Introducing The Creative Kingdom Book Club
everything you need to know if you want to read (and write!) along with me in 2025
I am reclaiming my writing life in 2025. It hasn’t been a priority for me since maybe 2020? That bums me out and I’m ready to make a change. I don’t do well with nebulous goals and intentions, and in searching for something to scaffold my creative practice this year, I thought about the queen of creativity herself, Julia Cameron. Spending an entire year with her, and chronicling it here, feels very appropriate because it was after working through The Artist’s Way in 2019 that I started this newsletter.
This year, I will be reading and working through several of Cameron’s titles, including four of her 6-week programs. I am hoping others will want to join for all of part of this! I know doing this work in community makes it more enjoyable.
What’s the schedule?
We’ll begin the year with one of Cameron’s 6-week Artist’s Way Programs, Write for Life: Creative Tools for Every Writer. In March, we will move on to Seeking Wisdom: A Spiritual Path to Creative Connection.
For the summer months (May through July), we’ll mix it up a bit by completing the exercises in Supplies: A Troubleshooting Guide for Creative Difficulties and reading/listening to a handful of Cameron’s other titles about the creative life:
The Writing Life: Ideas and Inspiration for Anyone Who Wants to Write (with Natalie Goldberg)
Floor Sample: A Creative Memoir
Letters to a Young Artist: Building a Life in Art
How to Avoid Making Art (or anything else you enjoy)
The Sound of Creativity (with Tim Wheater)
Unlocking Your Creativity
The Creative Life: True Tales of Inspiration
We’ll take the month of August off, before ending the year with two more 6-week Artist’s Way Programs— The Listening Path: The Creative Art of Attention in September/ October, and Living the Artist’s Way: An Intuitive Path to Greater Creativity in November/December.
Why not start with The Artist’s Way?
Because I’ve done it all the way through once and have made a few more half-attempts. I’m bored with the content and want to explore more of Cameron’s work. They all stand alone so you absolutely do not have to have done TAW to benefit from any of her other titles. I also liked the idea of shorter sprints so others would have the opportunity to join in more frequently, versus choosing a 12-week program.
Okay, so what do I have to do?
Cameron’s programs all center around her basic tools: Morning Pages (3 pages, longhand, stream of consciousness, written first thing in the morning), and Artist Dates (a weekly outing). She sometimes adds in additional tools; in Write for Life, the reader is asked to commit to a daily writing quota (in addition to morning pages). In others, she prescribes weekly walks.
Each chapter is one week of the program and includes short essays on living a creative life, as well as tasks to complete, and ends with a weekly check in.
We will kick things off with Write for Life the week of January 5th. I’ll post my first weekly check-in on January 13th; if you’re reading along with me, you can post your check-in any day that week (you don’t necessarily need to start the same day I do).
I’m not hosting any live events connected with the book club because I’ve finally accepted that I don’t love zoom hang outs!
You’ll need a copy of whatever book we’re currently reading and a way to write morning pages. I’ve found that Cameron’s books don’t translate well to e-book, so get a print copy if you can!
Do I really have to write three pages every morning?
Short answer: yes.
Morning Pages are pretty foundational to Cameron’s programs and I can certainly see some accessibility issues with some of her prescriptions. I can already tell you that I will likely struggle to get back in the habit of writing Morning Pages, especially first thing in the morning. I have young children that typically wake at the crack of dawn, and they don’t have the habit of letting me accomplish any task first thing in the morning, let alone write three pages in a notebook. That said, if you do find a way to make it work for you, I think you’ll find it valuable.
Personally, I am going to do my best to remember that sometimes doing things imperfectly is better than not doing them at all.
How do I sign up?
Click the button below, if you’re not already a subscriber. The weekly posts will land in your e-mail and/or your Substack feed.
I’ve decided to keep this round of the Creative Kingdom Book Club free and accessible to all. If you want to financially support my work (thanks so much!), you can buy me a coffee or set up a paid subscription to The Workbooks (which comes with some other cool perks, like snail mail!).
If you’re planning to join me for all or part of this, let me know in the comments which book you’re most interested in reading!
Oohh this sounds fab. And I’m here for the shorter sprints too. This reminds me of a post I wrote earlier year about TAW too; by also talking about making it accessible to parents/carers/non able-bodied folk/people who may want to adapt it to take longer than the 12 weeks etc.
I love TAW (I haven’t completed the full 12 weeks 🫣) but have adopted morning pages. Since being poorly, I have adapted the artists dates to suit my energy levels. I like your straightforwardness though…I actually LOL because I think I’m bored with just talking about TAW too but I’m keen to explore more of her work!
I’m going to follow along with you this year! I already have a lot of Julia Cameron-ish routines in place in my life but Ive never really gone in depth on any of the actual programs if that makes sense. I just ordered Write for Life!