19 Dec 2023

Your Creativity With Julia Cameron Personal Development For Authors

In 1992, screenwriter, author, poet and trainer Julia Cameron published the book “Unleash Your Creativity – The Artists’ Bible”. He has convinced more than four million readers to reconnect with their inner artist. I wanted to see if I could be one of them. 

Be careful, skeptics refrain

I have a love-hate relationship with self-help books. Part of my psyche is drawn to their grandiose promises (“Be the best version of yourself! Achieve your dreams effortlessly! Finally clean out your closets!”), while the other part of my consciousness is annoyed by the hyper-individualism that they promote. I could only dabble with a bestseller promising to make you more creative in twelve weeks. 

You do not have to be allergic to grandiloquence to embark on “The Artist’s Path” (the original title of the work). From the introduction, Julia Cameron tells us that her method allows you to go from total creative blockage to receiving the most prestigious awards, and that it is taught from the most prestigious universities in the United States to prisons. A little more and a flaming unicorn would streak across the sky as she writes. 

My approach was therefore to read simultaneously to the first degree (because otherwise, what is the point of subjecting oneself to several hours of weekly exercises) and to the thousandth degree (it is better not to expect the Goncourt prize right away). 

The tools at our disposal 
The book does not give writing advice, it is addressed to all creative people, and more specifically to those lacking inspiration, which the author calls blocked creatives. To get them out of their "dry spell", Julia - I spent three months in her company, I think she won't mind me calling her by her first name - offers them two seemingly simple tools : morning pages and artist meetings. 

Morning pages consist of three handwritten pages, written, surprises, in the morning before any other activity. It is not an artistic process, but rather a way of pouring our thoughts onto paper, so that they do not clutter us the rest of the day. Julia also affirms that we cannot rehash in writing as we do in our heads: by writing our pages, solutions inevitably emerge and push us to action. 

The artist meeting is the commitment to spend a few hours each week in our company alone, with no other objective than to please ourselves. Julia encourages us to take advantage of this time to try new hobbies or simply go for a walk. 

The program is structured in twelve weeks, like that of Alcoholics Anonymous. A reference recalled by Julia herself, who places her program from the perspective of recovery. Each week follows a theme - from overcoming fears to gaining self-confidence. The chapters include an essay and exercises, which range from diving into our past to discovering our childhood passions to collages of our dreamed future.

Does it work ? 

Obviously, you should not expect radical changes in a few weeks. But the strength of the book is precisely to warn us against delusions of grandeur. One of the blockages in “the artist’s path” is the fear of having to shake up our lives to make room for our creative side. But what could be more paralyzing than forcing yourself to write a novel or compose a symphony when you don't have a minute to yourself between professional and family obligations? With morning pages, artist meetings and exercises, we allow ourselves to take small side steps, which can lead to a lasting deviation towards a more creative life, Julia promises.

The method emphasizes observation, play and self-confidence based on positive affirmations. But Julia doesn't sweep sadness under the rug. On the contrary, she recommends recognizing our creative wounds (a hurtful remark from a loved one about our creative dreams, a refusal of a manuscript, a bad review once published), at the risk of them becoming "creative scars" which prevent us from 'move forward. 

It is also fruitful not to focus on the result, but on the process. Allow yourself to write, play, or draw “badly”. Enjoy. Restart. Don't take yourself too seriously. We tend to forget this, especially in times of creative “breakdown”. 

The book is very dense and full of metaphors. Everyone is free to draw. The artist is often compared to a child who must be cuddled. My oldest memories remind me of my fear of authority and the desire to please adults, I tended to leave this idea aside. But I enjoyed a more astonishing image

What if God helped me write? 

The book's English subtitle is "Creativity as a Spiritual Practice," and Julia appeals to God after a few pages. Enough to make Cartesian minds tick. Certainly, the author is careful to specify that it is a God that we choose to define ourselves, not that of a particular religion. She invites readers to place their trust in a God (or a goddess?) who, as Great Creator of the universe, can only love, and help, all the creators of the world who are his vectors. It thus emphasizes the concept of synchronicity, or significant coincidences. That we would provoke, why not, ourselves… A magical thought, in a way.

Relax, you haven't joined a cult yet. We can also see the concept of synchronicity in a completely pragmatic way. If you don't tell anyone that you are working on a novel project, there is no chance that an acquaintance will tell you about a competition that corresponds exactly to your theme. If you don't look at the classified ads, you will never come across the guitar of your dreams. If you do not make this amateur short film, it has no chance of being spotted by the jury of a festival. Synchronicity is work. 

And God who writes through you? Julia advises making a pact with the great mind: “I take care of the quantity, you take care of the quality”. At the very least, it’s effective in taking the pressure off. Honestly, try it when you're dealing with major blank page anxiety, the results can be surprising. Okay, this sentence is a bit sectarian. But try anyway. 

So, do I continue? 

I faithfully followed the program over the twelve weeks it lasted. Half an hour each morning for the three handwritten pages, the artist meeting (often limited to a walk during Covid times), and the exercises. One thing is certain: Julia Cameron's prose, simple and colorful, is amazing. That's always the case.

But spending thirty minutes rambling on paper ends up becoming quite a commitment. Even if it means maintaining a habit, I prefer to concentrate on meditation. The same goes for artist meetings, which I will try to maintain in a more informal way. 

Does this mean that I keep nothing from my reading of the book? On the contrary. As a good student (we won't do it again), I took notes throughout the chapters, and I don't stop myself from going back to them if I get stuck in my writing project. Because, to paraphrase Julia: the path to creativity is not a highway. It is not even a road at all, as it proceeds by detours, backtracks and jumps towards infinity. It's up to you to get involved, by bike, on foot... or why not on the back of a unicorn.