Book Review: Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Title: Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Author: Elizabeth Gilbert

Publisher: Riverhead Books

Year: 2015

Pages: 288

Genre: Non-fiction/Self-help

Rating: 2 stars

One sentence summary: An inspirational guide to living a creative life.

A full synopsis of this book can be found on Goodreads.

Spoiler Level: None

Despite being a creative person myself, this self-help/motivational book on creativity turned out not to be for me at all. I didn't like the way Gilbert spiritualized creativity, equating inspiration and ideas with cosmic energy that floats around us, chooses us, and enters our body so it can be born into the world. I appreciate her attempt to explain where inspiration comes from, but her understanding of the creative process was just too out there for me, too "hippy" for my tastes. This book was very quick and easy to get through, but I didn't find much practical advice. Instead, we get a lot of personal anecdotes related to Gilbert's own writing journey. The advice we do get is mostly nothing new, and I didn't agree with some of her more different views. For instance, Gilbert doesn't endorse creative education. As an English and Creative Writing graduate, this is an idea I can't get behind. I did end up agreeing with some of her points, like the importance of discipline and the insignificance of perfection, and I liked how she encouraged creativity even in its smallest forms. Overall though, there were many ideas I didn't agree with and I wasn't a huge fan of the style and execution of these ideas either.