Week 8 in The Artist’s Way focuses on recovering a sense of strength.

One of the things we need to do is acknowledge and mourn our artistic losses. Cameron says that avoiding it causes artistic scar tissue. And that prevents artistic growth.

Most of us shrug off our artistic misfires. We don’t openly mourn the part we didn’t get or the piece that wasn’t well received.

Or if we do, we do it only briefly. Few of us let the wound heal. We move on.

Sometimes the wounds are self-inflicted. We turn down and offer. We sabotage our efforts.

Missed opportunities are losses too.

One of the ways to help heal from the loss is to ask: How can this loss serve me? What can I do next?

Creativity lies in the doing, not the done.

If we focus on the process, there is always something to do.

If we focus on the product, we second guess ourselves. We over think. And maybe we end up doing nothing.

Cameron suggests that we “fill out the form” when we are getting over a loss. Filling out the Form means that we take the next small step in our art.

Don’t try to go big when you’re recovering.

What can you do now? Do that thing.

Take one small daily action and move forward.