Caitlin’s Creative Business Bookshelf - Episode 10: The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
We're finally tackling the ultimate book on creativity: The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron! Here's a crash course of what the book is, what it can teach us about creativity and spirituality, and the idea of doing challenges to awaken our creativity.
Episode transcript:
We're actually looking today at the penultimate book on my bookshelf. I cannot believe how quickly this season has gone. It has absolutely blown my mind, to be honest. But I'm having a whale of time doing it and I hope that you are having a really fun time listening as well. Before we get into it, just a fair warning, my cat Freya is on my lap today, so you may get some ASMR purs in the background. So if you can hear those, please enjoy them. Freya's giving you a little gift of relaxation today, embedded in this episode. So the book I'm talking about today, if I was going to talk about creativity books and books on creativity and not talk about this one, it would be such a glaringly huge omission. This is pretty much like the gold standard of books on creativity and a book that I really love, I know a lot of people really love, and that is The Artist Way by Julia Cameron. If somehow you are not familiar with the book. Basically, Julia Cameron is a very prolific writer who does a lot of writing on, well, a lot of writing on writing, actually, so she talks a lot in a lot of her books about the creative process.
And this is pretty much the magnum opus, I guess, of all her books on creativity. It was first published in 1992, which I will get on to how the book has like, aged over time in a bit. But the book essentially is like a self contained programme, or course, whatever you want to call it, in book form, designed to help you bust through creative blocks and embark on a journey of, in Julia's words, creative recovery and healing the inner artist. And also a lot of spirituality in this book as well. There's a lot of talk about God and the parallels between creative self expression and our relationship with the spiritual, which again, I'll get into. And I'm aware that that description of the book, if you're not familiar with it, may have caused you to go, oh, no, I don't want to do this, but I'll get into it in a bit. So, like I said, the book is so incredibly popular, I think a lot of people online have started things like study circles where they go through each week together. And the form that the book takes is basically each week of the twelve weeks you get some text from Julia about the themes of the week, a little bit more of a deep dive into some of the ideas she's talking about in the book, and then you get the exercises.
So you'll get different journaling prompts and different challenges through the week. But the consistent thing that you'll always get each week as well throughout the twelve weeks is two activities. And you may have heard of these. I would be surprised if you're kind of in my circle and weren't familiar with these, but morning pages and artist dates. So morning Pages is hugely, hugely popular. I can absolutely see why. I'm a big, big lover of journaling of writing thoughts and feelings down, and a lot of my journaling practise is definitely influenced by the morning pages. So if you're not familiar, it's essentially the first thing in the morning, writing down three pages of just whatever's in your head, no self editing, no philtres, just writing whatever you feel. And then the Artist day is basically once a week, taking yourself out on an artist date, really, and that can kind of look like whatever you want it to look like. There are definitely a lot of ideas in the book of how you can approach it and examples. And also if you look it up online as well, there's some really interesting and varied lists from a lot of people who have kind of thought of fun things you can do for your artist day if you're struggling with inspiration and that's kind of the bulk of the activities really.
I think that it's definitely recommended that you do obviously all the exercises in the book and whatnot. But also I think there's very much a focus on if you do nothing else during the week, do the artist date and the morning pages, but the challenges and the kind of the prompts vary quite a lot each week. Like there's one week where you don't consume any media and she calls it like the Reading Deprivation Week. And obviously back in 1992 that would have just been don't read. But obviously I think a lot of people, including myself, would interpret that today to be like avoiding social media, not listening to podcasts or music, et cetera, et cetera. So that's a really interesting one to dive a bit deeper into. But all the activities are quite varied and they're all quite different and the themes of each week are also quite different and quite varied as well and are really interesting. They're not really like anything else I've kind of read before. I've obviously read quite a few books in creativity, as you may or may not have picked up on this podcast, but I feel like this book isn't one that's kind of been I don't feel like I've read something like this before, and I don't feel like a lot of people today are kind of, like, ripping it off or anything like that, either.
Before I delve a bit further into the book, I do have a confession to share with you, and it is I have never completed the twelve weeks. You've never, ever completed them. I just want to say that for complete transparency, but also because I think, and this is something I want to delve a bit deeper into in this episode as well, the idea of doing a challenge or something like this, and how it can push us creatively. But also, I'm not sure what word I'm looking for, I'm not sure what word I'm looking for. But basically, I think that these challenges are not necessarily always really helpful. And also, I think the point of doing them is not actually doing them to completion sometimes, if that makes sense. I think that sometimes, just basically what I'm getting at is that I think when we do challenges or things or courses or programmes like this, I think that sometimes the point isn't actually to complete them, if that makes sense. It is about the journey, it is the friends you make along the way kind of thing. It's about picking up what you need to and kind of leaving the rest.
