46 I WRITER’S DIGEST

I July/August 2011 THE WAY OF PROFILE: JULIA CAMERON “It’s asunny day. WRITER’S BLOCK. FOR THE WALK INTHEPARK. WRITER HASNEVERBEENA WAY ALCOHOLISM. ATURBULENT AUTHOR OF Never start your story with adream; C BY ZACHARY PETIT never start with an alarm clock ring more spanning than 30books various many magazine: quoted very inthis stances, start with the weather. ing; and never, under any circum HOLLYWOOD MARRIAGE. ity guide that’s OK. tion of weather. the To paraphrase became a bestseller; she has written abestseller; became with adescrip ourbegins interview self-published her famous creativ genres, refusing pigeonholed to be going against convention: She first agents and writing teachers galore, Like in her books, Julia inherLike books, Cameron Cameron, 63,has of ahistory She with weather. starts the And old, but sunny.” , THEPATH OFTHE The Artist’s Way THE ARTIST’S , which , which

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PHOTO © MARK STEPHEN KORNBLUTH into any one; she battled mental ill- of many she’d face in her journey to “It was probably perfect,” she says. ness and alcoholism without letting become a writer. Cameron had come “Because if you’re trying to write and her struggles define her; and, despite in as an Italian major, but she wanted you have unlimited time, you can being one of the most lauded, read to switch to English—and when procrastinate an unlimited account, and respected writing and creativ- she consulted one of the people in but if you have limited time, you ity self-help gurus, she’s occasionally charge, she didn’t exactly get the help rush to the page trying to get some- haunted by self-doubt and bur- she was looking for. thing down in the little bit of frag- dened by writer’s block. And, she “Boys become writers,” she recalls ment of time that you have, and you has her detractors—and isn’t entirely being told. “Girls become wives.” may write a great deal that way.” immune to their words. Especially And then there was the time she And so she did. On the recom- bad is her own inner critic, who is so tried to get on the school’s newspaper. mendation of a friend, she got the real to her, she’s named him Nigel. “I remember being asked, ‘Can you subsequent novel into the hands of Cameron’s latest book, The bake cookies?’ ” she says. “I some- Emily Hahn at The New Yorker. Creative Life: True Tales of Inspiration times think that my subsequent, uh, “Emily Hahn sent me back a little is a sort of eclectic diary geared acclaim, if you will, is nothing but a note and said, ‘Divide the number of toward artists of all kinds, document- vendetta at Georgetown: You’ll see. flowers and sunsets by two and pub- ing the ups and downs of a year in I’ll show you.” lish.’ And I thought she was being her working life, and her own adher- So Cameron transferred to very critical, and I was extremely ence to the methods she popularized Fordham in . She embarrassed and I thought, How in 1992’s The Artist’s Way. drank, heavily. She submitted and could I not have realized I was a sen- And, as always, Nigel hated it. published her first pieces—poems— timental fool?” “He attacks each book specifically, and eventually, she found herself Cameron now knows that Hahn personally,” she says. “So when he back at Georgetown. She continued was just being encouraging. But the was attacking The Creative Life, he to drink. One particularly bad night, self-doubt took over, the force of kept saying, ‘The sentences are too she had more than her fair share of surly Nigel, and the novel found its short and stubby, it’s too autobio- Scotch and slit her wrist. Her father way into a drawer, where it’s stayed. graphical, everyone’s going to hate got her a therapist. Cameron told the Still, the girl who’d always longed you if you write this book.’ ” therapist she wanted to be a writer. for a literary life was about to get But she wrote it anyway. “Don’t you think it might be more one. When her parents recovered, And this is perhaps one of the sensible to be a secretary?” he asked. she went back to Washington, D.C., most important things about Julia And so it went. Eventually, around and got a call from The Washington Cameron: None of it stops her. It 21, Cameron got word that her par- Post. They wanted to know if she was never has. ents had suffered simultaneous break- interested in a job opening letters. downs, and she had to step in and “When I went in, my editor said, ‘I J&B on the rocks. Scotch take care of her younger siblings. She hope you don’t think you’re a writer.’ was Cameron’s early drink of choice. went home to Libertyville, and there, And I said, ‘I hope you don’t think And the fact that she had a drink of posted at an Olympia typewriter on I’m a journalist.’ And, uh, turned out choice at all was a tad surprising: a regimen of cheddar cheese, apples we were both right.” She was from Libertyville, a suburb and Scotch—“I don’t recommend this of , and drinking was taboo diet”—she worked on her first novel The Post soon took notice of in her household, something done while assuming the role of caretaker. Cameron’s natural abilities, and she quietly by adults. But Cameron took naturally to alcohol when she was a freshman at . She’d always longed to be a bit of a lit- erary femme fatale, and writing and drinking seemed to go hand in hand. MARK STEPHEN KORNBLUTH MARK Scotch aside, there were other

