.  I actually didn't mind this part, except that I didn't do any of it with any kind of perseverance.

The reason I wanted to try the toolkit was to try to muster up some ways to get and stay motivated to create, and it didn't really help with that.  I guess that if I'd already discovered some hearty motivation, I would have found the exercises to be helpful and inspiring.  My problem was that, I already didn't have time and energy to pursue my creativity.  Adding homework didn't do anything for me, even if it was interesting.

The morning pages are a nice idea.  Upon waking, you're supposed to write three pages, long hand, of anything that's on your mind.  If I didn't get woken up by my four year old every day, and if my one year old didn't soon follow... if I didn't have breakfast to get ready, diapers, getting everybody dressed, summer camp, errands etc as soon as I woke up, morning pages might have helped me put together some ideas for blog posts or stories.  Who knows?  It's a nice idea, right?

Also, the artist's dates are a cute idea.  You're given an assignment like, "Visit a part of your city you've never explored."  Stepping out of your routine and seeing new things are meant to stimulate your inner artist.  I agree with this idea.  I get really inspired when I do something novel, visit new places and see new things.  I feel like I already incorporate this into my life, so while the date ideas were interesting, I didn't feel like I really needed them.

I suppose my problems with the toolkit might just be a personality thing.  I am not really a structured exercises kind of person.  My creativity doesn't really work that way.  I am more of a mood swings and mental problems kind of artist.  I think maybe I just get inspired by different things.  Maybe you'd like it, I don't know. 

Do you want to find out what the other BlogHer Bloggers thought of the My Artist's Way Toolkit?  Click here to find out.




I was compensated for this review, but everything I said was true and my own opinion.


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