The Right to Write by Julia Cameron - Review
Posted on Jul 20, 2005 in Props, Wisdom
Julia Cameron’s Book “The Right to Write” is an excellent read not only for the aspiring professional writer, but for anyone that creates, or wants to create anything… including us artists. 
This is an excellent book for the creative person, which is and should be everyone. If you took this entire book and substituted the word “write” for whatever creative specialty is yours; drawing, painting, singing, sculpting, etc., it seems to apply seemlessly. She has many insights on the craft of writing (creating), and focuses on the spiritual side rather than the technical aspects that we’ve all come to loathe thanks to our high school english teachers.
Cameron also provides tools and techniques at the end of each chapter to help you apply her advice. I’ve found them to be a nice little push to get past the blocks. The chapter on “Morning Pages” is worth the price of the book alone. Here’s an excerpt that I found particularly striking:
“In a sense, our creativity is none of our business. It is a givin, not something to be aspired to. It is not an invention of our ego. It is, instead, a natural function of our soul. We are intended to breathe and to live. We are intended to listen and create. We do not need special pens. We do not need special rooms or even special times. What we do need is the intention to allow creativity to create through us. When we open ourselves up to something or someone greater than ourselves working through us, we paradoxically open ourselves to our own greatest selves.”
If you’re a creative person, whatever you create, you need to read “The Right to Write.”
3 Comment(s) so far... Don't be shy, join in!
By Denice Langley on Jul 31, 2005 | Reply
Love the paragraph from the book.. I’m going to order it from Amazon. Thanx! I do custom leather work and engraved silver and have done many different creative endeavors in the past. the paragraph you showed has a very profound for me as I’ve tried to explain exactly that to people in the past, though I’m sure not as eloquently as she has. Denice
By Ellen on Mar 9, 2006 | Reply
I’m a professional writer and I teach a university writing (comp) course which is killing me - so it’s not just the students who get done in by the boring bones + muscles part of it. This paragraph is just wonderful, so I’ll also be ordering the book, and maybe I’ll even put aside all guilt about teaching them what a paragraph is and we’ll just create for a couple of sessions.
Thanks for sharing this. I’m reading it months after you posted it, but it’s still good!
Ellen
By Fitz on Mar 9, 2006 | Reply
Hi Ellen! Glad you found this post helpful. It’s interesting to know that even writing instructors get bogged down from time to time… I guess that would make this book even more important in that regard.
If my English teachers in high school and college taught me this stuff, I think I would’ve really gotten a lot more out of things. People need to nurture their creativity! Glad you’re going to give it a read, let me know what you thought of it when you’re done!
BTW, if you haven’t already done so, you should give Hugh MacLeod’s “How To Be Creative” a read. It’s great… here’s one of my favorite lines:
You can read it
on his website here, or download the PDF version here.
Hope this helps and thanks for stopping by!