Not you pretending that everything is fine 🥲
Week 4: Bare Minimum Artist's Way
Welcome to Week 4 of The Bare Minimum Artist’s Way — our ADHD-friendly version of the 12-week course The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.
If you’re just landing here for the first time — welcome!
We’re suspending the dogma rules about morning pages and artist dates and doing the bare minimum with The Artist’s Way, because we believe half-assing it is better than giving up on Week 3.
Sound like you? Join us here on Substack and listen to our weekly companion episodes every Wednesday on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Over the last few weeks, we’ve explored creative safety, identity, and power. Now, in Week 4, we’re diving into the power of honesty—not just the kind we like to tell ourselves, but the raw, messy truth we’re usually trying to avoid.
The Art of Being Brutally Honest With Yourself
When Julia Cameron talks about “integrity,” she’s not just talking about being a good person (though, sure, that’s nice and also quite rare these days).
She means getting real with yourself—facing the dreams, desires, and fears you’d rather ignore because they scare you and feel impossible. So instead, you shove your tender, precious dreams to the back of your mind and say “I’ll do it someday.”
But someday is a myth.
“I’ll start my Youtube channel when I feel more confident.”
“I’ll start making art again when life settles down.”
Sound familiar? That perfect, obstacle-free moment is not coming.
If you’re waiting for the right time to create, you’re really just avoiding the hard work of being honest with yourself. Being an artist doesn’t require perfect conditions. It requires showing up, especially when it’s messy and unclear where you’re headed.
Perfection, success, and other lies we tell ourselves
We all say we want to be more creative, successful, and prolific. But what does that actually mean? What’s underneath it? More importantly—what does it require of us?
Creative integrity means peeling back layers of fear and self-doubt that keep us small. It means allowing ourselves to be bad at things, to experiment, to be sweet little imperfect human beings.
In order to be honest, we need an outlet—somewhere to be unfiltered, messy, and completely honest about what we want and what’s going on. This is why Julia Cameron is so relentless about Morning Pages.
Now, for this Bare Minimum process, we collectively said f*ck the Morning Pages! So, speaking of integrity!!! We’re putting our tails between our legs and saying Okay, Julia, you have a point here with these pages.
But, if you’re anything like us and writing three pages by hand every morning feels impossible, like forcing ourselves to do something we hate, and not really something that inspires us, it can take other forms too!
The value of Morning Pages can come through by voice memo-ing yourself on a walk, scribbling thoughts in a junk journal, or even having a chit-chat with ChatGPT. The point is— you need somewhere to be honest with yourself, because ignoring your real thoughts and feelings doesn’t make them disappear—it just clutters up your brain and drains your energy.
So, if you’ve ditched Morning Pages, what’s your alternative? What’s your thing? Maybe it’s writing once a week, maybe it’s doodling, maybe it’s talking to yourself in the car. It doesn’t matter how you do it, it just matters that you have a low-stakes outlet to be honest about what’s really going on. What’s yours?
Strange things are happening
Once you start this process, weird things happen.
You might suddenly want to clear out your entire closet. You might start dreaming more vividly. You might rediscover an old creative hobby. You might find yourself craving color, movement, or a fresh start.
That’s the power of honesty. When you stop lying to yourself about what you actually want, your choices start to shift, because your deeper truth has no place to hide.
“What you have been doing is wiping the mirror. Each day’s morning pages take a swipe at the blur you have kept between you and your real self. As your image becomes clearer, it may surprise you.” (p.84)
And yeah, it will be uncomfortable at times. But once you get even a glimpse of that clearer version of yourself, it’s pretty hard to go back.
Reading Deprivation 2.0
Julia Cameron’s infamous reading deprivation exercise shows up in this chapter, suggesting that we cut out reading for a week to make space for original thoughts. But let’s be real—putting down our phones down long enough to read would actually be an improvement.
So instead, we’re offering a modern take: Tech Rest.
The idea is simple. Our biggest distraction isn’t reading anymore—it’s the endless scroll, the constant pings, the dopamine loop of notifications. But if you can step away from that this week, your creativity will have a little space to breathe.
Start small: put your phone away for 30 minutes.
Want to go bigger? Go tech-free for an afternoon or an evening.
Feeling brave? Delete social media apps for the weekend. (
does this every weekend and swears it’s the #1 thing keeping her sane and creatively inspired.)🎧 Want to hear more about Tech Rest? Listen to this episode:
Tech addiction is real, and these apps are designed to keep us hooked. But when we take control and disconnect, we reconnect—with ourselves, our ideas, and our creative spark.
“It’s a paradox that by emptying our lives of distractions, we are actually filling the well. Without distractions, we are once again thrust into a sensory world.” (p.87)
When you stop numbing yourself with social media, at some point, you will pick up your guitar again. Or start doodling. Or go outside and get inspired by literally anything.
Or… you could stay on your couch scrolling Instagram. But hey, that’s totally up to you.
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I've been rocking about a 50% completion rate for morning pages, and I'm seeing little changes. I have been having so much fun learning how to play again. It's humbling! But after years of unconsciously telling myself I shouldn't try painting or sculpting because I've never taken a class and I'm not that artistic (???????), I treated myself to a little set of watercolors. I'm exploring. I'm thinking seriously about learning to sew. I'm crocheting while my show is on instead of simultaneously scrolling. I have moments where I am Compelled to write. These little changes have been stacking up and it is SO exciting
Was so great to finally make it week 4! This is the furthest I’ve ever gotten with this book.
But I think I do need to start doing pages. Like, because I sort of want to.