The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity

Horrendous psychobabble Trojan horse pretending to be about creativity, but instead tries to convince you that you create through god's will.

Utter tripe. And dishonest too. Not a word of the heavy religious text element of this book is up front in the blurb, but you won't get very far at all without seeing quotes from prominent theologians and constant yammering about accepting God as the real creator through which you yourself can then create.

It's vile.

Edit:
I have never ever just thrown out a book. If I don't like a book I always find someone who might like it and give it to them, or take it to a charity shop. This is the first time I've thrown a book straight in the recycling bin.

I marked a lot of passages from this book to read and read again...

The heart of creativity is an experience of the mystical union; the heart of the mystical union is an experience of creativity.

Cameron, Julia. The Artist's Way (p. 2). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

I learned to turn my creativity over to the only god I could believe in, the god of creativity, the life force Dylan Thomas called “the force that through the green fuse drives the flower.” I learned to get out of the way and let that creative force work through me. I learned to just show up at the page and write down what I heard. Writing became more like eavesdropping and less like inventing a nuclear bomb.

Cameron, Julia. The Artist's Way (p. xviii). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

“Leap, and the net will appear.” It is my experience both as an artist and as a teacher that when we move out on faith into the act of creation, the universe is able to advance.

Cameron, Julia. The Artist's Way (p. 2). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

When people ask, “Why do we write morning pages?” I joke, “To get to the other side.” They think I am kidding, but I'm not. Morning Pages do get us to the other side: the other side of our fear, of our negativity, of our moods. Above all, they get us beyond our Censor. Beyond the reach of the Censor's babble we find our own quiet center, the place where we hear the still, small voice that is at once our creator's and our own.

Cameron, Julia. The Artist's Way (p. 12). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

But what exactly is an artist date? An Artist Date is a block of time, perhaps two hours weekly, especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness, your inner artist. In its most primary form, the Artist Date is an excursion, a play date that you preplan and defend against all interlopers.

Cameron, Julia. The Artist's Way (p. 18). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

In filling the well, think magic. Think delight. Think fun. Do not think duty. Do not do what you should do—spiritual sit-ups like reading a dull but recommended critical text. Do what intrigues you, explore what interests you; think mystery, not mastery.

Cameron, Julia. The Artist's Way (p. 21). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Give yourself permission to be a beginner.

Cameron, Julia. The Artist's Way (p. 30). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

The quality of life is in proportion, always, to the capacity for delight. The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.

Cameron, Julia. The Artist's Way (p. 53). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

February 2018:
YEP. This book is basically The Life-Changing Magic of Nurturing Your Inner Artist. I didn't ‘do' the course in the same way that I didn't ‘do' the decluttering process prescribed by Marie Kondo, but I still got so much out of this book. The exercises (“tasks”) are great and so are the pep talks. I don't care that it comes across as a little woo-woo. If you're not willing to tolerate a little woo-woo, I don't know how you can be creative. Creating things is magic – I don't know how else to explain it. But I get it if the tone isn't for you.

I loved that so much of this book is about self-care, just packaged in a somewhat dated style. It would be so interesting to see this book reframed from a feminist millennial perspective. Same concepts with a tone and examples more suited to our current times. A Call Your Girlfriend or Two Bossy Dames or Forever 35 version of The Artist's Way would be amazing.

I started taking this book a bit more seriously than I had initially because I really like The Artist's Way Everyday, which I did not finish. I wrote about it on my blog.

November 2017:
Trying this again. Might be the right time, this time.

August 2012:
I wasn't planning on “doing” the book but now I can't even face reading it. The first few chapters were enough for me. I will try reading it again another time but now is not that time.