Title The Artist's Way
Author Julia Cameron
Year Published 1992
Kind of Book How to/Spiritual essays/Creativity
How strongly I recommend it 10/10
My Impressions A terrific book for unblocking your creative side. This book investigates all of the ways we get stuck and sabotage ourselves creatively. Cameron offers a 12 week plan to nurture your inner-artist and start (or restart) doing the work you were put here to do.
Date Read 2014 & 2020
Practical Takeaways
Allow yourself to experiment with the idea there might be a Great Creator ie, God, mind, universe, source, higher power
Get out of the way and let the creative force work through you
Leap and the net will appear -Old saying
Pick the assignments that appeal to you and that you most resist
Use your jealousy to tell you what you need to do
Stop telling yourself "It's too late"
Stop waiting until you make enough money to do something you'd really love to do
Stop fearing that your family and friends would think you crazy
Stop telling yourself that creativity is a luxury and that you should be grateful for what you've got
Morning pages: every morning write 3 pages of longhand stream-of-consciousness writing. Don't read them or allow anyone to read them. (They are not meant to be art. Think of them like meditation) Ask yourself questions you don't know the answer to in your pages
Artist Date: take yourself on a creative play-date once a week for a couple of hours. Plan it in advance and go by yourself. Think of it as a mandatory play date and resist the urge to make it productive or to cancel it due to work. (eg. Cloud watch, tea party, D&D gamenight etc.) *do not choose dates you "should do" do what intrigues you or what is something you would probably never do on your own.
Remember that your Censor's negative opinions are not the truth
Think of your Censor as a cartoon serpent, slithering around your creative Eden
Stop thinking you have to be in a good mood to write/create
Stop judging yourself and let yourself write
Take notice what you're complaining about day after day
Try it before discarding it out of hand
Let yourself play
Create a contract for your goal and sign it. (eg. I _______ hereby agree to do _____ on _____)
Lose your fear of being wrong
Don't judge your early artistic efforts
Don't compare your early works to the great creative works of masters past (it is not a fair comparison. If anything compare it to their first pieces)
Give yourself permission to be a beginner
Be willing to be a bad artist
Stop asking yourself how old you'll be by the time you're good
Notice your either/or ie. Black or white thinking
Affirmation: "I deserve love"
Affirmation: "I am a brilliant and successful artist"
Write down the negative self talk you have
Live the life you imagined-Robin Norwood
Surround yourself with people who are not blocked creatives
Do not let friends squander your time
Trust that you are on the right track
Make the process (not the product) your focus
Let your intuition guide you and follow that intuition directly and fearlessly-Shakti Gawain
Slow down and enjoy your life-Eddie Cantor
Don't repress your feelings of doubt, explore them instead
Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music-Henry Miller
Show up at the page
Use the page to rest, to dream, to try
Fill the well by caring for your artist
Set small and gentle goals and meet them
Pray for guidance, courage, and humility
Do the work
Choose companions who encourage you to do the work, no just talk about doing the work
Do the work, don't judge the work
Listen to your anger
View anger as an invitation to action
Desire, ask, believe, receive-Stella Terrill Mann
Take a small step in the direction of a dream
When you lose interest in the project you're working on, be honest with yourself if you're just using that as an excuse because you're scared
Learn where and when to seek out right criticism
Don't show a first draft to any but the most gentle and discerning eye
Just show up
Directives for taking criticism
Receive the criticism all the way through and get it over with
Jot down notes to yourself on what concepts or phrases bother you
Jot down noes on what concepts or phrases seem useful
Do something nurturing for yourself-read an old good review or recall a compliment
Acknowledge to yourself that the current criticism is triggering
Write a letter to the critic (not to be mailed) Defend your work and acknowledge what was helpful, if anything
Get back on the horse. Make an immediate commitment to do something creative
Do one nice thing a day for yourself-
Several times a day check in with yourself and ask yourself how you're feeling
Whenever you have to choose between two evils, try the one you haven't tried before-Mae West
Don't say "it's okay" when it's not okay
Eliminate something superfluous from your life-Piero Ferrucci
If you want to work on your art, work on your life-Anton Chekhov
Ask for guidance and listen-Sanaya Roman
Do a one week reading deprivation (no books, magazines, online articles, podcasts, movies, documentaries, youtube etc.)
Examine your payoffs in remaining stuck
At night before you fall asleep, list areas in which you need guidance. In the morning write on these same topics. Ie. Ask questions in the evening, listen for answers in the morning)
Accept when the universe opens its doors to you
Have downtime to do nothing (as an artist)
Allow time for creative solitude in your life
Ask yourself "What would you do if it weren't too selfish?'
