Cameron has done a phenomenal job with this book. It is definitely time consuming to go through all of the activities, but what in life is worthy that doesn't take some effort? It helps you to find your passion and bring out your creative side. It's a great complement to Pearls of Wellness (Pearls of Wellness 52 Inspirations to Achieve a Peaceful Body, Mind, and Spirit).

Exactly what I was looking for when Borders didn't have it in stock! ANd for a lot less money!

I first bought The Artist's Way a few years ago as part of a creative writing class, and came back to it recently. I'm in week 11, and it's changed my life so much! Every week provides exercises, which along with the morning pages, are meant to mine out some important insights as to why you're stuck as an artist, or to help you do more things for yourself. If you don't have any sort of block, long-term or short-term, then it probably is not the book for you. The book could be divided into three important parts: morning pages, artist dates, and essays. The essays are pretty helpful to read, generally well-written but sometimes a bit on the New Age side. An artist date is just taking yourself somewhere or doing something without interruption from anyone else, to do something fun. Morning pages, as nearly everyone has already said, consist of three pages written in a notebook every morning. They are about the most helpful facet, but I still recommend getting the book. Remember though, it doesn't actually have anything to do with any technical or historical aspects of art. Just more of a preliminary step before creation, for people that feel too shy or ashamed or something.
Somewhere at the beginning, you'll list changes that could happen in your life, things you always wanted to do, ways you could be nicer to yourself. By the end, you'll have done them. I swear I've gotten better at nearly everything. I can play guitar better, my voice can hit high notes clearer, I've improved at drawing and I go more places. I can't pick out a single flaw in this book. Others may find something bad to say, but personally I think it all works.

I borrowed the original from a friend and worked with it a couple of years ago. I bought the tenth anniversary edition because this year I was determined to get beyond my midlife crisis and I couldn't find this book in the library. Of course I saw the related titles in Amazon.com, and looked them up. I kind of wish Amazon and other online stores had a discreet way of indicating the order of the titles in a series. I immediately gravitated to Vein of Gold, and started to use it, but now I am in a class that is based on Walking This World. I can't do both at the same time, so I'm concentrating on the class. Artist's Way is an excellent introduction.

I can't even explain how much change I've made in my life since reading this book. Julia Cameron says things that every artist wants to hear. The main things I've taken from this book are Morning Pages, Artist Dates and going on walks - those three simple things have totally centered me. I wasn't even necessarily diligent with all the other worksheets.

Even if you don't care to increase your creativity, it will help anyone to live life!