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David E. Perry's avatar

The Artist's Way has been my guide multiple times. Three, I think. It's been a while, decades since I actually worked the program per the book, but the habit stuck and I continue to invest in myself each day and take artist's dates regularly and without a hint of guilt for the time invested. Loved reading your take on this and reading of your own unfolding experience with it.

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Mark Patterson's avatar

Thanks, man. I need to do weekly artist's dates. Make time, like I do for my writing. Also, I am not sure I can bring myself to burn all the morning pages books I've gone through since starting. We'll see.

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David E. Perry's avatar

Burn them? Maybe that's new. Don't remember that being a thing and certainly didn't burn mine. Still have a stack of old notebooks and they don't scare me a bit.

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Mark Patterson's avatar

She mentioned it in the New Yorker article. A way to clean out the crap. I’m on book 13 after a year and a half, so I can see how someone might want to save space eventually.

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David E. Perry's avatar

Makes sense, as long as it doesn't become some 'article of faith' test sort of dealio. I've had a few too many run ins along life's path with those who like to set up tests and tasks for others in order to 'belong' to whatever club they want to be a gatekeeper of. My ears prick up whenever I come up against anything that smacks of a loyalty test... Guessing that was an overreaction on my part, here. Pragmatism is good.

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Michele LuValle's avatar

Brilliant! Absolutely.

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