Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

“Are you considering being a creative person? Too late, you already are one,” Gilbert asserts. In Big Magic, living a creative life means living a life driven by curiosity over fear and this life is accessible to all who seek it. She breaks down creativity into five essential ingredients: courage, enchantment, permission, persistence, and trust. Whether readers believe in a magical world or not, her description of ideas, why they choose us, and when and why they leave is inspiring to no end and her roadmap through the twists, turns, and potential pitfalls of creativity are applicable to all who dare to venture on their own creative journey. Gilbert tackles our biggest creative fears and inner demons head-on with delicious humor, wit, and grace. She allows fear a spacious spot in the car on our creative road trip, but never allows it to give us directions and certainly not take the driver’s seat. Time and again, she effectively and effortlessly silences our inner critic on such universal experiences as: worrying about what others think of us and our creations, bowing to perfectionism instead of completion, evaluating our art as low or high, as brilliant or a disaster, the struggle to declare ourselves worthy of living a creative life, the desire to be fearless or passionate when all we need is courage and curiosity, and much more. She also explores various paradoxes of creativity: the desire for permission and the fact that we never needed it to begin with, that creativity takes persistent hard work on our part and also moments of divine inspiration that come from something else entirely, that no creation is entirely original and yet authentic expressions are always original, and the ultimate paradox: that our creative expression must be the most important thing in the world and it also must not matter at all. Written in easy to digest, bite-size chapters, readers will feel as if they’re chatting over a glass of wine with their amusing and insightful bestie, Liz, as she masterfully weaves together numerous stories from her personal and professional life with hard-earned creative wisdom, always with an endearing self-awareness that at times borders on self-deprecation, and with a charm that is nearly flirtatious. The lessons are so powerful and relatable that if one were to learn this much about their creative life in a year of therapy, they could consider it a great investment. Big Magic ultimately provides readers with the necessary courage and inspiration to live bigger, happier, and more interesting lives, coaxing out of us our own unique hidden treasures. -- Lisa Blair, MA

Loved this book. Inspirational and got me out of my comfort zone!

Q: What is creativity? A: The relationship between a human being and the mysteries of the universe. Thus proclaims the epigraph of Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear. Immediately, the reader is invited into a space not only for practical help and encouragement but also for playful exploration of Gilbert's creative mythos. Still, the book grounds itself in reality as much as mysticism, and with each essay she reminds us of the eternal paradox of creative living: that creativity means nothing, but it also means everything. In Gilbert's mythology, ideas--as literal spiritual manifestation--seek those of us who would be willing to listen to them, and then urge us onward to bring them into the world through our own creative energies. It is up to us whether we would accept that urging. The overall sentiment reads a bit like the description of classical muses without the necessity of religious dogma. Unsurprisingly, this collection of interrelated essays reads more as spiritual text than it does as a management or self-help manual (although a reader may find plenty of help within its pages). Gilbert's gift for parables shines in each of the essays in the collection. She intersperses poetic tributes to Ideas and Inspiration with down-to-earth stories about failure and success and about letting oneself go in service of a higher creative power. Within these stories she weaves a framework of creative morality by which she encourages all people to live. Mysticism aside, Gilbert's storytelling and energetic recasting of long-recited platitudes into a distinctly playful mold make for entertaining reading. For instance, Gilbert often waxes poetically on serving creativity solely for itself, and on using it as a source of joy rather than misery. One of my favorite moments comes in the essay "Have an Affair," in which she suggests sneaking off with your creativity in the middle of the workday as you would to engage in an illicit rendezvous. (I have every intention of taking her advice and dressing myself up for just such an affair in the near future.) Yet right on the heels of Gilbert's playful but spiritually-meaningful revelry comes a healthy dose of cynicism. She defines creativity as a mystical and magical process through which inspiration becomes manifest in the world, but reminds her readers that, at the end of the day, what is brought forth may be worth nothing more than the experiences you learn making it. She warns against spending excessive time or money on formal education and dismisses them as an often injudicious quest for validation of our own creativity. The artistic life, she argues, is one far more likely to bring poverty than riches. She discourages incurring unnecessary (and oftentimes useless) debt in the name of a career that may never fully blossom. She likewise reminds her readers that she herself continued working full-time at a variety of jobs before the bestseller Eat, Pray, Love became a hugely successful phenomenon. In some ways I feel as if Gilbert is my long lost evil twin: while I'm a skeptic and a cynic who desperately wants to believe in magic, she has the heart of the truest believer while keeping a foothold on the realities of artistic struggle. (Perhaps then I am the evil one.) Though the book did not enthrall me to the point of racing from the beginning to the end, the end of each essay left me afraid to put the book away, lest I miss another one of Aunt Elizabeth's wonderful and wonder-filled stories. At the very least, Gilbert reminds all of us that creativity is more a work of heart and of soul than of intellect, and that it should always be an act of play rather than a source of struggle. She argues that the path of the miserable alcoholic artist as a romantic image needs to be swept away. Instead, we must engage with our creativity the way you might a friendly sprite in the darkest of nights. You sneak away with it to do something fun, wonderful, even magical, and when it fills your soul no more you set it free. In many ways, this book says nothing that we haven't heard before. Creativity is for everyone. Anyone can be an artist, but not everyone should make it a career. Hard work and diligence are as important as inspiration. Be creative for yourself and not for anyone else. But no matter how many times we've heard these stories, we've not yet heard Gilbert tell them, and for that reason alone the book is worth the read. Her mission, as she herself states it, is to remind us that we need no one's permission to live a creative life. We just have to have the courage to live it.

