The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life (Artist's Way)
The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life (Artist's Way) book cover

The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life (Artist's Way)

Paperback – December 27, 1998

Price
$15.44
Format
Paperback
Pages
236
Publisher
TarcherPerigee
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-1585420094
Dimensions
5.47 x 0.68 x 8.18 inches
Weight
9.6 ounces

Description

Praise for THE ARTIST'S WAY. ..“ THE ARTIST’S WAY by Julia Cameron is not exclusively about writing—it is about discovering and developing the artist within whether a painter, poet, screenwriter or musician—but it is a lot about writing. If you have always wanted to pursue a creative dream, have always wanted to play and create with words or paints, this book will gently get you started and help you learn all kinds of paying-attention techniques; and that, after all, is what being an artist is all about. It’s about learning to pay attention.” --Anne Lamott, Mademoiselle “The premise of the book is that creativity and spirituality are the same thing, they come from the same place. And we were created to use this life to express our individuality, and that over the course of a lifetime that gets beaten out of us. [ THE ARTIST’S WAY ] helped me put aside my fear and not worry about whether the record would be commercial.” --Grammy award-winning singer Kathy Mattea “Julia Cameron brings creativity and spirituality together with the same kind of step-by-step wisdom that Edgar Cayce encouraged. The result is spiritual creativity as a consistent and nourishing part of daily life.” --Venture Inward “I never knew I was a visual artist until I read Julia Cameron’s THE ARTIST’S WAY .” --Jannene Behl in Artist’s Magazine “Julia Cameron’s landmark book THE ARTIST’S WAY helped me figure out who I really was as an adult, not so much as an artist but as a person. And award-winning journalist and poet, Cameron’s genius is that she doesn’t tell readers what they should do to achieve or who they should be—instead she creates a map for readers to start exploring these questions themselves.” --Michael F. Melcher, Law Practice magazine “This is not a self-help book in the normative sense. It is simply a powerful book that can challenge one to move into an entirely different state of personal expression and growth.” --Nick Maddox, Deland Beacon “ THE ARTIST’S WAY (with its companion volume THE ARTIST’S WAY MORNING PAGES JOURNAL ) becomes a friend over time, not just a journal. Like a journal, it provokes spontaneous insights and solutions; beyond journaling, it establishes a process that is interactive and dynamic.” --Theresa L. Crenshaw, M.D., San Diego Union-Tribune “If you really want to supercharge your writing, I recommend that you get a copy of Julia Cameron’s book THE ARTIST’S WAY . I’m not a big fan of self-help books, but this book has changed my life for the better and restored my previously lagging creativity.” --Jeffrey Bairstow, Laser Focus World “Working with the principle that creative expression is the natural direction of life, Cameron developed a three month program to recover creativity. THE ARTIST’S WAY shows how to tap into the higher power that connects human creativity and the creative energies of the universe.” --Mike Gossie, Scottsdale Tribune “ THE ARTIST’S WAY is the seminal book on the subject of creativity and an invaluable guide to living the artistic life. Still as vital today—or perhaps even more so—than it was when it was first published in 1992, it is a provocative and inspiring work. Updated and expanded, it reframes THE ARTIST’S WAY for a new century.” --Branches of Light “THE ARTIST’S WAY has sold over 3 million copies since its publication in 1992. Cameron still teaches it because there is sustained demand for its thoughtful, spiritual approach to unblocking and nurturing creativity. It is, dare we say, timeless.” --Nancy Colasurdo, FOXBusiness Praise for VEIN OF GOLD, the second volume in the ARTIST’S WAY trilogy “For those seeking the wellspring of creativity, this book, like its predecessor, is a solid gold diving rod.” --PUBLISHERS WEEKLY Julia Cameron has been an active artist for more than three decades. She is the author of more than thirty books, including such bestselling works on the creative process as The Artist’s Way , Walking in This World , and Finding Water . Also a novelist, playwright, songwriter, and poet, she has multiple credits in theater, film, and television, including an episode of Miami Vice , whichxa0featured Miles Davis, and Elvis and the Beauty Queen , which starred Don Johnson. She was a writer on such movies as Taxi Driver , New York, New York , and The Last Waltz . She wrote, produced, and directed the award-winning independent feature film God's Will , which premiered at the Chicago International Film Festival, and was selected by the London Film Festival, the Munich International Film Festival, and the Women in Film Festival, among others. In addition to making films, Cameron has taught film at such diverse places as Chicago Filmmakers, Northwestern University, and Columbia College. She is also an award-winning playwright, whose work has appeared on such well-known stages as the McCarter Theater at Princeton University and the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

Features & Highlights

  • What if everything we have been taught about learning to write was wrong? In
  • The Right to Write
  • ,
  • Julia Cameron
  • 's most revolutionary book, the author of the bestselling self-help guide
  • The Artist's Way
  • , asserts that conventional writing wisdom would have you believe in a false doctrine that stifles creativity. With the techniques and anecdotes in
  • The Right to Write
  • , readers learn to make writing a natural, intensely personal part of life. Cameron's instruction and examples include the details of the writing processes she uses to create her own bestselling books. She makes writing a playful and realistic as well as a reflective event. Anyone jumping into the writing life for the first time and those already living it will discover the art of writing is never the same after reading
  • The Right to Write
  • .

