Book Review: Big Magic

This is my book review series, where I share my thoughts on books I've read recently. This post is on "Big Magic: Creative Living Without Fear" - Elizabeth Gilbert. 

Q: What is Creativity?

A: The relationship between a human being and the mysteries of inspiration 

Big Magic was an absolutely delightful read. At times it didn't even feel like I was reading. It felt more like a long conversation with my best friend (if my best friend was the award-winning author, Elizabeth Gilbert). It's been a while since I've found a book I am this excited about. Big Magic liberated me and gave me the confidence to go ahead and create this blog. Literally, after reading the first 40 pages, I started researching what platform I should use, and the next day this blog was live. If not for Big Magic, my "start a blog" to-do item would have still remained unchecked on my bucket list. 

"Without bravery, they would never know the world as richly as it longs to be known. Without bravery, their lives would remain small - far smaller than they probably wanted their lives to be"

Courage. The main question on creative living is, "Do you have the courage to bring forth the treasures that are hidden within you?". Elizabeth describes us as walking repositories of hidden treasures. The hunt to uncover those treasures is "creative living". She highlights that the courage one has to go on the search is what separates a mundane existence from a more enchanted one. The results that we achieve from the hunt are what is called "BIG MAGIC". This chapter, to me was the most powerful one. Without it, I wouldn't be writing this and having the guts to post it publicly. I know all of us have had ideas of things we wanted to do - be it as a hobby, side-hustle, or career but haven't been brave enough to take that leap of faith and pursue them. Please do me a favor and go and read this first chapter of Big Magic. I hope that it would impact you the way it did me. 

Enchantment. A crucial part of creative living is to be inspired and to have ideas for you to explore. How do you get ideas? Elizabeth suggests that ideas come to you when you are relaxed and open. As if you are inviting the gods of inspiration to bestow the gift of sharing its ideas with you. When you become aware of yourself, you will soon realize the intense emotional and physiological reaction you get when inspiration comes to you. This chapter also talks about the celebration of creativity. That we should enjoy the journey of creating and ignoring the outcome. To realize that the act of creating is for my own enjoyment and not for others has honestly freed me. It has helped me not fixate on traffic to this site or worry if anyone has said anything negative about my writings. I've realized that as long as I enjoyed the experience of writing, that's all that mattered.  

Permission.  Elizabeth shares that the typical fallacy we tell ourselves is that we can't create because we have not received validation that we are "artists". That we feel the need to have spent years learning, gone to a prestigious school, gotten recognition from well-known artists of our skills before we can recognize our own creativity. I relate to this on so many levels. I have an art profile on Instagram. The description pre-BM (I am now calling my life before reading this book as "Pre-Big Magic" if you didn't get that) was "Amateur Artist - Personal Art Blog". As if I'm trying to discount the art I created despite every piece I created made me extremely happy. The word amateur has now been deleted from my description. Big Magic helped me reclaim my creativity as my own by acknowledging that I am my own artist. 

Persistence. This chapter talks about how creating isn't always easy. Still, as long as it continues to be interesting, you should continue to create anyway. At first, you may not be very good at it, imitate if you must as everybody imitates before they can innovate. But with practice, you will get better. That expecting perfectionism is what stops people from starting or finishing their work. That done is always better than good. This chapter also talks about not demanding that your creativity pay your bills because that is a sure way to murder your ideas. I personally always felt like I was not going to be able to get serious about any of my ideas not until I quit my job. This notion of not seeking a monetary return from your creativity and treating it as a vocation rather than a career was a refreshing way to rethink my creativity. 

Trust. Finally, Big Magic talks about trusting the relationship that creativity has with you. To have the conviction that your creativity believes in you and wants you to bring forth itself to the world. That you don't have to be a suffering artist to create and that the notion of having to be emotionally uncomfortable to create is simply not true. And that sometimes ideas don't always come from epiphanies. It can start small with a notion of curiosity, and all you need to do is follow where it brings you. 

So in short, have the courage to lead a creative life, let your curiosity enchant you, don't wait for permission to start, persist as long as it is interesting and trust that your creativity wants you to pursue it. 

I give this book a 5/5. After reading this, the next thing you should be doing is to buy Big Magic and experience its wizardry yourself!