The Artist's Way

This is another book that I consider a classic and, for years, has held a place of honor on my bookshelf. I go back to it from time to time. It's like visiting a wise friend who inspires you to be the most self-expressed you can be. Julia is a great guide, and I enjoy the author's writing style, which is easy to read and relate to. As a prolific author of dozens of books, she is intelligent and generous, and she encourages readers to go deeper and wider in their creative lives. She leads the reader through a twelve-week… show more.

When I first heard about The Artist’s Way, I doubted that this was a book for me. Was I wrong! Over the next year, I met monthly with a visual artist to process each chapter. We discussed prompts, our artist date, or what we wrote from the suggested journaling. The invitations at the end of each chapter led me to work that fed my spirit. Transforming theory into action exercised my creative muscles. The variety of creative engagements encouraged a rich body of work and a new confidence, while the book’s quotes introduced me to other thinkers. Artist’s-Way work… show more.

This book was the only thing that broke my longstanding writers’ block, and I have returned to it repeatedly for Cameron’s wisdom and exercises. In a twelve-week “course,” Cameron describes many exercises to aid us in eliciting creativity and breaking through self-imposed emotional barriers. Most helpful is her three daily “Morning Pages”—three handwritten pages you scribble about anything. With these, you declutter your mind of the negatives. Amazingly for me, the morning pages have led to many ideas that became published articles and, more importantly, bolstered my confidence in my writing. Firmly grounded in spirituality, Cameron shares ten “Basic Principles,”… show more.

This must-have guide for artists provides basic principles and tools to access a writer’s awareness, confidence, and power to create. Julia Cameron illuminates the core elements of looking within and exploring core beliefs and practices that limit or expand a writer’s creative energy. I found this to be an invaluable and comprehensive resource for the artist’s/writer’s soul, at any stage of writing. This book speaks to tapping into the spiritual connection to creating. I highly recommend this inspirational guide that, along with many of Cameron’s other books I avidly read, nurtured my development as a writer over the years.

Why include a book for artists in a list for writers? Because writing is art, of course, but also because writing is a practice, a craft, and the tools for getting better at one’s craft are the same tools whether one’s medium is words, paint, music, dance or macramé, the ancient sailor’s art of knot tying. The key to understanding the artist’s (and writer’s) way can be found in the subtitle, “a spiritual path to higher creativity.” If you think that writing isn’t a spiritual path, you’re wrong. If you thank that the way to improve as a writer is… show more.

This book is the literary equivalent of being swaddled in a cloth and sung a lullaby that goes, “You’re a special artist. Everything is OK." Julia Cameron gives you a way to make a life as a writer, one that fulfills you and creates your best work. She’s like the high priestess of creativity.

This perennial guide to creativity is a must-read for anyone wishing to create a life that has heart and meaning. She links creativity to spirituality by showing in nondenominational terms how to tap into the higher power that connects human creativity with the creative energies all around us. This comprehensive 12-week program addresses creative blocks like limiting beliefs, fear, self-sabotage, jealousy, guilt, addictions, and other forces that impede our naturally creative expression.