Always leave enough time in your life to do something that makes you happy, satisfied, even joyous-Paul Hawken
Make hay while the sun shines-old saying
Give yourself some small treats and breaks
Do what you are meant to do
Take time for self-care
Do things that you consider "silly" (eg. Cloud watch, dance around the house)
(for writer's block) cook pies and soup
Expect the universe to support your dream
Don't lose sight of the big picture and get too hung up on the details
Instead of trying to make it perfect, say "this is pretty good. I think I'll just keep going"
Ask yourself "What would I do if I didn't have to do it perfectly?"
Compare your early works to your heroes early works if anything (not to their masterpieces) (eg. Your first film to Star Wars)
Take a risk a day-Susan Jeffers
Take risks for the sake of taking them
Use your jealousy to discover what you're afraid of (jealousy is always a mask for fear)
Acknowledge your loss and share it to move beyond it
Mourn your losses
Surround yourself with people who respect you-Claudia Black
Surround yourself with people who treat you well-Claudia Black
Don't become overly cerebral (it will cripple you as an artist)
Don't burry your pain. Acknowledge it
View your loss as a potential gain
Ask yourself "how can this loss serve me?"
When hit with a loss ask "what's next?" not "why me?"
Don't rely on someone else to make your movie for you, make it yourself-John Cassavetes
Don't let the bastards get you down
When faced with a loss, take one small action to support your artist
Satisfy your curiosity-Linus Pauling
Stop telling yourself you're too old (some of the best students are those who came to the work late)
Focus on the process not the product
Have the humility to be a beginner
Stop worrying about how you'll be able to do it full-time and start doing it part time now!
Take a few scary baby steps toward your dream
Ask yourself what you can do now to move yourself closer to your goal. Do it now
Take one small step daily action instead of indulging in the big questions
Make small changes right where you are
Affirmation "I have a right to be an artist"
Do not call the inability to start laziness. Call it fear
Do not call it procrastination. Call it fear
Use love for your artists to cure its fear
Stop yelling at yourself
Think of your artistic work as a play date, not work
Allow your art to be fun
Admit when you need help
List any resentments or anger you have in connection with the project you're working on
(for workaholics) force yourself to play
View workalism as a block, not a building block
(for writer's block) Just Keep writing morning pages
Never, ever, judge a fledgling piece of work too quickly
Experiment with what works for you
Do your art, whether or not it will make you money
Surround yourself with people who will nurture your artist
Don't try to be something you're not
Move out of your cerebral head and into the body of work
Walk-
Affirmation "I trust my own inner-guide"
(for writer's block) sew (mends up two ideas)
Learn to play again (as an adult)
Make life an artistic date
Voice your plans only among allies
Move silently among doubters
Make a list of the friends who will support you in whatever you choose to do and those who won't
Proceed a step at a time, focusing on the path beneath your feet
Keep your soul cocked for guidance
Feel the self-doubt and do it anyway (real artists are not people who never feel self doubt, they're people who feel self doubt and have learned to do it anyway)
Don't root up another's idea before they have time to bloom
Encourage other people's dreams
Big Ideas
It is part of our true nature to be creative
We're much more afraid that there might be a God than we are that there might not be
Art is about getting something down (not thinking something up)
A painting is never finished. It just stops in interesting places
It is not worth examining a life that has been unlived
Most academics know how to take something apart, but not how to assemble it. (ie. They know how to destroy, but not how to create)
Most procrastination around starting something is due to fear (not laziness)
The more fear you step into, the more your life with expand
The more things you run away from, the more your life with shrink
It is natural to experience explosive anger in the middle of a creative project
Blocked creatives are often Harsh critics of other people's art
Many blocked creatives Become critics due to their inability to create
Many blocked creatives become academics due to their inability to create
Inability to create is a result of fear
Over intellectualizing everything is crippling to the creative process
Many block creatives are addicted to reading/consuming
Because
It is easier to consume others thoughts than to form our own
It takes less courage to consume other's thoughts than to write and share our own
Many blocked creatives are Addicted to fantasizing
Many blocked creatives Say they're too old or too young
Many blocked creatives Think they need to change everything about their lives in order to begin
Many blocked creatives Have an active addiction to anxiety
Many blocked creatives Eat food/have sex/work to deal with their frustration
After writing every day for a couple weeks you will find that now it is actually harder not to write than to write
Once you start trying to do something you gain a respect for those who do it
When we feel jealousy we really feel fearful of trying to do the thing that we are jealous of others for doing
Artists suffer from death of a creation that never came to be much like women who suffer from losing babies that never came to be ie. miscarriages
Younger artists are like seedlings that need to be nurtured and given room to grow.
Our soul loves the process of creating
Our ego loves finished the product
Real artists are not people who never feel self doubt
Real artists are people who feel self doubt and have learned to do it anyway
Unknown Terms
Neophyte: a person who is new to a subject, skill, or belief.