Big Magic

Big Magic is a book that so many people have sworn by. I FINALLY got around to reading it on a plane ride back from visiting family out of state. Plane rides are great for catching up on reading. I had REALLY mixed feelings about this book. If a lot of people did not swear by it both in the self help community that I have found with the By the Book Facebook community and in the writing community I would not have been able to get through the book.

I felt like Elizabeth Gilbert said some wonderful things about making space for creativity. I loved the concept of embracing curiosity instead of passion. As I am on an ongoing job search that nugget of information was very helpful for me as I deliberate my next steps. I've felt clueless about what my 9-5 passion would be and thinking about things that I am curious about is a better tool for me in guiding my way.

I also loved the discussion of combinatory play. Combinatory play is the act of opening 1 mental channel by dabbling with another channel. The example that was used was Einstein playing violin when he felt stuck on a scientific concept that he was working on. This is an important concept for ANYONE to embrace really. I think of how working on a variety of tasks in any given day actually helps me stay focused. I need a combination of job searching activities, writing activities and healthy living activities to feel sane. And they often inform each other as well into a more informed life.

The other book I read on the plane was You're Never Weird On The Internet. Felica Day talked about her obsession with the World of Warcraft and her journey into making this gaming life into a film. Originally gaming was her break from the acting world. But it helped her find a niche that many people (like myself) love her for.  This was a great example of how what sounded like a side hobby wound up influencing her creative process.

The other thing that Elizabeth Gilbert talks about is embracing courage to create. There was a great discussion that she had on how there are fears that are necessary for our survival and that there fears that hold us back from the creative life. I keep thinking about writing a memoir of my time in the church but the fear of hurting people who I respect who are still  living in a system that I broke away from is very real. While those are not unreasonable things to think through critically if I ever decide to share it with the world I can not let that hold me back from chasing the creative energy to follow through on writing my story.

While there are a lot of great concepts in this book what I struggle with the most is seeing creativity as some kind of mystical force. Much of my personal writing life comes from needing to have a place to process all the information that I take in from the world around me and then shaping it into something. Another major place my ideas come from are in just observing the world that is around me as well and finding ways to capture what I see on the page. I do not think that creativity is necessarily mystical. It would be great if my sense of creativity turned into something great. The act of creating something can sometimes feel mystical. There is a combination of joy and sweetness I find in writing certain pieces that feel like they come from something beyond myself. However this is only a tiny percent of my own creativity.  I do not think someone has to believe in a higher power in order to be a successful creative person. The key is believing in yourself and cultivating behaviors that help with the regular habit of creating. Big Magic offers a lot of  great words of wisdom after I got past the new-age language.   I can see how some people would have difficulties with the new age language would not be able to finish the book.  Sticking with the book in spite of this enabled me to find the gems that I found useful.