“The Artist’s Way” in an Age of Self-Promotion

In 1989, a director named Julia Cameron débuted her first feature film, “God’s Will,” in Washington, D.C. The movie, a romantic comedy about an orphan, did not receive the kind of rave reviews that Cameron had hoped for. One critic from the Washington Post panned it, accusing Cameron of having ripped off most of her dialogue from “Casablanca.” But for Cameron the scathing review became a tool to reinforce a particular world view: artistic people must learn how to emotionally guard themselves against the tides of negativity—both external and internal.