The other day in our writer’s group, somebody brought up the idea of each of us taking responsibility for a periodic “artist’s date” to recharge our creativity. Those of you who remember Julia Cameron’s 2020 blockbuster The Artist’s Way will recognize this concept. I, who avoid self-help books, did not, but when its eloquent proponent among us presented the idea, it sounded extremely appealing. And then I realized I’ve been on one long artist’s date here on the farm, and dang! It really does supercharge the creativity as promised! So, I present the idea to you as yet another way to get your creative juices flowing—whether as a cure for writer’s block or a reward for the week’s hard work.
On Your Own
What is an “artist’s date”? At least two hours a week spent in solitude, doing something that gets your cerebral synapses clicking. Our group decided that the activity we most coveted was reflective rather than educational. That is, a chance to reconnect in silence to the world of feeling and experience around us. That could be meditation. Could be a walk in the woods, a paddle on the beautiful Hillsborough River. An afternoon in the garden, working or just basking in beauty. Or even browsing an art book without reading the captions.
Can you imagine writing a poem without a stock of mental and emotional images? No, and novelists are no different. If you’ve depleted your stock, the way to recharge is usually not to take a course or watch a podcast or even to talk to fellow authors, although all of those things can galvanize your desire to write. Our professional activity happens in the head, the heart. And thus, to refill the old cistern, we have to open aforesaid body parts to replenishment. To take time in silence to sense the world, to enjoy it, to remember. To let it rewrite us, so we in turn can write.
Make All Things New
Think of it, as Cameron suggests, as a date. You’re alone with your very best friend—you! Nothing but kindly vibes permitted. No other company needed. No distractions tolerated. You’re here for one purpose: to let the crust of too-many-activities-too-many-stimuli crumble, leaving you fresh and permeable to sensations. Multiply this by two weeks and add some magical location like the Amalfi Coast or Santa Barbara, and you have a writer’s retreat. That will cost you bucks. But just two hours a week, faithfully claimed? The cheapest brain-lift ever!
At Ease
Some of our group want to keep a journal, knowing the impressions that flow in those paradisal moments will be supercharged with imagination. Others eschew even that amount of direction. Suit yourself, because this is all about YOU. That’s why it has to be solitary. Everybody’s needs are different. I am fed most by being out of doors in a very green place. France in May with roses blooming, anyone?
This setting has nothing to do with anything I write about, and that’s part of the deal. The date isn’t to do research: “What does it feel like to be under a rosebush in May?” There’s no objective. It’s just a space to be, for a change, without doing or accomplishing. The results will happen on their own. Almost unimaginable, isn’t it—not accomplishing anything, and being at peace with that? If you’re an American, it may take a little while not to feel antsy when left alone in unproductive silence.
So, there’s our group’s simple pep pill. It costs nothing. It takes up no particular space. It requires no reservations (probably). Just a recipe for refreshing a brain trampled hard by too much purposeful activity and too many distractions. Be faithful to your weekly rendezvous. Your best friend can’t wait to spend time alone with you.
Lee Gramling
There’s a lot to be said for spending some quiet time alone simply communing with nature, and we in Florida are fortunate to have so many varied opportunities to do this. I used to take 10-15 minute walks in the woods to give myself a break from the keyboard, and have sometimes spent an hour or so in the shade watching squirrels at play or just listening to birds. A weekend at the beach within constant sound of the surf is also a marvelous way to recharge one’s batteries.
–But no one should deceive themselves that hiding away inside four walls or just staying in bed is remotely the same thing. And two hours a day for solitude is a reasonable time frame. Any psychologist will (or should) tell you that a vital key to combatting depression or other mental illness is “functioning in community.” We all need other people around to help us stay grounded!
Niki Kantzios
Absolutely. It become too easy to deceive oneself without the touchstone of other people. But most of us have plenty of human contact–it’s the solitude that’s missing.
Lee Gramling
Might be a restoration of human contact for some people now, and in Florida. But most Americans have endured two years of enforced “solitude” and for many their primary modes of interaction remain social media and e-mails connected with working from home. The result was entirely predictable and has been devastating.
John Bradley
The leap from the post to “hiding away inside four walls” is a gigantic one. Enforced solitude and restoration of human contact? That seems quite the exaggeration, too.
Lee Gramling
Widespread mental health issues resulting from the “lockdown” are pretty well documented and hardly an exaggeration. Writing, as we all know, is a lonely profession. All I hoped to suggest was that “solitude” can and should mean finding ways to get out of oneself (although alone) by focusing on the natural world around us instead of turning our thoughts inward.