Lucas Testro

Tidiness makes me think of held breath, of suspended animation, while writing needs to breathe and move.

- Bird By Bird

"Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things."

- Ray Bradbury

In order to be an artist, I must:

Show up at the page. Use the page to rest, to dream, to try.

Set small and gentle goals and meet them.

Remember that it is far harder and more painful to be a blocked artist than it is to do the work.

Remember that it is my work to do the work, not judge the work.

“DO” morning pages, don’t “write” them.

By being willing to be a bad artist, you have a chance to BE an artist, and perhaps, over time, a very good one.

There will be many times when we won’t look good - to ourselves or anyone else. We need to stop demanding that we do. It is impossible to get better and look good at the same time.

As your recovery progresses, you will come to experience a more comfortable faith in your creator and your creator within. You will learn that it is actually easier to write than not write, paint than not paint, and so forth. You will learn to enjoy the process of being a creative channel and to surrender your need to control the result. You will d

Affirmations are a powerful antidote for self-hate, which commonly appears under the mask of self-doubt.