Gratitude for Millie and Stella (kids lit, middle grade)
The Sunshine Coast Hinterland Writers Festival (my workshop for kids)
Write Your Novel (hybrid course – 2 for 1 deal! Bring a friend free!
The Artist’s Way (creative recovery for all, 12 week course, live)
Sometimes, stories and characters take many drafts and years to come to fruition. They’re like a friend you’ve had for 10 years who finally shows you themself in their ‘natural’ state — dressed in medieval role playing outfits. Other times, though, characters turn up like they opened the door, walked in, sat down and told you their life’s story. Millie is one of those.
Roughly 15 or so years ago, I had a dream in which I was in labour and gave birth. I reached down and picked up a little girl who (in perfect dreamlike fashion), was about the size of doll, with long dark hair. She smiled at me and said, ‘Hi, my name’s Millie’, and I remember it clearly to this day.
Fast forward a couple of years and I was pregnant. Millie! It must be Millie! But my little Millie wasn’t destined to stay. It was early in the pregnancy and I knew something had changed before the bleeding started. I lived in a tiny rural town and as it was still early enough (and, presumably, services were limited) I was sent home by myself to deal with the lengthy, unsupported and agonising passing. Time moved on, I had a baby boy, I got a book deal, I relocated to the coast. When my son, Flynn, was four-years-old, I was already contracted and scheduled to write big, adult fiction books, for years into the future. But I’d had a long-held dream to write children’s books, and I especially wanted to be able to get one out into the world while my son was still small enough to sit in my lap while I read it to him.
I committed to writing a terrible first draft (because you must allow yourself to write a terrible draft if you want to get to the good draft) and I would do it in 20-30 minute stints first thing in the morning. (I adapted practices from The Artist’s Way which I’d completed with a group of creatives 25 years prior.) They weren’t ideal writing conditions, but I had to do it anyway.
The summary is that over the next eight years the story went through multiple upgrades, variations, re-writes and changes in the cracks of time between my big book commitments. Now, to my rather excessive delight, I can share that IT IS FINALLY coming out into the world bigger, better and brighter than I had initially imagined it, and I couldn’t love it more!
Additionally, I can’t tell you how much deep joy it has brought me to ‘see’ my little Millie running around on the page, hanging out with ponies and puppies and chickens and her best friend, Stella, and dancing and drawing and reading and loving cheese and paella with her loving family. I truly feel like she has indeed come through me and now lives very much in these stories, right where she’s meant to be. I hope you love her as much as I do. And I hope you love her best friend, Stella, just as much, because it was actually Stella’s character’s energy that got this series up and off the ground in the first place. And when you meet both Millie and Stella, you’ll understand why. đ
P.S. I’ve told my now 12-year-old that he still needs to sit in my lap while I read him this story…Â Stay tuned for those pics!
Do you ever wonder if your life could be different, or feel like thereâs more you still want to experience, but youâre not sure where to start?
Millions of people around the world (including me) have followed Julia Cameronâs âspiritual path to higher creativityâ and felt the change. Get the most out of this course by sharing the journey with others, celebrating, laughing, commiserating, and uplifting. As Cameron says in her book, artists rise together.
The Artistâs Way changed my life.
Firstly, let me be clear:
This course is not about:
This course is about:
This course might be right for you if:
(Ech⌠if this is you, Iâm sorry, lovely. These are big feelings and ones that (I know) are difficult to deal with.)
This course might also be for you if:
Trust me â this course is for you. Yes, you! đ
Have questions? Want to hear me chatter on about the many ways The Artistâs Way changed my life? Email me. hello@josephinemoon.com
Like most things in life, the best way to get the most out of this course is to join a cohort of fellow recovering creatives who will keep you motivated.
Over three months, The Artistâs Way (the bestselling book written by Julia Cameron) will lay out how to recover your creative birthright â even if you think you canât do anything even remotely âartisticâ. If thatâs you, youâre not alone. Many people feel that way. But if youâve ever watched small children (or puppies or kittens!), youâll have noticed that one of our first instincts in life is to play. And thatâs all that creativity is: play. Sadly, though, must of us have (temporarily) forgotten how to do it. Thatâs why we need The Artistâs Way.
Twenty years ago, I completed The Artistâs Way to recover my innate creativity. I met with a small group of people every Thursday evening and we shared what weâd done during the week â the struggles, the breakthroughs, and the camaraderie of shared experience. We also brought our posters and other various practical activities to âshow and shareâ, which was tremendous fun. We wrote our morning pages and we went on artistâs dates. And during that time, I figured out how to be a writer and live as an artistic being.
Since the day I got a book contract, Iâve been telling anyone and everyone about The Artistâs Way. This is the book that made me a writer. Yet, itâs not a book about writing, itâs a book about creativity and right to have it, use it and enjoy it, whatever your passion or special interest might be, and whether or not it sells, is financially successful, or has an âimportantâ outcome of any kind.
Since then, I have opened the book to revise a section of The Artistâs Way every year that Iâve been writing professionally. Itâs just that good.
Finally, I know itâs time for me to go back and do The Artistâs Way again and this time I want to share it with you too.