Why Your Creative Practice Lacks Consistency (And how the Artist’s Way Reimagined can help)

Building a consistent creative practice sounds simple – until life gets in the way and the sketchbook closes again.

You had such good intentions.

The sketchbook sitting on your desk. The art supplies you treated yourself to last season. The creative project you were so excited about — until somehow, quietly, you weren’t doing it anymore.

If this sounds familiar, I want you to know something before we go any further: this isn’t a character flaw. It isn’t laziness. It isn’t proof that you’re not a “real” creative.

Building a consistent creative practice is genuinely not easy for most of us – and the advice most people receive about it is genuinely wrong.

In this post, I want to share what I learned the hard way as a working artist, why so many creatives struggle with consistency, and how the Artist’s Way Reimagined inside MindSketch offers a different path forward – one that actually works.

It’s Not About Discipline – It’s About Showing Up

Download the Free 5 minute reset and start giving yourself permission to show up!

For years, I worked as a self-supporting artist. Creativity wasn’t a hobby or a side project for me – it was how I paid my bills. Which meant I couldn’t afford to wait around for inspiration.

So I made a decision early on – I would show up to my studio on designated days and times, no matter what. Not because I always felt like creating. Not because the ideas were always flowing. But because I had learned, from experience, that if I showed up – the creativity would follow.

On the days it didn’t?

• I pivoted.
• I practiced my craft.
• I worked on technique, on process, on the quieter, unglamorous work that doesn’t make it into the highlight reel.
• And I held faith that the next session – or the one after that – the shiny new idea would arrive. It always did.

And when the new design came I did the happy dance! It was so worth waiting for!

That was my system. Not willpower. Not rigid discipline. Just a steady, faithful commitment to showing up – and trusting the process to meet me there.

This is what a consistent creative practice actually looks like in real life. Not inspired every day. Not producing something meaningful every session. Just showing up, again and again, and letting the relationship deepen over time.

Why Most Creatives Struggle With Consistency (And It’s Not Laziness)

Here’s what I see most often when creatives come to me all frustrated and stuck…

• They’re waiting to feel creative before they begin. It sounds logical – why start if nothing’s flowing? This is completely backwards. The feeling of creativity almost always comes after you begin, not before. Waiting for the mood is a trap that keeps the sketchbook closed indefinitely.
  
• They’re carrying creative baggage. Old stories about not being talented enough. The art teacher who said something unkind twenty years ago. The belief that they don’t deserve the time, or that real artists don’t struggle like this. These stories run quietly in the background and drain the energy right out of a creative practice.
  
• They have no container. No structure, no community, no gentle accountability. Without any of these, a creative practice is entirely dependent on motivation — and motivation, as we all know, is wildly unreliable.

If you’ve been looking for lack consistency creative practice solutions and keep landing on advice like “just set a timer” or “make it a habit” — this is why that advice hasn’t stuck. It addresses the surface, not the root.

Why Traditional Habit Advice Doesn’t Work for Creatives

The productivity world loves to talk about habits. Stack them, track them, reward them. And for some areas of life, that framework works beautifully.

But creativity is different. It involves vulnerability, self-expression, and — for most of us — a lifetime of complicated feelings about whether our work is good enough, whether we’re good enough. You can’t habit-stack your way past that.

What creatives actually need isn’t more discipline. It’s a gentle structure that makes showing up feel safe. It’s permission to be imperfect, to have uninspired days, to practice the craft even when the spark isn’t there. And it’s people around them who understand — because they’re in it too.

In fact, my very first suggestion to any creative who’s feeling stuck is simple: unplug and take a walk. If you have an ocean or woods nearby, even better — but a crowded city street works just as well. The whole point is to let your mind wander without a screen in front of it. You’d be surprised what shows up.

That’s the gap the Artist’s Way Reimagined was designed to fill.

What Is the Artist’s Way Reimagined?

If you’ve heard of Julia Cameron’s best-selling book The Artist’s Way, you already know it’s one of the most beloved creative unblocking frameworks ever written. Morning pages. Artist dates. The slow, gentle excavation of the creative self.

I wrote an entire article called The Artist’s Way Introduction Overview | What the Book Is (and Isn’t)

The Artist’s Way Reimagined takes that iconic foundation and makes it work for modern creatives – people with full lives, demanding schedules, and a complicated relationship with their own creativity.

