The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

True story: the woman-creator-would-be-artist-am-I? who pressed Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way into my hands still hasn’t read it.

She’s still procrastinating, searching.

But you should.

It is a perfectly imperfect book and Cameron is a perfectly imperfect—so, so flawed—teacher. The book is hokey. As often annoying as it is insightful.

But helpful.

You should read it if… you’re stuck. You want to write (paint) (run) (DO SOMETHING) but inertia-fear-panic-exhaustion-ego is preventing you from moving forward. Or at all.

Julia is going to tell you to start writing, every morning, three pages in long hand. These morning pages are part meditation, part writing practice… part the beginning of a habit.

Do it.

Do it for three days. Then three weeks. Then three months.

Then, let’s talk again.

Visit the imperfect teacher here, at Julia Cameron Live.

Get The Artist’s Way—the actual printed book, love, not the audio book, not the e-book, it’s a book that needs to be read and flipped through, and marked up and yelled at—wherever. It’s at all the book stores.

Get a notebook. And a pen. And tomorrow—start your morning pages.

You’re welcome.

mjc

* * *

If you rock on The Artist’s Way and want more… Cameron goes on to—pardon the expression—milk her one success for all its worth. The “sequels” Walking In This World and The Vein of Gold have nuggets of wisdom. The mini-e-books devoted exclusively to The Morning Pages and The Artist’s Date have value as well.

Everything else—take it out of the library if you must and give it a flip. But if you need a deeper Artist’s Way fix—re-read or re-work through the original.