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
60%
(304)
★★★★
25%
(127)
★★★
15%
(76)
★★
7%
(35)
-7%
(-36)

Most Helpful Reviews

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Exercises should be an aid, not a crutch

I am not normally a fan of writer's inspiration books like this one, primarily because they are so addicting. A blocked or fearful writer can quickly fill their shelves up with books that explain and examine their literary malaise. On one hand, it can be a huge relief to have your problem recognized in print and read case histories about other writers who eventually made it through. But on the other, you run the risk of drowning in self-exploration and doing nothing practical to get yourself writing again.

Julia Cameron deals with writer's block and other triumphs and obstacles in practical terms. In "The Right to Write", she uses equal measures of encouragement and gentle sarcasm to turn aspiring and blocked writers into active practitioners of their craft. Her message is simple: write, and do it daily. Even if what you come up with is not publication quality, the act of doing makes writing a routine endeavor instead of an occasional challenge.

If you're serious about seeing your name in print one day, self-analysis will only take you so far. Julia Cameron offers practical advice that will bring you much closer to your goal.
39 people found this helpful
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Profoundly poetic passages into the writer's inner soul

Whether you're a writer or a wannabe, Julia Cameron's wonderful insights will inspire and enlighten you. And help you along the way in your life's journey to create.
Like many of her books, it will give you the encouragement to celebrate who you are, a unique and creative being, and to write for yourself. Don't worry about the commercial business of writing and marketing. Be true to yourself as you create and, Cameron assures us, your auidence will come.
This is a beautifully-written book and it has profound insights about life, writing and our sacred callings. I was very much touched by the author's understanding of why it is we write.
Cameron focuses in on those golden moments of life, many of them the "little" things we might take for granted, then goes deep inside to probe the meaning and purpose.
Writing brings out your soul's connection to the universe, and it enriches you in a way nothing else can. Creativity is the divine spark we get from our heavenly Creator, and the act of writing is shown to be the sacred way we get in touch with our innermost feelings.
Cameron is like a wise and loving angel showing us why we need to disconnect from our hurried, harried modern lifestyles and to go apart and write. Ignore your critics' voices, whether they are in the form of an inner, nagging thought or another person belittling your writing. Keep a morning journal of your own personal story. Not only do we have the right to write, Cameron admonishes, we have the duty. It brings out our humanity; it enriches our everyday lives.
Every page has a pithy quote of wisdom and insight. Cameron is an artist and a genius. Her descriptions are outstanding. She embraces life and the inner spark of creativity that too often is left untended. We all are writers, Cameron says, and we all must write.
Cameron's prose is profoundly poetic. You will read, and re-read, her chapters again and again. And call yourself a writer.
27 people found this helpful
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Like Scripture is to Christians, This Work is to Writers!

How does one describe the value of Scripture? Julia Cameron's The Right to Write is superb if you write, and EVERYONE has the potential, and the obligation, to write. Everyone wants to make a difference during their lifetime and here is the opportunity to write about that difference, whether your "difference" has to do with writing or some completely foreign field of expertise. Write it down for posterity's future reading as well as for your own personal reward and enjoyment. Fulfillment is one of the rewards of writing and this book guarantees that. After my first devouring of the content I immediately started over rereading it a second time, catching several points and nuances I missed the first time because after the first reading I was seeing things through different eyes. And don't miss Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way" which introduced me to her, her methods, and to The Right to Write. Two words says it all: Simply Superb!
16 people found this helpful
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Motivation if you need it, whether you're a "writer" or not

Cameron obviously intends with this book to offer motivation for writers, would-be writers, and, interestingly, everyone else too, since she firmly believes that EVERYONE is a writer at heart and everyone SHOULD write. I don't think everyone should be a writer any more than everyone should be a dog trainer (it has nothing to do with talent, by the way, and everything to do with doing what you LIKE). Once you get past that premise, is her advice for freeing up your writing useful? What she terms "initiation" tools include freewriting, positive affirmations, writing postcards to five friends in 15 minutes, listing 50 things that make you happy or 100 things you love, and so on. Though, clearly, such tools are most helpful to writers who aren't flooded by ideas from morning `til night, it's possible that if you're feeling stymied by your current project, one of Cameron's exercises might unrust your creative gears and help you enter flow (though the novelists and poets I interviewed for my own bestselling WRITING IN FLOW almost never use such prompts themselves, they admit they give them to their students -- so if you're new at this, do whatever works). (But don't limit yourself to listing "things I love." How about "things that make me want to strangle someone"?)
11 people found this helpful
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Excellent premise