PHOTO © problems at Georgetown, the first

WritersDigest.com I 47 PROFILE: JULIA CAMERON

found herself writing features for the she says. “They just believed that my Eventually, neither did Cameron. paper, then freelancing for Rolling husband would have too much sway And so, in 1978, she finally quit. Stone and, as things fell into place, over my literary opinions.”) One edi- “Of course the big question was, many other outlets. With her well- tor went so far as to tell Cameron now that I’m sober, can I write?” she received articles, her writing life was that to get hired again, she’d have to says. “And the answer was, fortunately, finally hitting its stride—despite the get divorced. yes, you can. And I was told to try fact that she continued to drink, now So rather than being discour- letting something write through me, downing booze with the likes of aged from writing entirely, Cameron rather than just my ego. Before that I Hunter S. Thompson. shifted her focus and flexed her ver- had always had to have perfect prose. One day, she got what was to satility by writing for Scorsese’s films. But after that I began to relax a little be a life-changing assignment (Cameron and Scorsese also had a bit, and I found that when I did, my from Playboy: Write about a young daughter, Domenica, who is now a prose actually became better; it wasn’t director named , filmmaker.) One of the movies the so tricky.” who’s working on a movie called two collaborated on was New York, The business part of writing, though, Taxi Driver. New York—which starred a young wasn’t as easy; Cameron was becoming She waited for him at the St. Liza Minnelli. Cameron later found frustrated by the difficulties of getting Regis Hotel in New York. She drank Minnelli’s clothes in Scorsese’s closet, her screenplays made. Moving away a double Scotch. He arrived late. and the marriage was over. from her works-in-progress, she began Immediately, the two clicked. The Still, she wrote. Things were unrav- a practice of simply starting each day interview went on for hours. He gave eling, but Cameron says her liter- by writing freely, producing what she her the Taxi Driver script, and she ary friends’ faith in her writing kept called “morning pages.” They would suggested tweaks. It wasn’t long before it going. “It never occurred to me to later become a key element in her they moved in together, and eventu- stop,” she says. “I never wanted to be, seminal book, The Artist’s Way—and ally, they got married during a snow- quote, ‘just a wife.’ I wanted to be Cameron’s fans would come to swear storm in front of the Christmas tree at a writer.” by them. Cameron’s parents’ house. She took her typewriter and “I started writing morning pages “It was wonderful,” she says. “It was a her daughter and set up shop on just to keep my hand in, you know, just because I was a writer and I didn’t know what else to do but write,” she “It was sort of a love letter written says. “And then one day as I was writ- to, I thought, about 10 people ing, a character came sort of strolling in and I realized, Oh my God, I don’t who were my friends, who were have to be just a screenwriter. I can having trouble with blocks.” write novels.” Thus, she embarked upon a new path, practicing what she’d soon be little bit like Christmas in Connecticut, Hollywood Boulevard. She returned to preaching by the millions of copies. sort of a Bing Crosby moment.” journalism, and continued to work on After all, it was working for her. But the moment soon ended. She scripts, as well. Assignments began to moved to L.A. with Scorsese, made roll in from those editors who’d prom- Cameron didn’t submit the some famous friends, including ised them in the event of her divorce. book anywhere. Instead, she and a Andy Warhol, and her drinking and Still, there was the drinking. Cameron partner began photocopying pages, burgeoning drug use intensified deems her denial of her alcoholism which they then three-hole punched with the Hollywood circle. Her new “impeccable”—though, she notes, other and bound, and sold for $20. associations didn’t help her career people were well aware of the problem. Her teaching destiny had started one bit—in fact, magazine editors She says Scorsese had likened her to simply and humbly enough: After began to tell Cameron they couldn’t the woman in The Razor’s Edge who she’d helped herself rediscover her hire her because it would be a con- dies of alcoholism—and he didn’t want creativity, someone sent a blocked flict of interest. (“Rampant sexism,” it to be her. writer her way. She helped him. Then,

