One of the best ways to improve your writing is to read the work of fine writers. This reading can give you fresh insight into writing style, writing technique and a general philosophy of writing. I just finished reading Floor Sample , Julia Cameron’s hot new memoir and gained new insight in each of these areas. Julia is a novelist, playwright, songwriter and poet, and author of the best-seller, The Artist’s Way , the premier work on freeing the creative process in any mode. She is a fine writer indeed, and her story stirs my own creative juices. In a comment on the inside cover, Sophy Burnham writes, “Courageous! An unflinching view of drugs, drunkenness, marriages, madness and the redemptive power of the creative spirit.” When I finished reading the memoir, I thought of this comment. Yes, it is courageous and unflinching. She neither ducks issues like guilt, addictive denial, psychotic episodes, and flights of artistic inspiration, nor does she wallow in any of this. She records it, ...