The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
If you have ever believed you are not creative or are a ‘creative person’ who struggles with creative blocks, The Artist’s Way is your guide.
My Rating: ★★★★
Length: 272 pages
Publisher: Souvenir Press
Released: First published 1992
Key Takeaways for Personal Branding
Since its original publication in the early 1990’s, Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way has created many fans, including big-name celebrities. The book boldly claims that every person has a creative source within them that can and should be watered to bloom because creativity is a God-given gift.
The central premise of the book is that we are all creative, and with a few simple tools, we can become even more creative. Cameron proposes the Great Creator is working through us. God is the useful shorthand for this. You may otherwise call this Goddess, Mind, Universe, Source and High Power - whatever your preference - it’s tapping into the greater creative energy available to you to nurture your creative talent.
The Artist’s Way has been designed to be the tool kit for artists - whatever your craft. It posits that creative blocks are a result of wanting to feel safe. The toolkit helps create a sense of safety. The 12-week programme the book contains is designed to help you unlock the creative potential within you. Because creativity is not a gift reserved for the creative right-brainers, but everyone:
“When we open ourselves to our creativity, we open ourselves to the creator’s creativity within us and our lives. We are ourselves, creations. And we, in turn, are meant to continue creativity by being creative ourselves. Creativity is God’s gift to us. Using our creativity is our gift back to God. The refusal to be creative is self-will and is counter to our true nature.”
Morning Pages
There are two key tools Cameron highlights as the most critical tools for The Artist’s Way. The first is what she calls Morning Pages. You may have heard of it, as it’s still talked about decades on.
Morning Pages is the practice of writing three handwritten pages of your thoughts daily. It’s just for you and not for anyone else to ever see. It’s recommended that you don’t even re-read them yourself for the first eight weeks or so. These morning meanderings are a free flow of consciousness. They might be occasionally colourful, often negative, self-pitying, repetitive, childish, angry or bland. It’s not meant to be art or even writing. It’s meant to help you subconsciously unlock your creativity over time and, importantly, overcome The Censor.
The Censor, Cameron says, is what you should think of as a cartoon serpent slithering around your creative Eden. Hissing negative thoughts to keep you off guard, the key is remembering that The Censor’s opinions are not the truth. It’s simply the logic brain - the survival brain keeping you safe and away from your potential. With the Morning Pages, you can get to what Cameron describes as ‘the other side’.
Artist Dates
The second important tool in your artist’s toolkit is Artist Dates. This is a block of time - perhaps two hours weekly committed to nurturing your creative consciousness - your inner artist:
‘The artist date is an excursion, a play date that you preplan and defend against all interlopers. You do not take anyone on this artist date but you and your inner artist, a.k.a. your creative child.”
Many will object that they don’t have the money for such luxuries, but this can be as inexpensive or free as your heart desires - like a trip to the beach, visiting a thrift store, watching an old movie or visiting your local art gallery:
“Think of this combination of tools in terms of a radio receiver and transmitter. It is a two-step, two-directional process: out and then in. Doing your morning pages, you are sending—notifying yourself and the universe of your dreams, dissatisfactions, and hopes. Doing your artist date, you are receiving—opening yourself to insight, inspiration, guidance.”
Speed-written Wish Lists
The Artist’s Way exercises include speed-writing wish lists to help you discover what you really want. The speed prevents your overthinking and helps you swiftly evade The Censor. Because your wishes are just wishes, they can be anything you want. You might use it to help you decide what your inner artist wants to do. For example, what if you were to speed-write 20 hobbies you wish you could do?
For everyone who has ever believed the notion that they are technical, logical thinkers, The Artist’s Way will help you re-imagine your creative potential. For the naturally creatively-inclined, it will help you discover new levels of your creative path forward.
Favourite Quotes
One of the things most worth noting in a creative recovery is our reluctance to take seriously the possibility that the universe just might be cooperating with our new and expanded plans.
All too often, when people talk about creative work, they emphasize strategy. Neophytes are advised of the Machiavellian devices they must employ to break into the field. I think this is a lot of rubbish. If you ask an artist how he got where he is, he will not describe breaking in but instead will talk of a series of lucky breaks.
Creativity lives in paradox: serious art is born from serious play.
Art is not about thinking something up. It is about the opposite—getting something down.
Every end is a beginning. We know that. But we tend to forget it as we move through grief.
The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron: Available on Amazon.
