Making Creativity Abundantly Clear

Julia Cameron, creator of The Artist's Way, has had a profound influence on my writing career. She's probably the closet thing to a guru or mentor I have. So it was with great pleasure I found her featured in the recent issue of The Writer magazine.

The article, The Abundant Life, is about her newest book, Prosperity Every Day: A Daily Companion on Your Journey to Greater Wealth and Happiness. Prosperity isn't about money, Cameron contends in The Artist's Way. Though she certainly understands how money pays the rent and puts food on the table.

Prosperity is about one's sense of abundance.

Some people, and myself included but I'm working on it, feel once they have enough money they can live the creative life. Not true. Creativity is an act of faith. It's that leap of faith that allows creativity to flow.

And in that flow is the abundance. 

Checking in and catching up

Here's where I've been of late. 

First, I've been writing a shitty first draft. And, you can thank the wonderful writer Anne Lamott for that. Check out #6 on this Facebook post of hers. 

 The wonderful writer Anne Lamott. 

It's not even the first draft of a novel. Though for the time spent on it, it should be. It's a stinkin' 750-word piece. Those are the most difficult, you know. The small word count is a killer. Filling up pages and pages with words, that's child play. 

Second, I just finished "The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins. And, I'm still catching my breath. 

A "must read."

What a wild ride. A real thriller. I highly recommend it. The actual reading time was short because I couldn't put the thing down. 

Funny, I rarely treat myself to a hardback book, but when I read the reviews for "The Girl on the Train," I knew I would love it. Clever structure with the three narrators. Characters rang true. 

I'm one of those who can never figure out who in a whodunnit. This one really had me reeling. 

That's where I've been. Now, on to revising that first draft.