It Only Took 38 Times Longer Than I Expected 🤪

This year I’ve been posting three times per month — and hey, the schedule is working!
Here’s your PICTURES dispatch. Look for SOUND (a podcast episode) on the 23rd and the next collection of WORDS on November 3rd, which should be a really interesting day. (Of course you will remember to vote.)

If I Kept a Bucket List, I’d Be Checking This Off

Hey, guess what? I wrote a book! It’s different than most books you’ve seen, and the path was as squiggly as the doodles inside, but it’s finished. 😅

I’ll show you bits of how this project came together (you know how I like pulling back the curtain on art-making). Basically, it was me pushing a cheap pen across page after page of drugstore card stock paper, day after day. (To see me in the act of doodling, go here.) Then changing my mind about what I wanted to say.

When I got the idea for a doodled book in January, I thought it would take me one week to finish - haha. But birthing it nine months later in Election Season is perfect because we’re all gonna need refuge from the news as well as inspiration for building a stronger future. My book gives you both! ✨

If you want to jump straight to the shop and check it out, click here for the digital version and here for the physical coloring book-style version. (Which I’ll have in hand next week.)

I’m so excited to share it with you!

I always summon the spirits when I sit down to work.

About 14 weeks in I was still struggling to make progress, so I assembled a team of readers. They spanned the entire west coast (hence the color-coded introductory map). Each week in May I sent new material to these beautiful helpers and they gave me feedback. 😘🙏🏽

In June, when I was nearly finished with that version, I completely changed course and started over. 🤷🏽‍♀️

A whole rainbow of correction tape cartridges sacrificed themselves for the project.

See all that correction tape in use? It doesn’t show up when I scan the pages, thankfully.

Over two hundred hand-rendered pages of material did not make it into the final copy. They were an important part of the process, though. (This is how the sausage gets made.)

Here’s the finished card stock “manuscript”, three reams and 38 weeks after I started.

The inside cover is where I lay out the gist of the book, and where you’ll write your name. 🤓

Anyone else feeling this way?

Once inside, you’ll do lettering exercises…

… fun drawing challenges…

… and there are things to color on every page, made by me or you or both of us.

That’s me on the back cover! (Ever try drawing your own hand drawing?)

I wrote this book to spread my love of doodling, but the more serious purpose is to show how doodling can be harnessed as a tool for gaining mental flexibility and self-knowledge. The book is whimsical, but also meaty. I think you’re gonna love it, and you’ll surprise yourself with what you can do.

Two Different Formats + Introductory Pricing Through October

Digital copies of Doodle Your Way Out of Stuckness are available in my shop for immediate download. You can print yours out and start coloring and doodling tonight!

I’m also taking orders for the beautiful soft-cover, coloring book-style version, which is being printed right now in Montana. I can have them out to you within two weeks.

Prices will go up November 1st, so grab your copy (plus one for a friend) and get ready for the political chaos. We’ll need all the creative mind support we can get!

Thanks for celebrating this book with me. 🥂🎈🎉

Pam