I don't always think that things like this are about completing them. And I have learned a hell of a lot from The Artist's Way. I did try and do it at the start of the year and got to like, I think, week six and yeah, just kind of dropped off of it. I am thinking about doing a study group or joining a study group, probably joining, although if you're very keen for me to do An Artist Way study group, I am very, very up for that. And the reason I've never completed it is twelve weeks is a long time, right? Twelve weeks is a very long time. And the fact that I haven't ever completed it doesn't say anything about the quality of the book. I think the book is fantastic, actually. I think it is so good. I think the exercises contained within it are really great. I think that the writing is really good. I think that it's quite oh, I was going to say, I think it's quite accessible, but actually I do have some thoughts on that, which I'm going to share. So I did touch on this earlier in the episode, but basically there is a lot of talk about spirituality in this book and a lot of talk about God.
And in the beginning, there is a lot of talk from Julia Cameron saying not to discount this heading into it and to be open and to substitute the word God for something else if that connotation doesn't work for you. And I think that is something that I'm kind of in touch with my spirituality. I guess it's been an evolving journey for me, so I was quite comfortable to kind of take that and go with it, but I don't think everyone would be. And I do think that it's quite tough with books about creativity. And I'm sure I've touched on this earlier in this season, but I think there's a real risk of alienation when it comes to creativity because I think creativity does rely a lot on that kind of balance between the esoteric and the practical. Because obviously the practical side of creativity will be one that probably feels more familiar to more of us. I would think. So doing things like actually writing, actually drawing, actually sewing crocheting, whatever it is, however you express yourself creatively, that is obviously easier to tune into, I think. But the more difficult side of it is the more esoteric, the more unseen side of it.
Because actually when we really break creativity down, we are working on a lot of concepts and ideas that are unseen. We think about, for example, like where do our ideas come from? This is something that is addressed in the artist's way quite a lot. But being open to ideas coming in, you can't explain that in physical, tangible terms when you have inspiration for a project or because I'm talking to you as business owners, freelancers entrepreneurs, whatever you want to call yourselves, we don't always know something's going to work. We're operating on like a knowing. I've always thought that being a business owner is a very creative activity in itself because it really forces us to get in touch with those parts of ourselves that are trying to make a difference in the world, that are trying to bring our own vision to things. And that is esoteric as all hell. That's like really a hard thing to explain to somebody. How many times in our businesses have we gone with a gut feeling or gone with oh, I started my business because I really wanted to do this, or I had an idea for this.
It's a hard thing to explain in practical terms and I know for me a lot of how I've tried to run my business this year has been based more on following my intuition and leaning into things that maybe practically don't make sense. Pivoting my business last year was definitely something that I was doing just off feeling alone. Even the most practically minded of us listening to this episode have probably done something that maybe doesn't quite make sense to other people where we've kind of gone with a gut feeling or like kind of inner knowing or had an idea drop out the sky. It's impossible to explain that, which is essentially why digression aside essentially why I do believe that creativity and running a business belong together, but also that kind of balance of the practicality and the spiritual element of it, the spiritual unseen, whatever you want to call it. The more feeling stuff, the more the complement to the strategy, the complement to the to do list. Like the other side of getting things done and ticking things off to do lists and making money and getting clients and stuff. There is always a flip side to it.
It's not always like that hustle energy, that getting shit done energy. There's the flip side of it always, I think I do think, however, me saying all that there are some elements of the book. I think that if you did not want to leave your scepticism at the door or maybe your doubts around spirituality at the door, then you probably wouldn't get as much out of the book as I think a lot of people would. I personally think it does do quite a good balance of making sure those two things are together and that they make sense. And the fact that so much of the book is obviously based on the practical twelve week here's, new exercises every week kind of thing is quite supportive of that. But I do think if you are someone who isn't quite as in tune with that spiritual side or kind of maybe doesn't really think it's for them, then this book may be a bit of a harder sell for you. Being on my business journey actually has taught me a lot about my inner self. I remember someone a while ago saying to me that running a business is like one of the biggest self development projects you can ever take on.
