Week 04 Friday Task: Extended Artist's Date

[rejectionchallenge]

Plan an extended artist's date – either a whole day or half a day, depending on your time and obligations. If you can make this happen this weekend, great! If not, plan for as soon as possible.

If you can't manage an extended date within the next couple of weeks, could you do two smaller dates in the same weekend? Take some time to think about the things you'd like to do.

Use this space to discuss your experience of artist's dates so far, if you like. What have you been doing and planning?

Did you do your morning pages today?

Comments

[perfectworry]

I know the artist dates are supposed to be solitary, but I usually get one weekend day on my own anyway, so I'm going to a SCBWI Japan creative exchange in Miura (beaches, a temple). Tomorrow, I'm frantically typing up a story I've been writing in the mornings at work to submit to be critiqued a bit and I'm really worried. I'm so scared about having some else read this, especially professional writers, that I might chicken out at the last minute…

[inkdust]

Don't chicken out! But if you do (because that would be very likely for me too), make a deal with yourself that you have to have a non-professional writer read it instead, so you'll at least be taking a step.

[perfectworry]

I took a deep breath and sent it in, or the maximum 2,000 words I could send. I had a friend look over it, which was scary, because I like her a lot (obvs? as we're friends…) but she's a really serious business writer in a prestigious MFA Creative Writing problem and I'm a talentless hack hobbyist, but her advise was good and she liked at least some of it. I just hope I don't make a complete fool of myself tomorrow.

[inkdust]

Good luck! That's a big step to take and something to be proud of in and of itself.

[rejectionchallenge]

Oh wow! Good luck with that. I hope it goes well!

I don't know how to help you feel less scared because I would also be scared, and I don't know what you're scared about in particular. But I will say that I have worked with professional writers and publishers for years now and they are all just humans with flaws and hangovers who may or may not know what they're doing at any given time, like anyone.

Mostly they'll do their best in a thing like this and try to give good constructive criticism, but sometimes they mess up and sometimes they have terrible migraines but feel obligated to come up with something anyway so they just go, "uhhh, cut it by a third," with their eyes closed. So don't feel like this is the authoritative final word on whether your work is any good, because it isn't and there's no such thing.

Take the encouragement you get to heart, take the criticism with a grain of salt, and remember that no one is infallible and no one is everyone, even if they're a writer you like.

Easier said than done, I know. But you can survive it. I hope you get a good, helpful critique!

[perfectworry]

I'm just scared because I hadn't/haven't had any more of a review than "this was sweet, I liked the characters" in a long time - maybe not since high school. So I'm rusty at writing, rusty at giving and receiving critique… I'm just worried that I'll show up with a bunch of professional writers and look like a kid trying to play grown-up.

[rejectionchallenge]

I like the artist's date thing a lot, though it's hard to say how much it's actually had an effect beyond "Well, that was a nice hour." It's a good way to trick myself into doing fun things. So far, I've gone to the arboretum, hung out in the periodicals section of the library, and visited a clothing / hipster stationary store. I like clothes on other people, but shopping for clothes is a huge anxiety pit for me, so I just went to the store and looked at some nice clothes without any expectation of buying or trying them on. It was fun and I didn't feel terrible after. I'm probably going to declare "getting a haircut" my artist's date for this week. It's sort of cheating because I wanted to get a haircut anyway, but *shrug* I've been busy.

[ljwrites]

That's pretty much how I feel about my artist's dates. The change of pace is nice, too. So far I've caught up on TV episodes, practiced drawing, gone to the movies on the spur of the moment to see whatever was playing. Tomorrow I think I'll make it two dates as you suggest by going biking and then drawing some more. Maybe I'll carry my sketchpad and draw by the river.

Doing your hair can be artistic! As long as you're making it a date why not be more adventurous than usual, maybe try a style you've wanted but didn't think you could pull off, maybe participate in the process by giving a lot of input to your hairdresser?

[rejectionchallenge]

I actually will be more adventurous than usual, because I'm planning to have my hair dyed for the first time! We'll see if I love it or hate it. If I hate it, at least I'll know now.

[perfectworry]

I think "a good way to trick myself into doing fun things" is the essence of the artist date. I've gone to hair appointments or clothing shopping as an artist's date when I knew I needed those things but didn't feel like I could justify the expense. (It's not that I couldn't afford it. I'm just stingy with myself.)