Book Review: Artist's Way by Julia Cameron

I want to start my review of The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron by saying that this is not a book; this is a workbook.

It is meant to be used over the course of 12 weeks, as a guide that will help you recover your capacity for creativity in art, at work, or in life.

It offers great advice on how to introduce more creativity and curiosity in your daily life.

I have been struggling with this for years. I lost my ability to feel creative, feel inspired, and spend time doing and making things for fun.

Screens, and especially my phone, consume all my free time. This way of life drowned any creativity or inspiration in me, but this year was a year of change.

Table of Contents

What is the book about?

The book is about unblocking your creativity and learning to feel like an artist again.

It is structured as a 12-week course that leads the reader on a spiritual journey of “creative recovery.” The book began as a class and a collection of typed-up pages that Cameron photocopied and sold in bookstores.

Cameron believes we all possess creativity within us; we block it when we grow up. Her course is meant to help us unlock the artist that lives within every one of us.

Key practices from Artist’s Way

There are two main practices described in the book.

Both practices are there to encourage and open the artistic side of you and inspire you to start creating your art.

Morning pages

I started writing morning pages a long time ago, and stuck with them as I find them very therapeutic.

At first, I did not do this as part of the Artist’s Way course. I simply started writing 3 pages every morning because I felt it would be a great way to calm myself and start the day feeling more relaxed.

Morning pages are an opportunity to get your most hidden thoughts out on paper. Whatever is bothering me, I just write it down.

It’s like I am cleaning my mind of problems, of thoughts that keep spinning sometimes for years.

There are only two rules to follow:

Do morning pages first thing in the morning.
You can’t give up midway if you run out of topics to write about.
You need to do them consistently, every single day to see any benefits.

You can write about whatever you want; they are not meant to improve your writing in any way. They are meant only for your eyes, so you can even destroy them if you want.

Artists’ dates

An artist date is a solo, fun, and playful outing once a week. At first, with kids and work, I found it difficult to set aside time to go out by myself.

I am always running around, picking kids up from school, taking them to the doctor, and working. But what I found is that artists’ dates could be as simple and as short as you want.

It can be a solo walk to a store, a fun documentary, or a short stroll in your neighbourhood. It can really be whatever you can manage, but the important thing is that it is fun for you, and it gives you a little playful time to yourself.

The Artist’s Way core principles

There are a couple of principles that are important to mention here.

We are all creative, even if you think you have no talent whatsoever; you are wrong. There is a creative force within all of us, waiting to be released.
Creative blocks are often rooted in fear.
Creative recovery requires consistent action, such as writing “morning pages”.
Follow what excites you: pay attention to what sparks your curiosity and joy.
It’s safe to be creative, and this leads to gentle but powerful changes and a fuller life.

My experience with The Artist’s Way

Photo of Artist's Way by Julia Cameron on Kindle

Photo of the page from the book The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron.

I started reading The Artist’s Way this summer while I was in Greece. I felt a bit uninspired both with writing and with my work.

Did I consider myself an artist at the time? For sure, no.

So do not be afraid to pick this book up if you are just an ordinary person working at an ordinary job.

The path that Cameron lays out is a simple one, but it does require time. There are weekly readings and exercises, all geared toward helping you understand your artistic blocks.

This summer, two things happened:

Writing Morning Pages has helped me feel heard, like I could finally talk about my fears and concerns openly and without any hold back.
The Artist’s Dates became a part of my life. For me, these are mostly walks. I started to notice so much more around me.

But as it was a summer holiday, I was unable to continue with the course beyond the 8 weeks. I stopped but continued reading the book.

It’s then that I realized that if you just sit down and read the book, you will get bored. You will start to wonder if the book is any good.

This book is about doing, not about reading. It is a course, not a story you read in a couple of days.