I hit Week 4 in The Artist’s Way, otherwise known as Reading Deprivation Week (okay, it’s otherwise known as “Recovering a Sense of Integrity, but one does that by–*gulp*–not reading!).
Here’s what Julia Cameron has to say about depriving ourselves of the words of others:
It is a paradox that by emptying our lives of distraction we are actually filling the well. Without distractions, we are once again thrust into the sensory world.
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For most blocked creatives, reading is an addiction. We gobble the words of others rather than digest our own thoughts and feelings, rather than cook up something of our own.
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… we will be rewarded for our reading deprivation with embarrassing speed. Our reward will be a new outflow. our own art, our own thoughts and feelings, will begin to nudge aside the sludge of blockage, to loosen it and move it upward and outward until once again our well is running freely.
I get this. I so get this. I know that I OD on books, stories, blogs, opinions, rants, articles. I know that I take into too much information from the outside, all in the name of research and keeping up, and get so bloated on it that I can hardly think my own thoughts. So, this week, instead of reading one of the four new books I got at Borders last week (*SIGH*), I’m working on my own stories. Instead of reading blogs and keeping up with forums, I’m working on my own space here in ‘NetLand and journaling, letting myself hear my own voice for once.
Today I washed six windows. It took me an hour-and-a-half, but David took the children hiking and left me alone with my windows, my cleaning supplies, classical music and my thoughts. It was a beautiful day, sunny and cloudy, with a strong cold wind. My thoughts drifted here-there-and-everywhere. I dreamed up some backstory, gained an insight, processed a situation.
It was lovely but HARD. Checking my RSS feed is an ingrained habit; I do it without even thinking. So is just picking up a magazine or a book. But I got good stuff out of today.
And six clean windows.
“… we will be rewarded for our reading deprivation with embarrassing speed. Our reward will be a new outflow. our own art, our own thoughts and feelings, will begin to nudge aside the sludge of blockage, to loosen it and move it upward and outward until once again our well is running freely.”
I WISH this worked for me, but I’ve tried it so many times and learned from personal experience that I NEED to refuel. A lot of times, I find reading the Bible is the best, but as a novelist, I tend to gravitate towards novels. It takes a few days, but it was NOT reading that got me into the mess, and I find NOT reading doesn’t really get me out.
But it’s always been to each their own process. And that’s okay. That’s good even. 🙂
Here’s to a productive non-reading time! :hugs:
*nod* To each their own process. 🙂
For me, this reading deprivation is helping clear the junk potato-chip-and-soda reading from my life. The kind I do just because it’s easily accessible. 😛
I don’t include the Bible in reading deprivation week. I don’t read the Bible the same way I read anything else, kwim?
kwim? What’s that mean?
kwim= know what I mean
One of those awful Internet abbreviations I swore I would never use. 😀
LOL But yes, I do understand. I read the NT differently, but I admit, the OT gets me hooked. :grins:
Yeah, I’m an OT kinda gal. 😀
I agree with Meg. I find NOT reading is stifling. However, I can so easily disappear into other peoples’ worlds and loose track of the ones I’m creating 🙂 Non-fiction can be very productive in terms of sparking off ideas and I wonder if fiction and non-fiction are dealt with differently by the brain?
My book-of-the-moment is The Country House Kitchen Garden 1600 – 1950 edited by C. Anne Wilson.
Wishing you lots of fun this summer.