I’ve slowed the process down considerably – adding a month per chapter rather than the week the book suggests – and woven in quick Neurographic Art exercises and community connection. This is what makes it genuinely accessible for where we actually live

Inside MindSketch, we work through the Artist’s Way Reimagined together. That means:

Two live calls a month where we come together, check in, ask questions, share what’s coming up, and support each other. Artist’s need support and accountability.

Replays you can access any time, so you can go at your own pace without falling behind.

A private community — completely off Facebook — where members share their work, their breakthroughs, and their wobbly in-between moments in a space that feels genuinely safe.

The difference between working through something like this alone and doing it inside a container like MindSketch is hard to overstate. Accountability, reflection, and community change everything.

For all you creative lone rangers out there – how’s that working for you? I resisted community for so long, and honestly, I still do sometimes. But I know from experience it’s the difference between struggling alone and actually letting go enough to make the work.

What Changes When the Practice Finally Sticks

Members inside MindSketch tell me the Artist’s Way Reimagined is the thing that finally made their consistent creative practice feel possible. Not because it’s magic – but because it gets underneath the surface to what’s actually been in the way.

And one of the biggest myths is that the Artist’s Way Reimagined is for ‘official’ artists only. It most definitely is not.

I should mention – I know a lot of Kathleens and Cathys!

KT was sick of waking at 4:30 AM every day to drive through city traffic to her job as a nuclear pharmacist, to say nothing of the tedium. She took her passion for animals and opened the first-of-its-kind animal pharmacy.

KP walked away from selling dresses at Nordstrom, renovated her garage into a yoga studio, and now teaches private clients on her own terms.

And Cathy C wrote a book – we threw her an opening party at Barnes & Noble – and she’s currently shopping a TV series to agents in LA.

None of These Ladies are ‘Artists’ in the Traditional Sense.

All of them used the Artist’s Way to find their way to the life they actually wanted.”

They stop waiting for creativity to visit them. They start building a home for it.

I hear from members who have reconnected with art forms they hadn’t touched in years. Who show up to the live calls with sketchbooks full of work they’re proud of. Who tell me they finally understand why their practice kept collapsing before – and what to do differently now.

The shift isn’t dramatic. It’s quiet and cumulative. A little more ease. A little more trust. A practice that feels like something you want to return to, rather than something you keep failing at.

Where to Start – Even If You’ve Tried Before

If you’ve tried to build a creative practice before and it hasn’t stuck, here’s what I’d suggest:

First, download this freebie and begin practicing consistency.

Lower the Bar!

Lower the bar dramatically. Five minutes counts. A single mark on a page counts. The goal right now isn’t output – it’s showing up. Everything else follows from that.

Try a Neurographic Art Exercise!

Name your block. What’s the story running in the background? “I’m not talented enough.” “I don’t have time.” “I always give up.” Naming it doesn’t fix it instantly, but awareness is the first tool in the kit.

Find your people. Isolation is one of the most underrated killers of creative consistency. When you’re surrounded by others who are in it – who understand the uninspired days and celebrate the breakthroughs – showing up becomes so much easier.

And if you’re ready for real, lasting lack consistency creative practice solutions — not quick fixes, but actual transformation — I’d love for you to explore the Artist’s Way Reimagined inside MindSketch.

Here’s what I know for certain after years of living this as a working artist, and years of watching members inside MindSketch find their way back to their creativity:

Consistency doesn’t come from forcing yourself. It comes from creating the right conditions — the structure, the support, the gentle accountability, and the community that make showing up feel worth it.

You don’t have to have it all figured out or feel inspired. You just have to show up. And inside MindSketch, you won’t be doing that alone.

The Artist’s Way Reimagined replays are waiting for you, along with two live calls a month, a private community of creatives who get it, and everything else that makes MindSketch the home for your consistent creative practice.

👉  Check out MindSketch Lab here!

You don’t have to wait for inspiration to find you. Come show up with us. 🎨

Marj Bates “I’ve spent nearly 40 years in addiction recovery, decades with The Artist’s Way, and teach The Artist’s Way Reimagined™, a slower, more supported way to work through Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way – blending creative recovery tools, neurographic art, and community to help people move through resistance and stay with the process.

I’ve also changed careers later in life than most people would dare — proof that it’s never too late to begin again.”

MindSketch Lab