Nearly twenty years ago, I went to my first writer’s conference. It was a heady event for me, never having gone to one before, but doubly so because I had scored an anniversary event for Inscribe Christian Writers. Some pretty heavy hitters were in the lineup: Janette Oke, Maxine Hancock, Phil Callaway, Linda Hall. And they were all good – I still have my crib notes of their writing advice.

I met many other great people/writers that weekend and one of them (Elaine Froese – I know you’re still out there!) sent me home with a book recommendation that turned out to be life-changing for me.

“Don’t worry about the new age-y parts,” she advised. “Just read it and do what she says.” She, of course, being the Julia Cameron, creativity maven.

“I just finished Week 4,” she said. “I’m heading into the ‘reading deprivation’ assignment – and I’m not going to listen to the the radio or anything when I’m on the combine this week – just to see what happens.” Sounds eerily like a modern-day media fast.

Something about Elaine’s bold endorsement intrigued me and I soon got my hands on my own copy of The Artist’s Way. A personal copy is ideal because trust me, you will mark it up. My book is filled with highlighter, underlines, stars and my scribbled answers to her questions, often dated as I have gone through the book several times, so it’s interesting to see what’s changed and what has stayed the same.

Basically, The Artist’s Way is Cameron’s twelve week (an homage to AA’s 12 Steps?) paradigm-busting, creativity-boosting, writer-unblocking program. But it’s not just for writers or artists: Cameron asserts that everyone would benefit by submitting to the rules and the tools – bankers, hockey players, maybe even the odd prime minister (or president) could find some clarity.

The tools are simple, and yet oh-so-hard to get done: The Morning Pages – vomiting up 3 pages of stream of consciousness writing every morning and: taking your artist on a weekly Artist Date – a field trip for your inner child that will “fill the well”, replenish your head and heart with the images, smells, sounds, tastes and textures necessary to create freely and originally.

I was never a perfect student of The Artist’s Way. I never completed an entire twelve week run of morning pages and I stood up my inner artist more times than I’d like to count. But every page of Cameron’s seminal work has great words, excellent questions, and inspiring quotes – doing your homework even half-fast will reap benefits for your creative freedom, in whatever way you choose to express it.