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1 [1]Skip to content[2]Skip to site index 2 [3] 3 [4]Style|Julia Cameron Wants You to Do Your Morning Pages 4 [5][6] 5 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/02/style/julia-cameron-the-artists-way.html 6 7 • Share full article 8 • 9 • 10 11 [merlin_149295975_44170fa1-6d57-454f-a8b4-112222add07b-articleLarge] 12 Julia Cameron, making change at 70.Credit...Ramsay de Give for The New York 13 Times 14 15 Julia Cameron Wants You to Do Your Morning Pages 16 17 With “The Artist’s Way,” Julia Cameron invented the way people renovate the 18 creative soul. 19 20 Julia Cameron, making change at 70.Credit...Ramsay de Give for The New York 21 Times 22 23 Supported by 24 25 [10]SKIP ADVERTISEMENT 26 27 • Share full article 28 • 29 • 30 31 [14]Penelope Green 32 33 By [15]Penelope Green 34 35 • Feb. 2, 2019 36 37 SANTA FE, N.M. — On any given day, someone somewhere is likely leading an 38 Artist’s Way group, gamely knocking back the exercises of “The Artist’s Way” 39 book, the quasi-spiritual manual for “creative recovery,” as its author Julia 40 Cameron puts it, that has been a lodestar to blocked writers and other artistic 41 hopefuls for more than a quarter of a century. There have been Artist’s Way 42 clusters in the Australian outback and the Panamanian jungle; in Brazil, 43 Russia, the United Kingdom and Japan; and also, as a cursory scan of Artist’s 44 Way Meetups reveals, in Des Moines and Toronto. It has been taught in prisons 45 and sober communities, at spiritual retreats and New Age centers, from Esalen 46 to Sedona, from the Omega Institute to the [16]Open Center, where Ms. Cameron 47 will appear in late March, as she does most years. Adherents of “The Artist’s 48 Way” include the authors Patricia Cornwell and Sarah Ban Breathnach. Pete 49 Townshend, Alicia Keys and Helmut Newton have all noted its influence on their 50 work. 51 52 So has Tim Ferriss, the hyperactive productivity guru behind “The Four Hour 53 Workweek,” though to save time he didn’t actually read the book, “which was 54 recommended to me by many megaselling authors,” [17]he writes. He just did the 55 “Morning Pages,” one of the book’s central exercises. It requires you write 56 three pages, by hand, first thing in the morning, about whatever comes to mind. 57 (Fortunes would seem to have been made on the journals printed to support this 58 effort.) The book’s other main dictum is the “Artist’s Date” — two hours of 59 alone time each week to be spent at a gallery, say, or any place where a new 60 experience might be possible. 61 62 Elizabeth Gilbert, who has “done” the book three times, said there would be no 63 “Eat, Pray, Love,” without “The Artist’s Way.” Without it, there might be no 64 [18]adult coloring books, no [19]journaling fever. “Creativity” would not have 65 its own publishing niche or have become a ubiquitous buzzword — the “fat-free” 66 of the self-help world — and business pundits would not deploy it as a specious 67 organizing principle. 68 69 Image 70 71 The book’s enduring success — over 4 million copies have been sold since its 72 publication in 1992 — have made its author, a shy Midwesterner who had a bit of 73 early fame in the 1970s for practicing lively New Journalism at the Washington 74 Post and Rolling Stone, among other publications, and for being married, 75 briefly, to Martin Scorsese, with whom she has a daughter, Domenica — an 76 unlikely celebrity. With its gentle affirmations, inspirational quotes, 77 fill-in-the-blank lists and tasks — write yourself a thank-you letter, describe 78 yourself at 80, for example — “The Artist’s Way” proposes an egalitarian view 79 of creativity: Everyone’s got it. 80 81 The book promises to free up that inner artist in 12 weeks. It’s a template 82 that would seem to reflect the practices of 12-step programs, particularly its 83 invocations to a higher power. But according to Ms. Cameron, who has been sober 84 since she was 29, “12 weeks is how long it takes for people to cook.” 85 86 Now 70, she lives in a spare adobe house in Santa Fe, overlooking an acre of 87 scrub and the Sangre de Cristo mountain range. She moved a few years ago from 88 Manhattan, following an exercise from her book to list 25 things you love. As 89 she recalled, “I wrote juniper, sage brush, chili, mountains and sky and I 90 said, ‘This is not the Chrysler Building.’” On a recent snowy afternoon, Ms. 91 Cameron, who has enormous blue eyes and a nimbus of blonde hair, admitted to 92 the jitters before this interview. “I asked three friends to pray for me,” she 93 said. “I also wrote a note to myself to be funny.” 