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Writing, for Julia Cameron, is neither solely vocation nor avocation: it is a way of life. It comes first thing in the morning, while the horses are waiting to be fed; it happens at the kitchen counter, while the onions are sautéing; it takes place on "dates" at café tables shared with likeminded friends; it unfurls in the mind as the '65 pickup "bucks over the rutted dirt roads like a stiff-legged bronco." The more than 40 brief personal essays that make up The Right to Write are an unyielding affirmation of the writing life and a denigration of all that gets in the way: busy schedules, procrastination, insecurity, lack of writing space, a day job--you get the point. Cameron's commonsense advice is liberating to anyone who has felt hampered by making a big deal out of writing (this "tends to make writing difficult. Keeping writing casual tends to keep it possible"), by not having the time to write ("Get aggressive. Steal time"), or the like. If you find a spirit that compares writing to revelation, prayer, and Zen pursuits, that might just attribute misguided communication to Mercury retrograde simpatico, then you will find much to embrace here. And you will never, never again dream of waiting for that commitment-free sabbatical in the south of France to get your writing project under way. --Jane Steinberg
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Publishers Weekly
In a flowing sequence of personal essays and exercises (many of them reprises from her bestselling The Artist's Way), Cameron seeks to help readers enjoy writing as a natural, joyful process. "All of us have a sex drive. All of us have a drive to write." She offers advice on how to get over the stiffness or outright paralysis that creeps in when people make writing a "Big Deal." Wholeheartedly believing in writing as a process that connects us to the divine, whether we experience that finer source as internal or external, Cameron is refreshingly real. She invites readers to make use of the interruptions and torments as well as the sensual pleasures of their lives (for example, through the creation of a real or imaginary "Wall of Infamy," using memories of people who have hurt them) as a source of energy that can be focused to write their way "clear of rage, frustration, and negativity." Acknowledging that she is "a sort of creative nurse practitioner," Cameron, telling the stories behind some of her own stories and poems, shows how writing can lead us down into the most vibrant parts of ourselves, to the very source of health. Although she covers much of the same territory she explored in The Artist's Way, Cameron's prose and anecdotes sparkle with fresh, lived experience, demonstrating that when the subject is creativity, a writer really can't enter the same stream twice.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
I AM SITTING AT a small pine table, facing east toward the Sangre de Cristo foothills. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
I AM SITTING AT a small pine table, facing east toward the Sangre de Cristo foothills. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Good for beginners, grating for professionals,
By
This review is from: The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life (Paperback)
"The Right to Write" was the first how-to-write book I ever purchased and that was several years ago at this stage. Back then, this book helped me realise that it was OK to want to write and it gave me the motivation and knowledge to get started. Ms. Camerons own eclectic career inspired me to do what mattered personally in writing terms and not be afraid of making a rough draft a *really* rough draft.However, years passed and times changed. I recently picked up this book, with fond memories mind, having dedicated myself to a writing life and had reasonable success. Unfortunatly, the reread was disappointing and I found her "cult of me" attitude [as eloquently put by another reviewer] incredibly annoying. Ms. Cameron is of the oppinnion that everybody can write. Yes, maybe everybody can, but that doen't mean they should go for a career in it. Her advice that everybody should be authors could dedicate some readers to a live scrimping a living and ravaged with disappointment. Her statements such as "Why don't we do it in the street?" and her "Cups" initiations smack of New Age - the really bad mumbo jumbo kind. In all, this book is excellent for opening the eyes of the "wannabe" writer to what they can achieve, but in cold hindsight after years as a writer myself, I found it too full of "fluff" and incredibly grating. If you want to be a writer that badly then you need a more "grounding" book with a concrete approach to the how's and why's of the process. Unfortunaly Ms. Camerons book falls well short in that regard. - A.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good place to start,
By A Customer
This review is from: Right To Write (Hardcover)
I began my career teaching Composition at a state university campus. One day I was chatting with a colleague, a crusty old veteran who was the embodiment of everyone's Least Favorite English Teacher. She declared, "I don't care if they write only one paper all semester -- I make them rewrite it until it's PERFECT." I countered, "I don't care if they don't write one perfect paper all semester -- I make them keep WRITING."This explains what I like about Julia Cameron: she's taken a whole generation who were intimidated by teachers like my ex-colleague into thinking "I'm not a writer," and made them into fluent, passionate, comfortable writers. Even for the experienced writer, her suggestions are great for jump-starting you at times when the inner censor is remorseless or you "just don't feel like writing." And she's an expert at puncturing your "I can't write because" excuses; those sections alone are worth the price of the book. I found it much easier going than "The Artist's Way": she's kept it concise, and downplayed the religion and the Twelve-Step-isms that some readers (myself included) found off-putting; but at the same time she's provided more of the practical and powerful exercises that were, I feel, the great strength of that book. That said, I still found this book somewhat unsatisfying for two reasons. First, although the scenes from her daily life are excellent examples of vivid description, I could have done with a little less of her idyllic existence in the mountains and more practical suggestions for those of us who don't have total freedom to structure our writing time! And second, although her method provides a wonderful way for anyone to get started as a writer, she doesn't answer the next pressing question: "Now that I know I CAN write, where do I go from here?"
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thank you Julia Cameron,
By
This review is from: The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life (Paperback)
For aspiring writers, there are many books that teach, inspire and train a writer's growth. Julia Cameron's book, "The Right to Write" is the most comprehensive, emotionally attached writing book I have yet to encounter. Honest, direct and understanding, Ms. Cameron provides inspiration by sharing her own with the world. Her experience as a writer never underminds those writers with less experience. She understands that writing is personal, therefore she teaches from her personal perspective.This is not only the best writing book I have read, it is also one of the best books I have ever read.
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