Writing Saturday: Big Magic

[darkemeralds]

Now playing in my Audible library: Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear.

Liz (I call her Liz) says a whole bunch of the things Steven Pressfield said in his wonderful The War of Art, but I vastly prefer the way she says them. Pressfield uses a lot of sports and war metaphors that don't resonate much with me. Liz, as you might expect from the author of a book called Eat, Pray, Love, has a more spiritual and nurturing approach.

But they both talk about creativity and fear, and they both have a primarily writerly bias, so they're both inspiring to me in their ways.

Liz, more than Pressfield, focuses on creative self-expression no matter what. She specifically does not talk about "winning". Her anecdotes don't end in, "and then she won a Pulitzer," but rather in, "and then she was happy".

Both of them embrace a concept of inspiration as a real, living thing, existing independently outside of us, and interacting with us. I like that. For Pressfield it's the Muse; for Liz, "ideas". Pressfield sidles up to the metaphysical in a slightly embarrassed way, whereas Liz has it right in her book title: Magic.

Big Magic is read (wonderfully) by the author. It runs about five hours. It's fantastic for me as a writer. I'd think it would be inspiring to anyone who makes anything for any purpose.

Comments

[cookiemom6067]

This feels very timely to me. I have been feeling very creatively constrained. As soon as I contemplate putting myself forward creatively, I can immediately feel the fear rise to quash that creative impulse before it buds.

[darkemeralds]

If you can spare the dollars for the book or audiobook, I do recommend it. It's funny, uplifting, bracing, and encouraging. I'm on my second pass through the audiobook now, and it's already changing my approach to my writing.

She has a particularly spine-stiffening section on letting go of perfection that hits home with me right now. She describes having submitted a ten-page short story, early in her career, to one of the big magazines. She felt it was near-perfect: tightly written, not a word out of place. The editor thought so too, and bought it from her.

But a few weeks later he called her and said that the issue her story was scheduled to appear in had had to be cut by 30% because an advertiser had pulled a major ad. Would she like to withdraw her story and hope for a new slot later? Or would she be willing to cut it by 30% to fit it into the slimmed-down issue?

She opted to cut. Imagine! Cutting 30% from a perfect ten-page short story! It became a very different story, and in some ways a better one--darker and grittier. The important thing to her was not some high-falutin' idea of artistic integrity or fidelity to the Source Inspiration, it was being read. Getting it published in a national magazine got her an agent. It launched her career.

And the process of cutting that story freed her permanently from that feeling we all have about certain first drafts or trial runs, that it's perfect, that it can't be bettered, that it must remain untouched like some pristine wilderness. Nope, she says. It's a story. It's just a story. The fun is in finishing and looking around for the next idea.

It's a really good book.

[darkemeralds]

And getting around the fear that quashes the creative impulse before it buds is really the whole theme of the book.

[tehomet]

Thanks for this review. I'm now resolved to get a copy of this book as my Christmas present to myself. :)

[darkemeralds]

I hope you enjoy it! I've listened to the audiobook three times (so far). I went to hear Liz Gilbert speak on her book tour a couple of months ago, and as part of the ticket price we all got copies of the hardcover, so I was able to pass mine on to a painter friend of mine, who says he's found it inspiring, too.

Happy Christmas!

[tehomet]

I bought it yesterday and am enjoying it! Thanks so much for the idea.

Happy Christmas to you too! :)