The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
This book by Julia Cameron is also described as A Course in Discovering and Recovering Your Creative Self. Don’t be deterred by the ‘spiritual’ part of the title. It offers a wealth of information by a woman that has decades of experience. Ms. Cameron is a teacher, novelist, poet, filmmaker, composer and journalist. Wikipedia lists 33 non-fiction books, as well as novels, musicals, plays, TV films, and poetry collections.
The book is geared to artists in general because the creative processes in all of the arts—writing, painting, filmmaking, and playwriting—share most of the same aspects of creativity. She mentors artists of all genres.
The basic tools in the Artist’s Way are:
Morning Pages - written each morning. These could be described as a ‘brain dump’ that will clear the artist’s mind in preparation for the day’s creative work.
The Artist’s Date - These are weekly blocks of time set aside to nurture your inner artist. They are solo periods where the artist opens up self to insight, inspiration and guidance.
A 12 Week Contract - A contract with yourself to commit to the fulfillment of twelve weeks of tasks designed to build a positive and flexible approach to creativity.
The author deals with dozens of issues facing artists, including:
Perfectionism
Risk
Blazing through blocks
Competition
Jealousy
Dealing with criticism
Creative U-turns
Affirmations
Included are examples of problems artists have encountered and how she has guided them to solutions. She also includes exercises designed to help the reader work through creative problems.
Ms. Cameron contends that creativity is an authentic spiritual path.