94 95 In the early 1970s, Ms. Cameron, who is the second oldest of seven children and 96 grew up just north of Chicago, was making $67 a week working in the mail room 97 of the Washington Post. At the same time, she was writing deft lifestyle pieces 98 for the paper — like an East Coast Eve Babitz. “With a byline, no one knows 99 you’re just a gofer,” she said. 100 101 In her reporting, Ms. Cameron observed an epidemic of green nail polish and 102 other “Cabaret”-inspired behaviors in Beltway bars, and slyly reviewed a new 103 party drug, methaqualone. She was also, by her own admission, a blackout drunk. 104 “I thought drinking was something you did and your friends told you about it 105 later,” she said. “In retrospect, in cozy retrospect, I was in trouble from my 106 first drink.” 107 108 She met Mr. Scorsese on assignment for Oui magazine and fell hard for him. She 109 did a bit of script-doctoring on “Taxi Driver,” and followed the director to 110 Los Angeles. “I got pregnant on our wedding night,” she said. “Like a good 111 Catholic girl.” When Mr. Scorsese took up with Liza Minnelli while all three 112 were working on “New York, New York,” the marriage was done. (She recently made 113 a painting depicting herself as a white horse and Mr. Scorsese as a lily. “I 114 wanted to make a picture about me and Marty,” she said. “He was magical-seeming 115 to me and when I look at it I think, ‘Oh, she’s fascinated, but she doesn’t 116 understand.’”) 117 118 Image[merlin_149296134_e17f3630-d6d2-4d46-961e-bddec24c3feb-articleLarge] 119 Under the pines.Credit...Ramsay de Give for The New York Times 120 121 In her memoir, “Floor Sample,” published in 2006, Ms. Cameron recounts the 122 brutality of Hollywood, of her life there as a screenwriter and a drunk. 123 Pauline Kael, she writes, described her as a “pornographic Victorian valentine, 124 like a young Angela Lansbury.” Don’t marry her for tax reasons, Ms. Kael warns 125 Mr. Scorsese. Andy Warhol, who escorts her to the premiere of “New York, New 126 York,” inscribes her into his diary as a “lush.” A cocaine dealer soothes her — 127 “You have a tiny little wife’s habit” — and a doctor shoos her away from his 128 hospital when she asks for help, telling her she’s no alcoholic, just a 129 “sensitive young woman.” She goes into labor in full makeup and a Chinese 130 dressing gown, vowing to be “no trouble.” 131 132 “I think it’s fair to say that drinking and drugs stopped looking like a path 133 to success,” she said. “So I luckily stopped. I had a couple of sober friends 134 and they said, ‘Try and let the higher power write through you.’ And I said, 135 What if he doesn’t want to?’ They said, ‘Just try it.’” 136 137 So she did. She wrote novels and screenplays. She wrote poems and musicals. She 138 wasn’t always well-reviewed, but she took the knocks with typical grit, and she 139 schooled others to do so as well. “I have unblocked poets, lawyers and 140 painters,” she said. She taught her tools in living rooms and classrooms — “if 141 someone was dumb enough to lend us one,” she said — and back in New York, at 142 the Feminist Art Institute. Over the years, she refined her tools, typed them 143 up, and sold Xeroxed copies in local bookstores for $20. It was her second 144 husband, Mark Bryan, a writer, who needled her into making the pages into a 145 proper book. 146 147 The first printing was about 9,000 copies, said Joel Fotinos, formerly the 148 publisher at Tarcher/Penguin, which published the book in 1992. There was 149 concern that it wouldn’t sell. “Part of the reason,” Mr. Fotinos said, “was 150 that this was a book that wasn’t like anything else. We didn’t know where to 151 put it on the shelves — did it go in religion or self-help? Eventually there 152 was a category called ‘creativity,’ and ‘The Artist’s Way’ launched it.” Now an 153 editorial director at St. Martin’s Press, Mr. Fotinos said he is deluged with 154 pitches from authors claiming they’ve written “the new Artist’s Way.” 155 156 “But for Julia, creativity was a tool for survival,” he said. “It was literally 157 her medicine and that’s why the book is so authentic, and resonates with so 158 many people.” 