Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear Paperback – September 27, 2016

“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

I believe that books are a message meant to be read at different junctions in your life. I have had this book for 1.5 year and only read it again a week ago. Im sure other readers relate to the content through their personal ways like me. It gave me validation and refresh my insight about life and how we approach our personal creative work. Its taught me bold lessons on being an artist and creator. It guidelined where our integrity and virtue bleed into being a martyr, especially the life and death part and the tormented artist that i truly relate to. So im so serious about my art or my creative pursuit that i took all the fun out of it. No matter how serious it is. You have to be in a playful or in a space where your not tormenting yourself. So theres some advice in this book for writers to find their outlet of creativity or big magic without suffering. Thats a big deal for me. Calling your big magic is like making space in your soul for creativity to be born. But as Elizabeth Gilbert said in the book. Please dont call it your baby. Which I have done. I associated to my unpublished book, my baby that I will protect through life and death. Though it was agonizing when my manuscript in my broken macbooks hard drive was missing. It felt like I lost my soul and my baby. Big lesson. And I actually learn to set it free. The definition and weight it has over my identity and life. And 2 weeks after that I pick up this book again. What a coincidence or a divine synchronicity! My take from this is to treat the big magic like a tool. Like a utensil. Like a car, toothbrush, a phone. Its something that is a functionable material. Its always there working. The only thing is in order to tap into big magic and create, you have to bring the right mindset, behaviour, expectations. Enjoy the process and let go of the result. Create write paint draw sculpt design in the flow of them all, living in a momentum of expression is the beauty of the magic in its essence. Flow. Express. Let go.

Very encouraging and easy to comprehend. I feel compelled to continue on with what fuels me no matter what others think or what the outcomes might even be. This book packed a punch of inspiration and gave me a kick out of "woe is me" into "wow, it's me" but not in an egotistical way. A fantastic read for all ages, especially those that are so often caught up in pressure to succeed or fear of failure or debilitating perfectionism. This book reminds me of the famous Nike slogan - Just Do It! This book fed me spoonfuls of wisdom. If you have your ego in check, you should be able to handle the biggest of successes (and equally the biggest of failures) with pride but humility, with resilience and determination, without letting either go so far to your head that it ruins your soul. For you must never give up, never give in, unless on your terms for the greater good and then set about your next adventure. Do not wallow in the "what ifs?" Do not succumb to stinking thinking. And if you still haven't found what you're looking for then keep looking. Perseverance if you want it bad enough. But let go, when it no longer serves you or you feel you are drowning. This book held so much balance that I felt I could risk walking the tightrope of life and be okay if I fell. It all matters and yet nothing matters is something I am finally getting at age 50. The reference to how we think and feel as we go through our 20s, 30s, 40s etc was spot on for me. I just wish people would grasp this notion earlier. We need these books in primary school or at least high school. Now I'm off to create something just for the hell of it. Xx