Ebook: The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life

Creativity is not a gift from the gods, says Twyla Tharp, bestowed by some divine and mystical spark. It is the product of preparation and effort, and it's within reach of everyone who wants to achieve it. All it takes is the willingness to make creativity a habit, an integral part of your life: -- The Creative Habit Tharp's exercises are practical and immediately doable -- for the novice or expert. In "Where's Your Pencil?" she reminds us to observe the world -- and get it down on paper. In "Coins and Chaos," she provides the simplest of mental games to restore order and peace. In "Do a Verb," she turns your mind and body into coworkers. In "Build a Bridge to the Next Day," she shows how to clean your cluttered mind overnight. To Tharp, sustained creativity begins with rituals, self-knowledge, harnessing your memories, and organizing your materials (so no insight is ever lost). Along the way she leads you by the hand through the painful first steps of scratching for ideas, finding the spine of your work, and getting out of ruts into productive grooves. In her creative realm, optimism rules. An empty room, a bare desk, a blank canvas can be energizing, not demoralizing. And in this inventive, encouraging book, Twyla Tharp shows us how to take a deep breath and begin!;Cover; Dedication; Epigraph; Chapter 1: I Walk into a White Room; Chapter 2: Rituals of Preparation; Chapter 3: Your Creative DNA; Chapter 4: Harness Your Memory; Chapter 5: Before You Can Think out of the Box, You Have to Start with a Box; Chapter 6: Scratching; Chapter 7: Accidents Will Happen; Chapter 8: Spine; Chapter 9: Skill; Chapter 10: Ruts and Grooves; Chapter 11: An "A" in Failure; Chapter 12: The Long Run; Acknowledgments; About the Author; Copyright