The Storyteller - the wit and wisdom of Frank Coughlin
 

Pages Three or the Page's pages

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This is a cult classic amongst struggling creative types penned by Julia Cameron called "The Artist's Way". I have read it dozens of times and each time I find a new nugget of wisdom. If you are sensing a 'however' - I will not disappoint you.
However, he said, Julia took the time to write certain rules into the premise of the book - rules which should be called Suggestions but are not - thus devotees of the book have decided that they need to enforce these 'rules'. Actually, only one rule needs arbitration - the rule of three, pages that is. Julia's suggestion er I mean rule that creative people need to write three pages of notebook paper long hand is a bit too unexplained.
I know the idea is supposed to stimulate creativity by writing out all the stuff gets in your creative way. However, (my second one in this entry), my experience is that the three pages stimulus only happens in the first few weeks of doing this exercise - after that these pages start taking a life of their own - they become my therapist (lets talk about your childhood again) , my nagging wife (are you going to do me today), and my addiction (I have to do them, I have to do them). Eventually, I get sick of doing them but not before I go through a guilt trip about not doing them. And never has this exercise got me past my writing blocks.
So why do them I ask - Why did Julia ever come up with this exercise in the first place.
I believe the answer is the fact that she thought she was doing good - I believe that Julia thought if she could get enough writers to believe this was a good thing - they would never see her real reason - to get rid of the competition. If there is less writers, then her work will stand out.
So I have decided to write a self-help book for writers - I will tell them they need to write four, count 'em, four pages each day. Yes, I will go one better and I believe that I will eliminate just about all the writers that try my exercise.
And then I will get my novel, play and poetry books published




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