I like the message this book is imparting. That creative is something you are. It's inside you. The book is broken into 5 sections, each with 4 ideas around how to get you more and more into the creative mindset and to unlock the creativity within you.
The first section really resonated with me, the idea of beginner's mind, starting small and reducing the size, and even consistency. I have done all of these in my own work and they do work like magic. I love the sentiment that "we don't push the difficulty away. we don't put it off until tomorrow. We stay with it now - with all the terror it induces."
I also liked some of the new-to-me ideas like "internal camera" and "prepared piano." There are other ideas that I don't use regularly but make sense tome like making small changes daily, like your first thought being your best one, like not theorizing.
I also loved this: "Remind yourself each day that you have some responsibility for your creativity. You can change things."
At its core, this book comes with this message: "Abandon the illusion of creativity. Instead, address what's there....Be free of the mess."
I love the ideas in this book.
Here's where it fell a bit short for me: The format of the book was hard for me to get into, I felt like there was a lot of repetition, the chapters were too short, not enough details for the ideas and not enough solid examples. It was a bit too abstract at parts where I wasn't sure I understood what he was saying fully. I could have used a bit more depth.
At the end of each section, there's a "further learning" section which is full of things to read, listen, study and visit. They are delightful and wide-ranging and add so much depth to this book. I loved reading each of them and I can't wait to dive into many of them.
On the whole, I am glad I read this book and I feel energized to keep creating and to heed the reminder to "stay with yourself as the only source of creativity - it's not out there but inside you. You are the receptacle of all things creative."
How can one not be inspired by that?
i received an advanced copy of this in return for an honest review. thank you to netgalley and the publisher.