The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life [Mass Market Paperback]

Julia Cameron (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 27, 1999

What if everything we have been taught about learning to write was wrong? In The Right to Write, Julia Cameron's most revolutionary book, the author asserts that conventional writing wisdom would have you believe in a false doctrine that stifles creativity. With the techniques and anecdotes in The Right to Write, readers learn to make writing a natural, intensely personal part of life. Cameron's instruction and examples include the details of the writing processes she uses to create her own bestselling books. She makes writing a playful and realistic as well as a reflective event. Anyone jumping into the writing life for the first time and those already living it will discover the art of writing is never the same after reading The Right to Write.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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 an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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 an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 236 pages
• Publisher: Tarcher; Reprint edition (December 27, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585420093
• ISBN-13: 978-1585420094
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (78 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,041 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #59 in Books > Self-Help > Creativity

More About the Author

Julia Cameron has been an active artist for more than thirty years. She is the author of twenty-eight books, fiction and nonfiction, including her bestselling works on the creative process: The Artist's Way, Walking in This World, Finding Water, and The Writing Diet. A novelist, playwright, songwriter, and poet, she has multiple credits in theater, film, and television.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rx For Writers, November 23, 2005

By 

L. Shirley "Laurie's Boomer Views" (Huntington Beach,CA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life (Mass Market Paperback)

"The Right To Write" by Julia Cameron, took me a while to get through it. Not because it was boring or a slow read, but it is not the type of book you might want to read straight through. It is a book, any writer should pick up and read whenever a little motivation or inspiration is in order. Julia Cameron seems to find just the right words to get you going in the right, or should I say 'write' direction.

The book, subtitled, 'An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life' is just that. Cameron covers over 40 topics that the writer may need help working on or through. Each topic begins with an "invitation", where she discusses either her own personal experiences with the subject, or others in her life. What she writes, seems like she was reading your mind. Covering topics from finding the right time, or just finding time to write, to place of writing, your fears("I'm not good enough", etc), Honesty, Moods, Valuing our Experiences,Procrastination and many more. The reader(writer), will be able to identify with many of the concerns being voiced.

The second part of each topic is an "initiation" into writing. Ms. Cameron gives great tools to help your creative juices flow, and to get past the problems in your head. Sometimes it may be making lists pertaining to the topic, it may be setting aside a certain amount of time to write, or to do something out of the ordinary, or it could be writing yourself a letter. All excellent exercises for the writing mind. She really gets you to put pen to paper(or fingers to the keyboard), and get the words flowing.

Julia Cameron imparts her wisdom and experience, and her love of writing to all writers,The wisdom and experience are gifts to you, and the love is absolutely contagious. Whether you write in hopes of getting published, to preserve your thoughts, or just because it seems the natural thing to do, you will find this book, a wonderful "go to" tool, whenever a little help getting going is needed.

A nice addition to ANY writer's library. A Prescription for what ever ails the writer in you!
Enjoy....Laurie

also recommended:
On Writing

The Spirit of Writing: Classic and Contemporary Essays Celebrating the Writing Life (New Consciousness Reader)

Senior Citizens Writing: A Workshop and Anthology, with an Introduction and Guide for Workshop Leaders

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Write On, July 9, 2001

By 

C. Fletcher (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life (Mass Market Paperback)

Just keep doing it, even when you don't feel like doing it, or when you don't think you have anything worthwhile to say. You'll stop thinking of writing as some mystical activity that can only be done in a dreamlike state. Writing will become a commonplace activity that you can do without any undue anxiety.

That's what Julia Cameron wants you to realize about writing--that it can be a daily activity, like brushing your teeth, or taking a bath, somethinig that you just do. I've spent a good portion of my life wanting to be a writer, but not writing. When I was a kid, I wrote stories all the time, and didn't care how good they were. Then one day I grew up and became self-conscious, and the flow of writing stopped.

For the last fourteen years, I've kept myself pretty busy thinking of one thing after another to do instead of writing. I've made mix tapes, I've cleaned my room, I've gone shopping, spent time with friends, gone on walks, listened to music, and when I was feeling adventurous, even thought about writing, but I've done very little actual writing.

Last year, I read Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way" and found it very inspiring. As with this book, you can't read a chapter without feeling a charge of life-force.

I think my icy self-critic is finally starting to melt some. I didn't want to come to the computer this morning and write this review, but I did it anyway, and it wasn't so bad. Before reading Julia Cameron's books, I would have sat paralyzed at the keyboard, spending forty-five minutes on the first sentence. I've now spent about ten minutes writing the whole review so far.

I think it's a good thing, as Julia Cameron suggests in this book, to think of writing as just another component of life. You don't judge yourself on how well you sleep each night. You just do it, night after night. Some nights you sleep fitfully, tossing and turning. But then then there are other nights when you have the most beautiful dreams. It's the same way with writing. There's a flow to it, like the flow of life, that you shouldn't try to control. You should just get yourself there everyday, so you're there to experience those beautiful dreams when they come.

49 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good place to start, September 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The 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?"