The Artist's Way Book Summary - The Artist's Way Book explained in key points

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The Artist's Way summary

Name: The Artist's Way
Rating: 4.3 (218 reviews)
Author: Julia Cameron

Julia Cameron

A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity

4.3 (218 ratings)

14 mins

Topics

Creative Flow Inspiration

Table of Contents

The Artist's Way
Summary of 6 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 6

What’s in it for me? Recover your creative self.

When you were a child, could you contentedly draw or sing for hours? Did you spend nights with a flashlight under your covers, secretly writing in your diary when you were supposed to be asleep?

And what about today: is your life still full of artistic passion? Or did you become a shadow artist, yearning to be creative yet stuck at some stuffy office? Maybe you did succeed in making a living as an artist, but continue to struggle with creative blocks.

Whatever has held back your inner artist – these blinks will show you how to free her.

One quick tip: the advice in these blinks is based on a twelve-week program. If you want to apply these blinks to your life, try focusing on one tip each week. You’ll find two tips in every blink.

In these blinks, you'll also find out

why it actually makes sense to ask yourself out for a date;
why you should fear and avoid the strange species called crazymakers; and
the connection between God’s wishes and great movie plots.

Connect with your creative side by writing regularly and exploring new things.

If you’re looking to rekindle your creativity, you don't have to start by writing your magnum opus! Instead, start out with some simpler first steps, like writing morning pages.

Morning pages help get your creativity flowing when you first wake up. Just sit down, let your thoughts wander and write whatever comes to mind. Your morning pages don't need to be artistic or brilliant. Think of them as a form of meditation: shut out the outside world and focus on what you're doing right at that moment. If you don't know what to write, write about the fact that you don't know what to write.

When working on your morning pages, aim to suppress the critical, logical part of your brain. Let your artist-brain take over instead. Don't worry about making mistakes or the pressure to write something brilliant. The artist-brain wants to play and experiment – let it go!

You also need to take your artistic side on a date now and then. Schedule an artist date with yourself: set aside a couple of hours per week to focus on your inner artist. Go to the beach, watch an old movie, visit a gallery or just go for a walk. The point is to relax by yourself and allow your mind to drift.

You’ll find that the more you explore yourself and the world around you, the more you connect with your inner artist. That’s why it’s so important to learn as much as you can about yourself and your surroundings. Always seek out new sounds, sights, smells or tastes.

Whether it’s taking a different route back home so you can see a new part of town, or stopping to appreciate the sky at dusk or the flowers on your path to work – explore something new whenever you can!

Build your confidence by overcoming your demons and self-doubt.

We all struggle with tough times in our lives. But if you want to be more creative, you can't run away from them.

Creative people often have to face and overcome difficult circumstances. For example, lots of parents discourage their talented children from pursuing the arts because they're afraid they won't be able to support themselves financially.

The recovery process is emotionally challenging but it's the only way to reconnect with your creative self.

If you haven’t been creative for a long time, it’s not always easy to recover your artistic side. But don’t worry! Once you start digging into your creative inner world, you’ll start uncovering strange thoughts and feelings. These discoveries can be scary, but they’re also pivotal.

Anger, for example, is certainly unpleasant but not necessarily something to run away from. Anger can motivate you to move in the right direction. For example, you might watch a movie and feel angry because you think you could've done a better job than the actors who got the roles. If that’s how you feel, take your feeling seriously. Write your thoughts down and work toward that goal!

You don't generate ideas out of nowhere; you find them in the universe and help them grow.

When Michelangelo produced his famous David statue, he said he found David – he didn't create him. Like many great artists, he thought of himself as a mere vessel delivering something much larger than he. He was right.

Artists don't generate their own ideas. They find them out in the universe. Once you accept this, you'll no longer suffer from creative blocks.

Perfectionism, workaholism and excessive competitiveness will only block your creative flow.

Fear is an artist's worst enemy. It can prevent you from pursuing your dreams, block your creativity and make you doubt yourself even when things are going well.

Usually, fear of failure is rooted in childhood experiences. One unsupportive parent or teacher who told you you’d never amount to anything could instill a lifelong fear of failure.

Make a conscious effort to bring your creative self out into the open.

Every artist needs a bit of self-confidence. So if you want to resurrect your artistic self, you’ll have to reexamine your past to see what may have damaged your self-confidence, and how you can revive it.

Start by looking back and picking out three past experiences that lowered your sense of self. Any experience or memory counts, even ones that might seem silly. If Anna hurt you when she insulted your drawings in third grade, put it on the list.

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What is The Artist's Way about?

Everyone has the potential to create great art. The problem is, we're often held back by our doubts, past experiences and even the people around us. The Artist's Way (1994) is full of advice about connecting with your artistic side so you can realize your creative dreams.

Best quote from The Artist's Way

More than anything else, creative recovery is about keeping an open mind.

—Julia Cameron

Who should read The Artist's Way?

Artists and creative types of all kinds
People discouraged from pursuing their artistic dreams
Anyone struggling to motivate their creative selves

About the Author

Julia Cameron is a poet, playwright, fiction writer, essayist and award-winning journalist. She is also the bestselling author of The Vein of Gold.

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