And I completely agree. I know way more about myself now through starting this business and through experimenting with different facets of my personality than I ever would have since I'd have stayed in my nine to five job. Huge digression. Let's get back to the book. So, as I mentioned, the book originally came out in 1992, which obviously is quite a long time ago now, and I don't actually think the book has aged that badly. Like I said, I think if you're not as into the more spiritual side of things, you might not necessarily get as much out of the book as maybe you could. But I would always encourage you to be open minded if you are going to dive into this book. I think the vibe that Julia Cameron has throughout the book is so welcoming and supportive and really encourages you to tap into your curiosity. So even if you are like a little bit, oh, I'm not sure I'd recommend giving it a go anyway. It's quite easy to get hold of these days. But yeah, long time ago. And when the book came out, there hadn't really been as much like personal development, self development books out there, especially not ones in creativity, I don't think.
And I think that this book definitely ushered in a lot of books of that nature. And yeah, I think if it wasn't for this book, I think there's so many other things we wouldn't have today. We probably wouldn't have coaching as it stands, or definitely not creativity coaching as it stands, which is incredible, really, because apparently I was reading up on the history of this book before I hit record today. And actually this book was self published originally, which is so cool. So Julia Cameron, when she wrote it, she just wrote it on a typewriter and just so copied it herself. We stam self publishing queen because I know we get self publishing these days, but not in such like a physical, tangible, almost like a visceral way of doing it. If anyone is familiar with Zine culture, then yeah, it's really like kick ass to think about Julia doing the same thing all those years ago. And yeah, essentially she had self published it and then I think her publishers discovered it because it became a hit really fast. And I think it is really amazing how popular the book still is today. I mean, it was only today, not today.
I think yesterday actually. I got an email that was about someone starting like an artist way group. I actually had two emails this week saying that they were starting study groups for it. So it has really lasted and stuck with people, me included. And like I said, this is coming from someone who has read the book but not actually completed all the exercises. And it's a book that I think about all the time. It's a book that's really stuck with me and a book that has really made me think about my creativity in different ways. I wouldn't be talking to you now, I don't think. I wouldn't have pivoted my business, I wouldn't have there's a lot of things I wouldn't have done, I think, if I hadn't read this book. The exercises in the book are pretty accessible as well. Like I said, there is quite a big variation of them. There's a lot of exercises that again I think about all the time. The Five Lives exercise is one that I'll touch on briefly because I really love it. And that's one that kind of reoccurs throughout a lot of the twelve weeks.
Being encouraged to think about other lives that you could have led and then doing something in accordance with those lives, which I think is absolutely fascinating because how often in our creative lives do we kind of maybe like write off projects or write off things that we think we may never be able to do. And I love this exercise because it really encourages you to dream and be curious and be big and bold in your envisioning of your life, but also to be like nothing is permanent, explore, have fun, do something like wild and wonderful. It's an exercise I always try and recommend to people just because I think it's really, really good. Obviously morning pages and artist dates are really important and really helpful as well. But that's an underrated exercise I don't see people talk as much about. And I absolutely love it because like I said, I think it really taps into that curiosity, that real bringing dreams to reality, which I think we do a lot as business owners and as a business owner, I found that exercise really valuable because it kind of led me to think being multi, passionate being a multi.
Hyphenate is so popular these days. And actually if we think about like five separate lives that we might want to have the Internet is a wonderful place. The world is a big place. Like, how easy could it be to bring in something completely random into your business and for it to work? I think about that a lot, actually. I think about that all the time because I'm sure that if you're a business owner listening to this, you've had the dreaded, oh, what do you do for work? Conversation. And for me, I always have like about five things I list, because that's just part of being a creative person, I think is having a lot of interests and not being afraid to jump down the rabbit hole and see where things go. And a lot of the exercises in the book really support. That what I was talking about on the podcast a few weeks ago, actually. That real fuck around and find out energy and also having that base to do that in a way that feels like safe and supportive and healing whilst also kind of pushing yourself to dream big and to be open to possibilities and to be curious about your creativity.
No matter if you feel like you're an incredibly creative person or you feel like you're not a creative person. And if you do feel like you're not a creative person, this book is still absolutely one. You should cheque. Out. Because obviously, Julia Cameron, being a writer, I think a lot of the book and a lot of her other books are probably not more targeted towards writers. But obviously if you are a writer, you probably would get a little bit more out of it anyway. But I think that it's such an incredibly useful book if you're not creative, to just explore that side of yourself. And I think if you are listening to this podcast and you are kind of remotely curious about what your creative self looks like and you're struggling where to start, I think just picking up this book and just playing with it is a really good idea. Like I touched on earlier, I do have mixed feelings about doing things like challenges and things like that. When I think about kind of the twelve weeks of the Artist way, twelve weeks is a really long time, actually. That's a quarter of a year.