This book was such a nice change from the other ones I was reading. I found this uplifting, and inspiring. It has given me A new perspective on my own creativity and how I interact with it.

A great read

Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert was not exactly what I was expecting when I purchased the Kindle version on the day of its release. I have been a huge fan of Ms. Gilbert since Eat, Pray, Love and have devoured all of her books up to and including The Signature of All Things that I purchased a signed copy of. This is how much I adore the author. I feel that she speaks volumes to me through her writing and have learned so much about life and myself from her words. When I started reading Big Magic, I was excited after waiting for months following all of the hype on her Facebook page and website. I was thrilled to get it on the day of its release. After the first few pages, though, I was disenchanted and rather disappointed. I am not sure why, but the words in the first chapters did not immediately resonate with me and I, hesitantly and unceremoniously, returned the book for a refund. I know, I know, this is a sin and unheard of for a true fan of this wonderful author to return her book. Then something MAGICAL happened. Seriously, folks, I cannot make this stuff up ... Amazon normally removes the title and its contents from my device when I return an e-book. When I went to sync my Kindle application, Big Magic was still on it. My conscience (or something bigger than myself?) kept prompting me to read the book and give it one more chance. I kept telling myself that it just wasn't going to get better and to not bother... After a few days, I relented to this continually nagging voice and started reading the book where I had left off a few days earlier. Mind you, I had already received a refund on the book and certainly was going to have Amazon manually remove it from my digital orders if I still could not get into the book with giving it a second look. I kept reading past the first few chapters and before I knew it, I had read over half of the book - ingesting every word, every sentence and every paragraph. I lost some sleep last night reading it into the wee hours of the morning. After reading over half the book and realizing that Amazon was not auto-magically removing it from my device, I went back and re-purchased the book. Because, 1) that was absolutely the right thing to do - to pay for a book that I was, indeed, reading and 2) since I am an author as well, I know how difficult it is to release a book and get returns and/or negative reviews when you work your heart out on a new release - so repurchasing it was a no-brainer for me. I am a person who has a difficult time with being creative or allowing creativity to flow within me and Big Magic opened my eyes to the creative process (or at least the author's creative process) of writing. I struggle with giving myself permission to take the time to write and also with giving myself permission to fail. The chapter on perfectionism is a gold-mine of information and truly spoke directly to me. The other analogies and lessons in the book are geared towards writers, artists and the like, but can easily be applied to any occupation in life. The key is to apply these principles in everything that you attempt in life and watch the results turn into positive experiences. The biggest realization from the book is that all of us are creators or makers, no matter what our occupations are and we need to own whatever it is in life that makes us who we are. I see now how this makes a difference in my own life. I have to whole-heartedly say that I was completely WRONG about the book after reading the first few pages and am so glad that the Universe tugged at me to try the book again. I am happy that I did go back a second time as the words finally resonated with me even after my initial resistance to them. Big Magic was working Big Time and I am thankful that I listened! Thank you Ms. Gilbert for writing Big Magic!

