Trusssst me, I'm a creative writing teacher

The first book to be plucked from the How to Write shelf is Julia Cameron's well-known volume, The Artist's Way.  I've looked at this before and decided to try it first because it isn't about the nuts and bolts of writing, but about the more fundamental issue of creativity.  I'd like to write but frankly I don't consider myself very creative.  Can Julia Cameron's years of teaching creativity help me?

Well, The Artist's Way is a very dangerous book for a self-help book junkie like me.  In fact, it probably should be a controlled substance.  Julia Cameron coils herself seductively into the long grass and tells me in sibilant phrases that we are all creative and that all I need is "the simple process of engaging the Great Creator in discovering and recovering [my] creative powers."  Sorted.   Well, apart from this Great Creator, who I don't much like the sound of, but she urges me to be open minded about him/it/her/them.  In a definitions section worthy of a corporate takeover document, she proposes to call this power 'God' which term may, where the context admits, include 'good orderly direction', 'flow', 'Goddess', 'Mind', 'Universe' ' Source' and 'Higher Power'.  So, it seems that all I need is to get the universe to do my writing for me. She also promises miracles, transformations and enlightenment and that is just the introduction.

Already, though, her book is raising the classic conflict in my mind.  I desperately want to believe her (and all those other tantalising books that promise transformation and change) and will happily lap it all up.  And yet my analytical lawyer-brain is already shredding her hopeful platitudes and hopeless non-sequiturs and adopting a safely ironic stance of disbelief (and refusal to give up control to anything remotely resembling a 'good orderly flow').  And what I love/hate about self-help books is their implicit answer to this critical scrutiny: it won't work if you don't believe in it.  Let's call it the Tinkerbell Syndrome.

So, the first challenge with The Artist's Way, for me, is to see if the willing suspension of disbelief will be sufficient substitute for belief. 

Comments

[Stefanie]

I got sucked in to a large group of coworkers who were doing The Artist's Way At Work a few years back. I hated it. I find Natalie Goldberg to be much better on the creativity front when it comes to writing. She's got the spiritual aspect without being touchy-feely.

[Stefanie]

I got sucked in to a large group of coworkers who were doing The Artist's Way At Work a few years back. I hated it. I find Natalie Goldberg to be much better on the creativity front when it comes to writing. She's got the spiritual aspect without being touchy-feely. I will be looking forward to finding out whether you are able to suspend your disbelief :)

[Emily]

I hope you've got Brenda Ueland's If You Want to Write on that bookshelf. I haven't read The Artist's Way, but Ueland doesn't require suspension of disbelief. Oh, and by the way, I don't think someone who can already write "Julia Cameron coils herself seductively into the long grass and tells me in sibilant phrases that we are all creative..." need bother finishing the book. It's sort of like reading how to add and subtract when you're already doing calculus.

[Dewey]

Oh, I LOVE The Artist's Way! I was just thinking I should start doing morning pages again.

[Dewey]

Though I had problems with the God bits, too.

[Maria]

I second the endorsement of Brenda Ueland's "If You Want to Write." I find Ueland not only inspires me to write but-gulp-makes me want to try to be a better person too.

[caroline]

i love the artist's way also. i ran a group with it and the results that came for everyone were amazing. i do think it helps to have a friend to share the experience with. and the mother of all books on creativity has to be carol lloyd's creating a life worth living. it is really a gift to read and has real practical suggestions that really make a difference.

[Sandra]

People, you are so far ahead of me! So I have used an Amazon voucher for the Ueland (pub 1938??) and, because Stefanie is usually right, Goldberg (Writing Down the Bones). And I have set my alarm clock. This goes far beyond the willing suspension of disbelief and into the realms of fantasty because I do not function as a human being before 11am and never, never have done. But, hey, the lady with the forked tongue said it was the thing to do!

Do not expect me to enjoy Morning Pages. Oh, no.

[Quillhill]

And now you have a book of your own to write: The Tinkerbell Syndrome, or How to Reconcile Your Love/Hate Relationship with Self-Help Books.

[Brad]

Sandra,
I just read through a bunch of your posts, and I have a suggestion- put away all the books on writing and just write. Your writing is already interesting and you have developed your own style- you don't need help.

Go back and read your post on March 7th about getting hung up in reading about reading without actually reading. Now that you have made a committment to try writing, it would be a shame for you to get hung up in reading a lot about writing and how to do it, instead of just doing it.

I certainly have no credentials that gives my opinion any value, but I am looking forward to your success. I hope it is also fun for you. Thanks for sharing this experience with us!

[Sandra]

Quilhill, just remember it's The Tinkerbell Syndrome TM, ok ;)

Brad, you're kind. I did look back on that post and it's an interesting illustration for me. When I wrote it I was very puffed up and pleased about it. It then got crucified by more rigorous thinkers and I had to do a lot of work not to make myself look like a complete anti-intellectual idiot. Re-reading it six weeks later, I wince at it's facetious 'pleased-with-itself' tone. And yet, some phrases still work.

I hope that reading about writing will not get me hung up on the process. I've wanted to write for years but been too damn lazy to start. Many, many novels have I written on the train in to work. The fact that they're nowhere to be found in the real world makes it hard to assess my achievements to date! So, the plan is to try and use the books as a framework, to work through them and actually get something down on paper in the process as opposed to it all evaporating when I hand my ticket in at the barrier.

[JCR]

You might want to check out Natalie Goldberg's "Writing Down the Bones." Good volume on the topic.