48 I WRITER’S DIGEST I July/August 2011 she helped a painter using the same Cameron has created a body of work ings: Self-censors can be wrong. Just like techniques. Eventually, she started that includes books of poetry, more Nigel was about The Creative Life. “He teaching classes, helping everyone than 20 nonfiction books (ranging was convinced it was a bad book and a from writers to filmmakers. Word from other creativity guides to books bad idea,” she says. “And yet when peo- spread. And people started asking her of prayers), plays, novels, musicals and ple have read the book they say, ‘Oh I to write it down. even an episode of “Miami Vice.” loved this book, I read it in one gulp.’ ” “It was sort of a love letter written She admits she does feel at times as Overall, Nigel be damned, perhaps to, I thought, about 10 people who if The Artist’s Way overshadows some what makes Cameron’s work so strong were my friends, who were having of that other work—such as her novel is that she’s a living example of the very trouble with blocks,” she says. But Mozart’s Ghost, which, as she recalls theories she espouses. Again, she may eventually, “We would get letters like, in The Creative Life, was rejected more be a writing guru, but she’s also one of ‘I am from the State Department than 40 times before being published the rest of us: A person with a blank in Switzerland; we hear you have in 2008. “I think it was really good, page, occasionally haunted by self- a book, and could I see it?’ And I and I think people tend to be sur- doubt, adversity, writer’s block, per- would think, Oh, that poor bastard prised that I can actually do what I sonal demons. And she continues to working for the State Department, we teach,” she says. “You wonder if the pursue the artist within her—regard- better send him a book.” book wouldn’t have done better if it less of how far it may drift. Since being picked up by Tarcher had been by an unknown author.” “I have great respect for it, no mat- in 1992, that book, The Artist’s Way, Concerning all those rejections, ter what she puts out,” says Natalie has sold more than 2 million copies. Cameron says writers should never be Goldberg, Cameron’s longtime friend The guide and its philosophy of using discouraged by the odds, and that the who rose to fame in writing circles stream-of-conscious writing to unlock important thing is to try. with her own guides, Writing Down creativity have spawned innumerable “My work unblocks people and then the Bones and Wild Mind. “And that’s groups and classes that practice its I look at the work that they do and what a writer needs to do: If she’s lessons, from New York to the jungle I think, My God, how could they not going through a hard time, a good of Panama. People still come up to have known they were talented? How time, she still writes.” Cameron with books and the fruits of could they not have known?” Cameron seems to just some- other creative labors made using her how make it all work. Like, on a rediscover-your-artistic-potential-in- Maybe because of people like much simpler level, starting her 12-weeks technique. Nigel. The Nigel who hated Cameron’s books with the weather. For which All told, Cameron is not surprised latest book, and the Nigel who likely she has her reasons. that the small text she made in a base- has some choice words about most “I always start everything with the ment proceeded to take on a life of its things she writes. weather, because the weather is the own—and she even quotes her version She recently moved to Santa Fe first thing that I notice when I wake of the Field of Dreams maxim: “Build from New York, and is both teach- up in the morning,” she says. “And it, and they will come.” ing and working on a new book for [now] I think I’ll probably write a lot “I was so focused on the fact that it Putnam, though she won’t reveal what about birds. My new house has a deck was medicine,” she says. “That would it is—“If you talk about a book too that wraps around my writing room; be sort of like saying, ‘Penicillin took much, you don’t write it.” my writing room has many windows, off as a vaccine because it was needed.’ But naturally, Nigel has a few and outside the windows I’ve hung And The Artist’s Waywas needed.” thoughts on it. “Nigel is so present,” she bird feeders … for enticing different The book was so much of a hit, says with a laugh. “I wrote 40 pages species. So I imagine I will be writing there’s no getting around the fact that Nigel thought were terrible, then about that.” that today, when people think Julia I moved here, and I went back to the And you know what? She’ll prob- Cameron, they think Artist’s Way— 40 pages thinking I was going to find ably make it work, too. even though its publication was far them terrible, and they were fine. You No matter what Nigel says. WD from the end of what would become know, Nigel just has to get his licks in.” an expansive career. In addition to And that’s another key element ZACHARY PETIT (zacharypetit.com) is the writing films (and even directing one), Cameron suggests in her various writ- managing editor of Writer’s Digest.

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