A book that is written like you are talking to a friend who has lots of interesting stories to tell about how magic is within you. Magic as something that propels us into what is important to our life. Magic just needs to be noticed. How persistence and staying in your own lane (no comparisons) will bring what is truly meaningful to you. Writing started strong (didn’t want to put down) and then got repetitive and too full of stories. I felt like I could’ve read the last few pages of each section and gotten the point.Was good for book club because everyone had different perspectives on the material. Had I read alone would have just thought it was just an okay read.

Honestly, there's nothing revolutionary in this book as far as what Gilbert is saying. She hasn't found some magical new formula for unlocking your creativity. Instead, what she has done is create a dialog, as if you were sitting down to coffee with a friend and confessing that you really wanted to be creative but... Gilbert deals with the variety of things that could follow that "but", and she pulls apart each and every one. Will everyone appreciate this book? Probably not. Gilbert does slay some pretty sacred cows, including the notion of the "tortured" artist, but I think she makes a very compelling case for all the cows she slays. The bottom line of this book, really, is do you want to be a creative person because you want the sense of accomplishment and transcendence that creativity can inspire, or do you want to be a creative person because you're hoping to make millions and be lauded by the masses? If it's the second, Gilbert basically tells you that you need not apply, and I agree with her. Creativity may pay off monetarily or in the form of social approbation, or it may not, but if all you really want is to create, who cares? Gilbert holds up all the fears that commonly hold people back and says, "So what?" While I'm not a religious person, I got where she was going by likening creativity to a sort of religious calling. As she says, she doesn't advocate for people moving out to a mountain and living a life of solitary devotion to creativity--unless that's your thing, in which case you should do it. Instead, she's advocating for creativity as a form of not just self-expression, but as a way for people to make something beautiful solely for the sake of making something beautiful. As she says, it's both essential and non-essential. At heart, I think that's what makes us human: that we create things that aren't necessary merely because we like the look of them, or the sound of them, or the taste of them, or the way they feel when we wear them. It's in the act of creating--even if our creation is bad or misunderstood or unloved--that we are able to get outside of our own heads for a bit. We can forget about our mundane worries and struggles and we can experience moments of pure joy. Not that she's saying that all this can come about without some fear and struggle and some sense of pain. What she advises is that we learn to live with these things without allowing them to control us. I know this seems simplistic, but she does such a great job of laying out how to avoid being controlled by your fears. What she's revealing here is that what holds most people back is themselves. What does it matter if people dismiss your creativity or think you're strange? The best kind of creativity, Gilbert says, is the kind that's done entirely because *you* want to do it, not because you're trying to appeal to the masses. The Big Magic, really, is experiencing the joys of creativity for yourself and not for some nebulous, unknown consumer market. If you're fortunate, the market may follow. If not, it won't. Either way, you'll have created something and will have the pride of knowing that it's yours. And when you're done, you'll let it loose, acknowledge that it may not be perfect, and go on to make something else. You can do all this with a sense of awe that you're doing something that fulfills a need deep within yourself. It won't feed you or clothe you or put a roof over your head (unless your creative outlet is something like farming or weaving or carpentry, in which case you may well fulfill some of these essential needs as well), but it will provide you with experiences that you can hoard like treasures, to be pulled out and admired and marveled at whenever you so desire. Reading this book was so good for me because it helped me to see how counterproductive some of the nagging voices in the back of my head are. It encouraged me to take creative leaps and to be philosophical when those leaps sometimes fail, as they inevitably will. Gilbert has helped me to see that, no matter what, I will always long for that creative outlet, so why bother denying it to myself? I can engage with it for the pure joy of engaging with it, and if anything else comes of it, great. If not, well, I'll have been living the life I want to live, and that really counts for more than anything else.