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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
Ironically enough, I found this a bit flowery for my tastes. But it did have some good points. my favorites were writing for revenge and how to pick an audience of one
Cameron in Right to Write and Goldberg in books like Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind focus primarily on the practice of writing as everyday spiritual practice (a kind of 'zazen', to borrow the term from Buddhism) and a tool for personal growth. Writing does not have to be about writing for publication, they say, the process is every bit as valid as the product.
Cameron talks about "connecting with the powers of the universe" when we write. And yes, there was a time when my more than cynical self would have laughed at such an idea. But truly that's what it feels like when writing goes well, when we lose self-consciousness and the ideas just ... flow.
Writing is about getting something down, not about thinking something up, she says. Creativity is a lamp, not a candle. Something wants to write through us as badly as we want to write.
This strikes me as very true. Time after time I see my writing friends come up with perfectly formed, heart-breakingly true pieces, after just a few minutes of frantically-paced "free-writing".
And I loved the chapter about taking your writing outside into your everyday world ... not making it too precious and serious and daunting:
Writing is about making brain children. When it comes to conception, it can but doesn't need to be in the missionary position. ... Don't make it so fancy. Do it on the kitchen table. Let your prose flash like Jessica Lange's white panties in the Postman always rings twice. Do it in the back pew at church. Do it outside next to the lilac bush. Do it in a cafe. On an airplane. Do it, do it, do it.
I'm not a flasher, but always have notebooks with me (different sized notebooks for different sized handbags) and often feel the urge to scribble things down. Cafes are great writing places and I love to people watch and play the sneaky spy. I've also written in long bank queues, at the check-out in Jaya Jusco, while waiting for friends to arrive at the airport, and once in the toilet during a formal function because the conversation on my table just had to be got down to paper as soon as possible!
I like to write on trains where there is a sort of enforced intimacy with strangers, and it's fun to try to get them down to the page without them suspecting what you're doing! Got the tables turned on me once though ... on a train from Plymouth to London, a young man, a student I thought, settled into the seat opposite. I was just wondering whether to take out my notebook and write a quick sketch of him, when he opened his bag, took out a notebook and proceeded to scribble something down in it, glancing sneakily at me from time to time though I pretended not to notice. I like to think that he was writing about me! A kind of writerly synchronicity.
Cameron talks about "connecting with the powers of the universe" when we write. And yes, there was a time when my more than cynical self would have laughed at such an idea. But truly that's what it feels like when writing goes well, when we lose self-consciousness and the ideas just ... flow.
Writing is about getting something down, not about thinking something up, she says. Creativity is a lamp, not a candle. Something wants to write through us as badly as we want to write.
This strikes me as very true. Time after time I see my writing friends come up with perfectly formed, heart-breakingly true pieces, after just a few minutes of frantically-paced "free-writing".
And I loved the chapter about taking your writing outside into your everyday world ... not making it too precious and serious and daunting:
Writing is about making brain children. When it comes to conception, it can but doesn't need to be in the missionary position. ... Don't make it so fancy. Do it on the kitchen table. Let your prose flash like Jessica Lange's white panties in the Postman always rings twice. Do it in the back pew at church. Do it outside next to the lilac bush. Do it in a cafe. On an airplane. Do it, do it, do it.
I'm not a flasher, but always have notebooks with me (different sized notebooks for different sized handbags) and often feel the urge to scribble things down. Cafes are great writing places and I love to people watch and play the sneaky spy. I've also written in long bank queues, at the check-out in Jaya Jusco, while waiting for friends to arrive at the airport, and once in the toilet during a formal function because the conversation on my table just had to be got down to paper as soon as possible!
I like to write on trains where there is a sort of enforced intimacy with strangers, and it's fun to try to get them down to the page without them suspecting what you're doing! Got the tables turned on me once though ... on a train from Plymouth to London, a young man, a student I thought, settled into the seat opposite. I was just wondering whether to take out my notebook and write a quick sketch of him, when he opened his bag, took out a notebook and proceeded to scribble something down in it, glancing sneakily at me from time to time though I pretended not to notice. I like to think that he was writing about me! A kind of writerly synchronicity.
Julia Cameron is the primary figure in my Inspirational Saints of Writing, because of this book. The message running throughout the book is that writing is not a special task that only certain people can do - writing is just communicating, which is a basic human need. Just try, Cameron says, and I sure am.
I've never finished a Julia Cameron book that I've started, but I've always wanted to. This is a great little book filled with writing prompts - I did most of them in the first 50 pages but then tapered off. I really loved her idea to combat the whole 'i don't have time to write' - she argues that we writers must be thieves - and steal time to write daily. Steal it at work, steal it at the waiting room, steal it on the train.
Fabulous! Absolutely outstanding. If you want to be motivated, rejuvenated, re-energized toward writing... look no further than THE RIGHT TO WRITE. Julia Cameron is a creativity genius. She understands the writer's life perhaps better than anyone. I couldn't put this book down. It's going to have a permanent place on my keeper shelf. 'Nuff said. Excellent, excellent book. (A+)
Excellent book for those of us who want to be validated at being "Pantsers". Just write! So what if it sucks the first time - it's supposed to. Don't worry about planning it, just let it happen. It's more fun that way.
I will always love Julia Cameron's books. They are inspiring and healing. Anyone who says otherwise is crazy in the head and needs to spend time reading them.
No idea if this had made me a better writer, but really enjoyed the variety of writing exercises.
Julia Cameron's "The Right to Write" is more of a writing philosophy work rather than a "how to" book. I actually really liked reading her anecdotes on the writing life and what her experience and advice entailed. I liked her approaches to several different topics, including procrastination, writer's block, the drive to write, among others. And one of the things I really appreciated in this novel is that she completely knocks down the myth/fabrication of what some term as "real" writers versus not. She simply states, somewhat paraphrased: if you write, you are a writer - we are all, in essence, writers of different walks, it's what we choose to do with it and keeping it in practice. She breaks down a lot of mental barriers that writers might have in the process, and she does so with a reassuring, calm voice that carries itself through each topic and page.
I liked thee exercises at the end of each chapter that puts into practice some of the ideas she expounds upon, but really what I got most out of this book were her respective ideas to the writing life, building confidence as a writer, and just how to keep going with ones passion for it. It was a good work, I liked it quite a bit. If I could say one constructively critical thing on it, however, there are places in this where it does tend to meander a little, but I didn't find that to be a deterrent of what I was able to get from this book, and I would certainly return to it again.
Overall score: 4/5
I liked thee exercises at the end of each chapter that puts into practice some of the ideas she expounds upon, but really what I got most out of this book were her respective ideas to the writing life, building confidence as a writer, and just how to keep going with ones passion for it. It was a good work, I liked it quite a bit. If I could say one constructively critical thing on it, however, there are places in this where it does tend to meander a little, but I didn't find that to be a deterrent of what I was able to get from this book, and I would certainly return to it again.
Overall score: 4/5