159 160 “I am my tool kits,” Ms. Cameron said. 161 162 And, indeed, “The Artist’s Way” is stuffed with tools: worksheets to be filled 163 with thoughts about money, childhood games, old hurts; wish lists and 164 exercises, many of which seem exhaustive and exhausting — “Write down any 165 resistance, angers and fears,” e.g. — and others that are more practical: “Take 166 a 20 minutes walk,” “Mend any mending” and “repot any pinched and languishing 167 plants.” It anticipates the work of the indefatigable [20]Gretchen Rubin, the 168 happiness maven, if Ms. Rubin were a bit kinder but less Type-A. 169 170 “When I teach, it’s like watching the lights come on,” said Ms. Cameron. “My 171 students don’t get lectured to. I think they feel safe. Rather than try and fix 172 themselves, they learn to accept themselves. I think my work makes people 173 autonomous. I feel like people fall in love with themselves.” 174 175 Anne Lamott, the inspirational writer and novelist, said that when she was 176 teaching writing full-time, her own students swore by “The Artist’s Way.” “That 177 exercise — three pages of automatic writing — was a sacrament for people,” Ms. 178 Lamott wrote in a recent email. “They could plug into something bigger than the 179 rat exercise wheel of self-loathing and grandiosity that every writer 180 experiences: ‘This could very easily end up being an Oprah Book,’ or ‘Who do I 181 think I’m fooling? I’m a subhuman blowhard.’” 182 183 “She’s given you an assignment that is doable, and I think it’s kind of a 184 cognitive centering device. Like scribbly meditation,” Ms. Lamott wrote. “It’s 185 sort of like how manicurists put smooth pebbles in the warm soaking water, so 186 your fingers have something to do, and you don’t climb the walls.” 187 188 Image 189 In the wild.Credit...Ramsay de Give for The New York Times 190 191 Ms. Cameron continues to write her Morning Pages every day, even though she 192 continues, as she said, to be grouchy upon awakening. She eats oatmeal at a 193 local cafe and walks Lily, an eager white Westie. She reads no newspapers, or 194 social media (perhaps the most grueling tenet of “The Artist’s Way” is a week 195 of “reading deprivation”), though an assistant runs a Twitter and Instagram 196 account on her behalf. She writes for hours, mostly musicals, collaborating 197 with her daughter, a film director, and others. 198 199 Ms. Cameron may be a veteran of the modern self-care movement but her life has 200 not been all moonbeams and rainbows, and it shows. She was candid in 201 conversation, if not quite at ease. “So I haven’t proven myself to be 202 hilarious,” she said with a flash of dry humor, adding that even after so many 203 years, she still gets stage-fright before beginning a workshop. 204 205 She has written about her own internal critic, imagining a gay British interior 206 designer she calls Nigel. “And nothing is ever good enough for Nigel,” she 207 said. But she soldiers on. 208 209 She will tell you that she has good boundaries. But like many successful women, 210 she brushes off her achievements, attributing her unlooked-for wins to luck. 211 212 “If you have to learn how to do a movie, you might learn from Martin Scorsese. 213 If you have to learn about entrepreneurship, you might learn from Mark” — her 214 second husband. “So I’m very lucky,” she said. “If I have a hard time blowing 215 my own horn, I’ve been attracted to people who blew it for me.” 216 217 [21]Penelope Green is a reporter for Styles. She has been a reporter for the 218 Home section, editor of Styles of The Times — an early iteration of Styles — 219 and a story editor at the Times magazine. [22]More about Penelope Green 220 221 A version of this article appears in print on , Section ST, Page 1 of the New 222 York edition with the headline: She Guides Your Process. 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