I have been wanting to read Julia Cameron’s “The Right to Write” since I was introduced to her inspiring, ground breaking book “The Artist’s Way” nine years ago but have not been able to find it until now. Cameron is a recovering alcoholic and drug addict and she writes about creativity (or perhaps more accurately, creative recovery) from a spiritual point of view claiming that, “Creativity is an authentic spiritual path”.
If you have read “The Artists Way” you will already be familiar with some of the tools Cameron has devised to unblock creativity; Morning Pages, Artist’s Dates etc. While “The Artist’s Way” is designed to encompass all creative endeavors, “The Right to Write” is specifically about writing, although the practical tools that she offers are useful in all areas of creativity.
My favorite chapter speaks about the concept of the artist being a spiritual channel:
Julia Cameron rebels against what we were taught about “good writing” at school, urging us to give ourselves permission to write “badly”, to listen and “write down” rather than exerting unnecessary effort trying to “make up” what we write. She debunks the myths about writers that would have us starving, poor, eccentric, superstitious, unsociable and addicted if not totally mad. Her book will not tell you about correct grammar, spelling and punctuation, how to compose a submissions letter or what to look for in a publishers contract:“When writing is perceived as channeling spiritual information rather than inventing intellectual information, writing becomes a more fluid process that we are no longer charged with self-consciously guarding. Instead, we are charged with being available to it. We can ‘plug in’ to the flow of writing rather than thinking of it as a stream of energy we must generate from within (ourselves).”
“Why should I write?”“What this book will do, if I have done it well enough, is talk to you about writing for the sake of writing, for the sheer unadulterated joy of putting words to the page. In other words, this is less a “how-to” book than a “why” book.
Quotes from Julia Cameron’s “The Right to Write”
Giacomo Puccini“The music of this opera (Madame Butterfly) was dictated to me by God. I was merely instrumental in getting it on paper and communicating it to the public.”
Johannes Brahms“Straightaway the ideas flow in upon me, directly from God.”
Piet Mondrain“The position of the artist is humble. He is essentially a channel.”
William Blake“I myself do nothing. The Holy Spirit Himself accomplishes all through me.”
