The Right to Write (chapter two)
Cameron's second chapter (see previous entry if this makes no sense!) aims to blast away your doubts about being a writer. She addresses both the mystique of being a "writer" and the drive for perfection ... "We have a mythology that tells us writing is a torturous activity. Believing that, we don't even try it, or, if we do and we find it unexpectedly easy, we stop, freeze up, and tell ourselves that whatever we're doing, it can't be 'real' writing" (Julia Cameron, The Right to Write, p8).
Writing should be approached like any other activity; carpentry or white-water rafting, she suggests. No one expects perfection for their very first book case or trip down the Rapids. They do it for the fun of it, the experience itself.
She then sets an exercise to challenge our preconceptions about writers themselves, and replace negative thoughts with positive ones. I have to answer 10 questions about writers with my first thoughts. So:
1. Writers are: creative
2. Writers are: poor
3. Writers are: lonely
4. Writers are: selfish
5. Writers are: self-contained
6. Writers are: imaginative
7. Writers are: quirky
8. Writers are: intelligent
9. Writers are: arrogant
10. Writers are: eccentric
Now, I have to turn any negatives into positive affirmations by using exact opposites:
1. Writers are: creative ... pedestrian? boring?
2. Writers are: poor ... wealthy
3. Writers are: lonely ... satisfied with life
4. Writers are: selfish ... giving
5. Writers are: self-contained ... outgoing
6. Writers are: imaginative ... not imaginative?
7. Writers are: quirky ... ordinary?
8. Writers are: intelligent ... dumb?
9. Writers are: arrogant ... humble
10. Writers are: eccentric ... straightforward
Now, that tells me something interesting. My "negative" associations are actually more inspiring to me than my reversed associations. I aspire to be most of those things, I am confident in that mileau. (As a mum and wife, I long for the freedom to be some of those things.) So, as much as I respect you, Julia, I'll write my own affirmations, I think. But not here. That requires more thought.