What was your creative life before the Artist's Way?

Before I read The Artists' Way I had often dreamt of being both an artist and a writer. At school I had always been jealous of my friends who studied art and walked around with lovely sketchbooks under their arms, and I had kept a diary (mostly angst ridden scribblings!) on and off from when I was about eleven.

I had drawn a little as a young child, but convinced myself I couldn't draw by my teens and failed my O' Level art when I was sixteen. It was about then that I gave up any hope that I could be any sort of creative person.

Did you have the book lying around for a few years or did you dive straight in?

I think a friend had given me a copy of the book for a birthday present when I was in my mid-20s. I remember loving the cover, it wasn't the current one but rather had a picture of a beautiful bright hand-print made in paint. I don't remember if I read it all at the time, but I certainly didn't work through it, and really thought it wasn't for me. I did keep it though. It sat on a book shelf for about five years.

Did you work through it on your own?

When I did eventually pick the book up again I had just been diagnosed with ME/CFS and had been forced to stop working. I'd been thinking a lot about all those sketchbooks I had been jealous of and all the things I'd wished I'd written about and so went to hunt for it on my dusty bookshelves.

The first time I worked through the book by myself and then quite soon afterwards with an online group that I found. Over the years since I've gone through numerous times.

Which tools or philosophy of the Artist's Way do you still you still use?

I still regularly write Morning Pages and do try to take Artist Dates, but don't manage them as often as I'd like. I also take Julia Cameron's advice from her sequel, Walking in this World, and take a short walk most days (sometimes followed by a cat!)

How did AW change you as a person / as an artist?

The Artist's Way was the catalyst that started me on a journey that began with me very fearfully picking up a pencil and making some gloriously terribly drawings, took me through studying for a MA in fine art and the setting up of my illustrated blog,  and eventually led to where I am now, making a living from my creative work. 

I am very grateful to the friend who gave it to me!

Michael Nobbs is a full-time artist, blogger and tea drinker (not necessarily in that order). He is the author of the popular blog Sustainably Creative and regularly publishes, The Beany, an illustrated journal of his life. In the late 1990s he was diagnosed with ME/CFS. and, over the last decade, has learnt a lot about sustaining a creative career with limited energy. He recently published an ebook on the subject, Sustainable Creativity.