The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron

This book was a recommendation from my friend Kee. As we were sitting around coffee, the topic of writing everyday and improving one's creativity came about.

Notes and Thoughts

Overall Work

• While I haven't read the book yet, I think my conversation with Kee about the practice of writing everyday and writing even if it is uncomfortable was one of those transformative conversations which ultimately led me to digital gardening. I am yet to fully understand what morning pages are, but if they are even a little bit similar to the creative writing I usually do in the Creative Writing Journal I started (a journal to get used to writing fiction like the kind in Cosmic Party) or the creative writing it takes to write mini-essays or take notes on media, they will be incredibly useful.
• I intend on following the program in The Artist's Way very loosely. I won't even attempt to complete the book in twelve weeks, I am a slow reader, and I despise routine. I do not see myself able to complete the daily, or even weekly requirements of the book. But I don't think that means I won't take anything away from the book. I hope I can be critical of its contents and I hope I can make it mine not only through my reading of it but also through my practice of it.
  • As a matter of fact, I think I'll get much more value out of this book by taking it slow. We'll see if that holds true. Knowledge is better gained and retained by taking things slow

Introduction

• xix
  • "No matter your age or your life path, whether making art is your career or your hobby or your dream, it is not too late or too egotistical or too selfish or too silly to work on your creativity."
    • There is a lesson I need to internalise and that is that The pursuit of art is not egotistical. I think this is a broad idea with an infinity of arguments for and against, but I think it would be good to start thinking about the arguments for.
  • "I have come to believe that creativity is our true nature."
    • I think few things are as worthwhile as being creative, be it through creative or critical thinking or through the pursuit of art. I don't think saying that every advancement that we, as humanity, have accomplished has been sparked by the creativity of someone. While I don't believe in god, I do tend to believe that creativity is our first virtue. Creativity is our God-given nature.
• xx
  • "The theory doesn't matter as much as the practice itself does."
    • This reminds me of many little phrases we tell ourselves, like "fake it till you make it" or "you are what you eat." Does one need to believe in order to become? I would tend to think not. Many would disagree. I think that is an interesting thought to ponder. The theory doesn't matter as much as the practice itself does
  • "Creativity is a fact of your spiritual body and nothing that you must invent."
    • Here, Julia Cameron compare our creativity like the blood in our body. It is nothing we have to find or create, it simply is, and it is the source of our vitality. Her idea that creativity is God-given, which I don't necessarily agree with, nonetheless resonates with my feeling that the point of my life is to create. Creativity is our God-given nature
• xxi
  • "I told myself that if sobriety meant no creativity I did not want to be sober. Yet I recognised that drinking would kill me and the creativity. I needed to learn to write sober—or else give up writing entirely."
    • As much as I shouldn't compare drinking problems with AI, this is my exact experience.
  • "I learned to just show up at the page and write down what I heard. Writing became more like eavesdropping and less like inventing a nuclear bomb. It wasn't so tricky, and it didn't blow up on me anymore. I didn't have to be in the mood. I didn't have to take my emotional temperature to see if inspiration was pending. I simply wrote. No negotiations. Good or bad? None of my business. I wasn't doing it."
    • This, at first, felt like it resonated with me, but now I struggle to see any creativity as disconnected from our "emotional temperature." I can stand with the idea that is it "listening", but I think that if anything, it is the synthesis of listening to ourselves and listening to others. Which! It reminds me of this discussion with Caroline. It is in conflict, in advocating for our thoughts, while listening to that of others, in synthesising all sides of the argument that we build progress and that we find, if not harmony, at least the pure form of the political. I am rambling, but I think it is worth thinking about the intersection of creativity as synthesis and agonism (the political theory).
      • What is the intersection, if any, of creativity and agonism?
  • "In retrospect, I am astounded I could let go of the drama of being a suffering artist."
    • This reminds me of the treason of the artist quote of Ursula K. Le Guin. Why is pain and suffering and
    • The fallacy of the suffering artist
  • "Nothing dies harder than a bad idea. And few ideas are worse than the ones we have about art. We can charge so many things off to our suffering-artist identity: drunkenness, promiscuity, fiscal problems, a certain ruthlessness or self-destructiveness in matter of the heart."
  • "Get out of the way. Let it work through you. Accumulate pages, not judgements."

Spiritual Electricity: The Basic Principles

• 1
  • "For most of us, the idea that the creator encourages creativity is a radical thought. We tend to think, or at least fear, that creative dreams are egotistical, something that God wouldn't approve of for us. After all, our creative artist is an inner youngster and prone to childish thinking. If our mom or dad expressed doubt or disapproval for our creative dreams, we may project that same attitude onto a parental god. This thinking must be undone."
    • Creativity is our God-given nature
• 2
  • "Those who speak in spiritual terms routinely refer to god as the creator but seldom see creator as the literal term for artist."
    • Creativity is our God-given nature
  • "As you work with the tools in this book, as you undertake the weekly tasks, many changes will be set in motion. Chief among these changes will be the triggering of synchronicity: we change and the universe further expands that change."
    • My own experience of change
• 3
  • "Creativity is the natural order of life. Life is energy: pure creative energy."
  • "There is an underlying, in-dwelling creative force infusing all of life—including ourselves"
  • "We are, ourselves, creations. And we, in turn, are meant to continue creativity by being creative ourselves."
  • "Creativity is God's gift to us. Using our creativity is our gift back to God."
  • self-will: "Self-will refers to our personal desires, decisions, and actions driven by our own ego and desires." (Self-will vs God's will)¹
• 4
  • "Just remember, in choosing, that that we often resist what we most need."
• 5
  • "There is no such thing as being done with an artistic life. Frustrations and rewards exist at all levels on the path."
• 6
  • "If this sounds like a lot of emotional tumult, it is. When we engage in a creative recovery, we enter into a withdrawal process from life as we know it. Withdrawal is another way of saying detachment or non-attachment, which is emblematic of consistent work with any meditation practice. In movie terms, we slowly pull focus, lifting up and away from being embedded in our lifes until we attain and overview. This overview empowers us to make valid creative choices."
  • "We ourselves are the substance we withdraw to, not from, as we pull our overextended and misplaced creative energy back into our own core."
• 7
  • "To effect a creative recovery, we must undergo a time of mourning. In dealing with the suicide of the "nice" self we have been making do with, we find a certain amount of grief to be essential. Our tears prepare the ground for our future growth."
    • Change again, and grieving the old self

The Basic Tools

• 10

Week 1

Shadow Artists

Your Enemy Within: Core Negative Beliefs

Exercises

Review