Three Sure-fire Ways to Use Those Blank Books

IT'S NOT THE CHOICE, IT'S THE COMMITMENT.

Let's start with the easiest:

1. Find your watercolors (or colored pencils, or markers or...)

Open the book, not to the first page, but somewhere else.

Start coloring a "background" wash of color/s that you like. Don't stop until you have 10 pages colored. See where that takes you....

2. Do the Morning Pages commitment (from Julia Cameron's Artist Way) for a minimum of one month. As soon as your eyes are open, open the book. Write (and/or draw) three pages non stop (should take about 20 minutes, so set the alarm earlier if you need to). Write stream of consciousness, whine, complain, moan, smile, be thankful, list to-dos. Do not read the three pages over for at least a month. More about The Artist Way later.

(PS There is even a Yahoo Artist Way circle.)

 

3. Take a stack of old magaines, cards, calendars and other paper stuff to bed with you at night. Cut and/or tear out pictures you like, for any reason. Or use construction paper. Glue the images inside the blank book in interesting arrangements if you wish, or just old time scrapbook style like you might have done at age 10. Write about the pictures, if you want to. Keep this up for at least a month.

More ideas coming tomorrow.