Julia Cameron begins this volume with an excellent premise. We should write because "[w]riting claims our world" (p. xvi). By naming our experience, we make that experience uniquely our own. Ms. Cameron goes even further and tells us that writing "is a birthright, a spiritual dowry that gives us the keys to the kingdom" (p. xvi). Yes, yes indeed! Writing connects us to something larger than just ourselves.
Ms. Cameron's non-elitist approach to the craft refreshes the spirit, giving energy and focus to her advice to "Just show up at the page" (p. 36). Exercises at the end of every chapter nudge her readers in the page's direction. No doubt about it, Ms. Cameron inspires.
The book occasionally bogs down with its repetition and wordiness and that's unfortunate. And, I believe the framework of the book wobbles at times as Ms. Cameron leans a little too heavily on the 12-step recovery model approach to make her points. For example, during a dinner party, a Great Writer scoffed at the idea of everybody being called a writer these days. "They're not real writers," he said. As soon as he left, "the rest of the dinner party sat around and played detox" (p. 232).
In spite of that, the book abounds with gems. "Writing is the art of a listening heart" (p. 28). "Writing specifically, writing detail by detail, we encounter not only ourselves, not only our truth, but the greater truth that stands behind all art and all communication" (p. 54). "[W]riting is a means of prayer. It connects us to the invisible world" (p. 101). "If you keep writing, you'll publish. If you keep focusing on publishing, you may not write" (p. 132). And perhaps one of the hardest principles to grasp involves "the idea of writing as process instead of product" (p. 190).
This is a book I would recommend.
9 people found this helpful
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The Right to Write

I am writing a novel and this book has given an excellent perspective and motivation to continue with the process.
7 people found this helpful
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Julia Cameron: Books are National Treasures - Read 'Em All!

I am an avid reader of Julia Cameron - and I had taken my time in reading this particular title.

The title turned me off - it reminded me of "the entitlement mindset" which annoys the heck out of me... and reminded me of how turned off I had been by "The Artist's Way" at first, until I allowed its truth and glory to shine through and into my heart.

I am so grateful I got out of my way and into this book!

Each delightfully short chapter zeroes in on a simple topic followed by an initiation tool.

What I especially enjoyed was seeing the echoes of Cameron's own tools in the writing itself.

I read this one straight through - hungrily - taking on some of the initiation tools, not all.

I can see myself going through it again, really working with the tools... some of which are familiar and some of which I have been doing intuitively, without Julie C's guidance.

What a blessing Julia Cameron is to the world of writers and creative souls everywhere.
7 people found this helpful
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Makes you want to write

So much of the information in this book seems so simple and obvious and yet it is so easy to forget it. I am glad that books like this exist. Why does writing have to be some lofty goal that is hard to reach? Why can't I just be a writer? This book shows how easy it is to do so and how everyone can be a writer. Cameron speaks mostly from her own experience but also uses other people she knows as examples. Along with that, each chapter ends with a writing exercise. I've begun doing one of the major exercies - Morning Pages - and have done so each day for a little over a week. I wake up now each morning looking forward to the time I spend on the page. I think this little bit is already helping me as a writer.
6 people found this helpful
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Some gentle nudging, and some tough confrontations

Julia Cameron takes a gentle, but steady approach. She understands full well that if you have had writer's block your entire life, it will not be easy to unblock yourself. Her main unblocking tool is to write three pages a day. You can write anything you want. After some initial reluctance, I have now become an addict, and I have filled several notebooks. She understands very well what demons wannabe writers might face, and gives plenty of exercises for overcoming them. Many of them very gentle, some where you must face old demons, but all basically very simple and easy to do.
6 people found this helpful
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Offers some great kick-in-the-pants tips

I haven't been able to get into Julia's other books. I often feel very uncreative when I try to work through them. But I like this book as it seems to be telling me just what I need to hear right now. The chapter on Bad Writing and The Time Lie were especially helpful in getting me going. I like that the chapters are short and when I'm done I feel like writing. I don't do the activities in the book and instead go straight to the projects I'm working on.

Another good resource with similar tips and inspiration is Heather Seller's books Page by Page and Chapter by Chapter.
4 people found this helpful