The Artist's Way
1992 self-help book for creativity by Julia Cameron
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The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity is a 1992 self-help book by American author Julia Cameron. The book was written to help people with creative recovery, which teaches techniques and exercises to assist people in gaining self-confidence in harnessing their creative talents.[1] Cameron also discusses the connection between creativity, faith, and one's spiritual connection with God.[2][3]
| |
| Author | Julia Cameron |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Self-help, Creativity |
| Publisher | Jeremy P. Tarcher |
Publication date | 1992 |
| Publication place | United States of America |
| ISBN | 0874776945 |
The book outlines a 12-week program with weekly readings, creative exercises, and daily assignments including "morning pages" of free writing.[4] Each week builds upon the last and encourages readers to build creative habits.[1] It encourages readers to follow the program in a group, and many groups spawned internationally to facilitate the course, including seminars and workshops hosted by Cameron herself.[5]
History
After being turned down by the William Morris literary agency, Cameron self-published the book under the title Healing the Artist Within. Cameron typed up the book herself and sold Xeroxed copies in a local bookstore. The first printing was about 9,000 copies.[6] In 1992 the book was published by Jeremy Tarcher (now part of Penguin Group) under revised title The Artist's Way, and millions of copies have since been sold.[7]
Spirituality
Cameron described the relationship between creativity and faith in a 2003 interview: "Any time we're engaged in a creative act we're engaged with an inherently spiritual act. Faith is almost the bottom line of creativity... You have to muster a certain amount of belief that you're not making a mistake and you're not a fool. And this means you have to have faith."[3]
Cameron describes creative dreams and inspiration as being of divine origin and influence, not from ego, and that fulfilment of these dreams allows for spiritual growth.[8] Not pursuing one's creative dreams is thus "shutting [oneself] off from a profound source of divine energy."[5]
In a 2011 interview, she stated that "the essential principle [of The Artist's Way] is that creativity is part of the natural order of life. Life is energy, you see - pure creative energy... Creativity is God's gift to us, and the only way we can repay this gift, really, is to use it."[8]
