The Artist Date need not be overtly “artistic”– think mischief more than mastery. Artist Dates fire up the imagination. They spark whimsy. They encourage play. Since art is about the play of ideas, they feed our creative work by replenishing our inner well of images and inspiration.
Julia Cameron – The Artist’s Way blog – 01/12/2012

Two weeks ago, I was feeling stuck. And a little panicky.
I was trying frantically to finish the first draft of book four of my cozy mystery series.
I don’t usually get writer’s block. If I make the commitment to sit down and write, I’ll write. But nothing seemed to be coming to me.
What I wrote seemed disjointed. Or about as interesting as a Microsoft Windows installation manual.

This book has been a struggle. Over the five months I wrote it, I took two international trips, attended a weeklong author conference and got slammed with COVID, then a month later, RSV (way worse than COVID for me). I was exhausted and pretty much brain dead.

So I pulled out my copy of The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. It’s a series of exercises for nurturing and validating that creative part of yourself so you can coax it out of the back of your closet and use it—and enjoy using it.When I feel out of touch with my creative voice, I go back to the book. Some of the exercises are more useful to me than others. There’s morning pages: first thing after waking up, you hand-write several pages of what’s on your mind without questioning or editing yourself. 

There’s an exercise where you write a letter (but don’t send it) to someone in your past who squelched or belittled your creative work. But the one that helps me the most is the Artist’s Date. 

The Artist’s Date is a time where you give yourself permission to play, indulge your curiosity, or enjoy something that engages your senses or imagination.

I’ve taken myself out to really good sushi (which has to involve grabbing it off a miniature boat). I’ve gone to see weird off-the-wall museums. I’ve hiked a trail I’d never been on. Gone to a thrift shop. And to a movie by myself – one my husband and family didn’t want to see. 

This past week, I kept trying to do an artist’s date…and failed.

I went out for a drive looking for some place fun. And I ended up getting groceries, since we didn’t have anything for dinner. Later, I was going to go for a hike, but instead, I realized our dog hadn’t gotten out of the house in a while, so I took him for a walk.
I am a list-based person. I like to make a list of things to do, then I cross them off and feel that satisfying sense of completion. 

When you write, you need that list-making mindset, but you also need the irresponsible playfulness that seems its exact opposite.

On a whim that week, I decided to shop for spices at a for-real, dedicated spice shop. I went to Penzey’s in Menlo Park (on the San Francisco Bay Peninsula), and spent time just smelling spices. It was fun browsing and trying new combinations of flavors and scents. I bought one with orange zest and pepper called Outrage! that seems to work on everything. I bought a Russian spice blend called Tsardust. Now that I smell and taste it at home, it’s kind of a weird flavor. But, hey, creativity also requires an openness to making mistakes. 😄

Driving back in the rain, I passed one of my favorite trails, The Stanford Dish, which curves through the hills above Stanford University. The trailhead on Alpine Road is lesser known: it starts out by a bridge over a creek in the woods.

The rain was pouring down pretty hard. I pulled off the road, parked in the mud and decided to walk it, in my thin jacket and nice white Asics.
I passed only one person, and he was walking really fast back to his car. I aimed myself into the slanted rain, toward the big radar dish up on the hill. As I walked the empty trail, I got to see beautiful green hillsides, gnarled trees and a pale rainbow, fighting to be seen over a bank of ominous grey-blue clouds. 

All of this for me, the irresponsible one. 

Last week, my creative voice finally woke up, bumped around in the closet, and poked its head out.
I remembered my story and why I wanted to write it. I remembered my characters and where they were headed. 

And I finished my draft.