That is a quarter of a year, isn't it? Yes, it is. That's a quarter of a year, which is quite a long time. And I'm not surprised. I kind of dropped off with it because inevitably, being a creative person as well, I do get distracted by stuff. I do think, oh, I'd rather be doing this now, or whatever. Towards the start of the year as well. I had tried to do the 100 day project. I'll link to that in the show notes of this episode. I think it's something that happens every year, I think, and that is essentially just doing a creative activity for 100 days. And I fell off, I think, after about a month. I was drawing every day. And I love doing it, but 100 days is such a long time. And inevitably, I kind of thought, I'm not sure about this. And I kind of feel a bit like a bit vulnerable sharing that, because obviously a lot of my work in my creativity, coaching, is helping people to do the thing and to do what they say they're going to do and to stay consistent and all that good stuff.
But also I think there's room inconsistency for changing your mind and for being open to the possibility that approaches might not work for everybody. Now, for me, doing one thing every day for 100 days is quite a lot, but for the months that I did do the drawing every day, I absolutely loved it and learned quite a lot about myself in the process as well. Another challenge that I'm thinking about taking on as well is Jamie Atenberg, who is a wonderful, wonderful author. She does on her substac. And again I'll link in the show notes as well. A write 1000 words a day challenge for two weeks, I think it is. Yes, two weeks, which I'm going to give a go, but again, I'm not going to beat myself up if I get a weekend and decide that it doesn't really work for me or that I'm like, oh, actually there's always that delicate balance of pushing ourselves to do something new and to try something and to stay consistent. I hate the word consistent, but maybe that's enough rant for another time. And yeah, just having a container to play with stuff that you might not have because inevitably when we try stuff we haven't done before, we get to learn about what works for us and what doesn't work for us.
Now, I've never finished the artist's way and I know part of that is obviously my attention span. It can be quite fleeting, but also I've always done it by myself, I've never done it with other people. So maybe I will try that this year, I'm not sure, and maybe that will be a way to get me to actually do the whole six weeks. This is an absolutely massive tangent, but basically I wanted to shower all this because I think that taking on something for twelve weeks is obviously good. And obviously, if we are struggling to get creative and we're struggling to heal from the scars that the blocks have left on us and especially if we are working in a business that's quite challenging mentally and our energy levels are all over the place and we're struggling to get creative on a regular basis even though we know we should, I can definitely recommend doing a process like this that requires you to do something consistently, mainly because, like I said, I don't always think it's about actually getting to the end of it. I think it's a lot about learning and discovering cool stuff along the way.
If you pick up the artist way after this and only get halfway through, I'm sure you will have learned quite a lot about yourself, regardless of whether you're creative, you're not creative, whatever. And I think that's such, like a huge gift. Like, it's such a huge gift to be able to play with creativity. And I'm just feeling very grateful for Julia Cameron for writing this amazing book and for giving us all a nice structured container to explore these ideas in a way that is fun, in a way that I had never seen before, in a way that brings people together as well. Like I said, I've literally had two emails this week from people on the internet running study groups, and I will link all those in the show notes as well, just in case you're feeling the pull to join in. But I think I'm going to leave it there. I think if I was going to talk about this book any longer, this would be such a long episode because I have a lot of thoughts about it. But just a summary, if you've never read this book, please do. If you have read this book and you feel like returning to it after this, please do.
I have found this book really helpful in helping me to just play with my creativity a bit, to be more open to possibilities around creativity as well, and to really explore that space between actually doing the practical bits. Of being creative as well as the spiritual bits and the more esoteric bits of listening out for ideas, letting things drop in, exploring my goals, exploring my dreams, getting in touch with what makes me feel good. A lot of the book is about in our kindness and being kind to ourselves as well. There's so much in it. I was looking at screenshots of things I'd saved from it and there's so much in it. There's so much in it. And I think it's a really nice and deep exploration, but in a way that's always, like, kind and supportive and I just think it's great. I just think it's great. Keep talking about this book, we'll be here for a really, really long time and I think basically you should just cheque it out. Thank you so much for listening. I really hope this encourages you to cheque out the book. I think it's fantastic. Like I said, I've been dabbling with the idea of running a study group for it.
I'm not sure I will now, but I'm definitely going to join one. I think I'll catch you next week. I haven't decided what we're going to talk about this week. I'm in a julia Cameron would be proud, I'm sure, but I'm just waiting for the idea to hop in before we decide on what to talk about, but I'll be sharing that this time next week. And, yeah, I hope you have a really beautiful week. I hope it's full of healing, growth, rest, whatever you need, and I'll catch you next week.
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