What This Book Does Best
The Artists Way is a powerful guide for anyone looking to reconnect with their creativity. Julia does a great job articulating how it feels to be creatively blocked, and offers a practical, step-by-step plan to help you get back into your creativity.
The Short:
If you feel drawn to spending more time on your art, or a need to return to that long lost creative love, this book will help you get there.
The Long:
This book is structured as a 12-week program, meant to be read one chapter per week, with exercises at the end of each chapter. I approached it like a course in reconnecting with my creativity and giving myself permission to embrace it. As an artist herself, Julia clearly understands what it feels like when we don’t prioritize our creativity or stop believing in it altogether. This book gently encourages you to reflect on how important your art really is, and helps you begin to unblock your creative energy. In a world full of comparison, where it’s easy to feel like you’re not good enough, this book feels like the antidote.
“If you are happier writing than not writing, painting than not painting, singing than not singing, acting than not acting, directing than not directing, for God’s sake, let yourself.” Julia feels like that cool aunt that’s guiding you back to your creativity, one step at a time. “You don’t need to overturn a successful career in order to find creative fulfillment.”
For me this book came at a time where I already felt like I was already pursuing my creativity, but I still found a lot of benefit in her validating words of encouragement. I especially loved the practice of morning pages that Julia encourages you to do each day not just for creative clarity, but for tuning into your intuition and subconscious desires. Although I was initially reluctant to try this daily writing exercise, I grew to really enjoy the process and have continued doing them, even if not every single day.
I found the tasks at the end of each chapter a little overwhelming at times, some weeks had more work than others, but I did my best to choose the ones that resonated with me and let go of the rest. I really enjoyed the 12-week structure. It became a Monday morning ritual to read a new chapter and then to try and keep up with the morning pages throughout the week. The format also made it easy to keep reading other books, since I could usually finish a chapter in one sitting. I looked forward to each Monday’s reading as it became a nice, early week pick-me-up.
I also loved how Julia intertwined spirituality throughout this book. As someone who’s leaning more into my own spirituality, I found her approach helpful and relatable, especially when discussing topics that can feel intangible. You can tell that Julia has experienced all the stages of being an artist, given the way she eloquently expresses the struggles of allowing yourself to follow your creative intuition.
Who needs to read this now?
This book is for anyone who feels that creative voice inside but hasn’t actually created in a while. If you used to write, play an instrument, make movies, or pursue any creative outlet but haven’t recently, this is a must read. For those of us wanting to prioritize creative endeavors, this book is full of helpful guidance to unblock your creativity and validate how you feel about your artistic journey.