The Sound of Paper: Starting from Scratch

by Julia Cameron

Paperback, 2005

Status

Available

Call number

153.35

Publication

Penguin/Tarcher (2005), Edition: 1st, 315 pages

Description

The bestselling author of The Artist's Way draws on her many years of personal experience as both a writer and a teacher to uncover the difficult soul work that artists must do to find inspiration.   In The Sound of Paper, Julia Cameron delves deep into the heart of the personal struggles that all artists experience. What can we do when we face our keyboard or canvas with nothing but a cold emptiness? How can we begin to carve out our creation when our vision and drive are clouded by life's uncertainties? In other words, how can we begin the difficult work of being an artist? In this inspiring book, Cameron describes a process of constant renewal, of starting from the beginning.  She writes, "When we are building a life from scratch, we must dig a little. We must be like that hen scratching beneath the soil. 'What goodness is hidden here, just below the surface?' we must ask."   With personal essays accompanied by exercises designed to develop the power to infuse one's art with a deeply informed knowledge of the soul, this book is an essential artist's companion from one of the foremost authorities on the creative process. Cameron's most illuminating book to date, The Sound of Paper provides readers with a spiritual path for creating the best work of their lives.  … (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member nicolevl
I've just finished Julia Cameron's The Sound of Paper a book I started a year ago. It is a series of three to four page essays on the creative life each focused on a particular topic with a suggested exercise for personal reinforcement. The duration of the reading was attributed to the manner by
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which I read the book. For me the book was best read in segments over time.To get the fullest value I read no more then one apter per day. Other times the book might sit unread for weeks. This allowed me to contemplate, experience and apply the subject matter gaining more value then if I had read it straight through. Because of how the book was written I could always pick up right where I had left off and feel at home even after an extended absence. On the one or two occasions where I read sections more continuously I did not find it as enjoyable or valuable an experience. But that's just me. Although the topics at times seemed to me simple or obvious, it is often that which is right in front of us which we
fail to see. If one is open minded and allows the book to unwind at it's own pace, it may bring to light some important insights which we fail to see or simply forgot. Having completed this journey I feel satisfied and already prepared to return to the beginning and start again with this or
possibly another one of Cameron's books in a similar vain. As I am quite probably one of the last people on earth to not have read The Artist's Way, I may go that route.
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LibraryThing member debnance
Appropriate title. About all I got out of this book was hearing the sound of paper as I turned pages. The author talks and talks about how to write, even though you have nothing to say. That's fine, but do you have to publish it when you have nothing to say?

Language

Original language

English

Physical description

8.24 inches

ISBN

1585423548 / 9781585423545
Page: 0.1305 seconds