Creative Resilience: Reclaiming Your Power As An Artist

by Erica Ginsberg

The roller coaster of the creative process can be both exhilarating and exhausting, but it is a lot more manageable when you know you are not alone.

Creative pursuits—whether a paid profession, a side hustle, or a leisure activity—can bring joy and meaning to the lives of artists and audiences. But they also bring challenges of motivation, confidence, blocks, and the realities of rejection. Creative Resilience provides guidance for anyone navigating these challenges from those who have been there.

Author Erica Ginsberg includes relatable real-world examples from creatives across disciplines, ages, and stages of their careers, including dancers, musicians, writers, painters, and filmmakers interviewed specifically for Creative Resilience. The author cites her experiences as an artist and arts administrator along with a mix of humor, linguistic reframing, and reflective exercises to give readers tools to manage aspects of the creative process and creative life, including time management, dealing with creative blocks, procrastination, self-confidence, and many other such challenges.

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help, Art

228 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 5, 2023

About the author

Erica Ginsberg is a writer, documentary filmmaker, story consultant, and project manager with a dual background in the arts and public diplomacy. She co-founded the documentary film organization Docs In Progress and served as its founding executive director for more than a decade. She co-hosts The D-Word, a peer-to-peer global community for documentary professionals. In addition to working in the arts, Erica has organized professional development study tours to the United States for mid-career professionals from around the world. She has a BA in international affairs and an MA in film and video.

Reviews

[Eline Pullen · Rating 3 out of 5]

When reading the title of this book I thought: this book is for me, that gradually changed while reading.

What I really like about this book is the amount of different people who talk about their creative process, so you experience situations from all kinds of perspectives. That always feeds you with ideas.

There were also a number of things that I found difficult in this book:

The information in this book hops from topic to topic very quickly. Quite off-the-cuff. I would have liked more explanation, description or depth on a number of topics.

While reading I felt the urge to restructure information in this book.

This book has chapter titles, and within the chapters there are very general subheadings. I would have benefited from a little more detail. Now it often felt like I was swimming in information and I didn't know where I was floating. As a reader, that makes me tend to drop out.

All in all, a nice collection of thoughts around creativity and resilience. I would recommend this book if you haven't read many books about creativity and making.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Bold Story press for the ARC I received in exchange for an honest review

#CreativeResilience #NetGalley

[Dora Okeyo · Rating 4 out of 5]

For anyone who has created something, knows that there are moments when you struggle to align your vision to your reality and this book takes the approach of self reflection, insights and personal experiences from artists all over the world on some of the most common struggles an artist experiences.
It is well narrated and easy to read.
Thanks Netgalley for the eARC, and I for one truly appreciate the emphasis on time and rituals and routine- because that is something I have been struggling with as a Writer.

[Tahni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Helpful and motivating. Each chapter ends with an action item to improve resilience. I liked hearing from different types of creatives about their processes. Productivity, confidence, procrastination and perfectionism are areas I struggle with and were addressed practically.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Support for artists as they navigate the creative process from inspiration to presentation.

[Kate Henderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book to be really hit and miss. There was some really useful and insightful messages, but there was also a lot of waffle! Unfortunately the 'waffle' outweighed the good!