AW Tasks Series: Hall of Champions

This is one of the Tasks in Week 1 of The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. Check out my previous post and other previous posts for details.

For this task, I'm going to write about three "champions" of my creative self-worth and the compliments and/or encouragements they gave me along the way. At the end, I'll pick one of those compliments or encouragements and write it out on a card or sticky note, decorate it, and put it somewhere I can see it every day.

Of course, my first and biggest champion has to be my best friend. We've known each other since high school. She is also a writer, and for most of our adult lives, she was my co-author on the Midnight Daze series. My fondest memories are of the times we spent locked away in her office or bedroom, blissfully ignoring the world while we played with our characters, stayed up all night throwing ideas at each other (DANCING BUMBLEBEE!!! 🐝😉🤣), and wrote whatever the hell we wanted.

Even though we're no longer working on it together, she continues to encourage me to this day to WRITE WHAT I WANT. I put that in bold and all caps bc that's always one of our "assignments" that we put on our lists for writing meetings. It's a reminder that we don't have to stick to what's on the to-do list when it comes to writing. If the only thing either of us gets done between meetings is Morning Pages, so be it. If it's a scene that has absolutely nothing to do with our current WIPs, that's okay. If it's just notes about our WIPs, that's okay too.

Ooh. You know what? Forget waiting till the end. That's the thing I want to put on display, and I think I know how I'm gonna do it...😁 my writing notebook and my mini clipboard are both about to get sticker bombed! lol

Okay, on to #2. Now, the task technically says "old" champions, but this one is relatively new. I don't care, I'm putting her anyway bc she has been a great source of inspiration lately, and that's Dakota Rebel, aka Rebel with a Plan on YouTube. I'm choosing her bc she doesn't just post videos that are helpful and encouraging. She also replies to every single comment that I and others leave on her videos. She actively engages with her audience, which is super cool. She also has ADHD and is going thru perimenopause, so she truly GETS IT. She's living with the same executive dysfunction and chaos I experience daily. And...she is a writer as well. In fact, she's a self-published author of over 100 books! Every single one of which she has written in her own way--no outlines, pantsing all the way. But she, too, has been thru countless slumps and the struggles of wanting to write but being unable to for various reasons, including life and her own ADHD getting in the way. So yeah. She counts!

Now for #3, I'm going to have to put two people here: my parents. They always encouraged me to write. My mom would always listen to my stories that starred my Cabbage Patch Kids, Punky Brewster, Knight Rider, and myself. She introduced me to the Monkees--when I first discovered them on TV, she explained who they were and told me she was a fan herself. As for my dad, he supported purchases that went toward both my reading and writing. He bought me subscriptions to Reader's Digest and Writer's Digest as well as tons of books. Not to mention, before I was born, he'd bought a huge encyclopedia set, which I read in its entirety by the time I was probably eight years old. I literally wore them out. They were outdated as hell, but it didn't matter. They fascinated me back then. I wish I still had them, but I'm sure by now they've rotted and been thrown away. At least I still have the medical dictionary set he bought when I was around ten(?). You'll have to pry them from my cold, dead hands. I don't care how old and outdated they are! But yeah, they both told me they were proud of me and encouraged me to pursue my passion. Thanks, Mom and Dad. 💖

Well, there you have it. Yay! I finally did one of the Week 1 tasks! Now I'm about to go have some fun with my stickers! 😁