Customer Reviews

Creating: A practical guide to the creative process and how to use it to create anything - a work of art, a relationship, a career or a better life.

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this book because creating always felt like a white-hot, hit or miss, lightning flash, that also felt dangerous and fearful, like having to step off a cliff into thin air. Author of The Path of Least Resistance, Robert Fritz, in Creating, says thin air is good. And -- gulp -- he's right. For Fritz, creating is an ordinary and understandable skill we can learn -- and we can, he says, learn to do it better and more often. He's right about that, too. He says creating is getting the results we want in any area of our lives -- work projects, art work, career, relationships, community. It is a process with form and shape. It's not problem-solving, or reaching for the unusual, or about inventiveness or "creative ability." Anyone can do it. And he outlines nine stages of the process, from conception to living with what you create. Creating ranges far, around and through the subject, offering practical approaches and even a warm-up guide, and he deals with hindrances like the discrepancies between "Ideal-Belief-Reality" that get in the way. If this book helps you surface what he calls "invisible beliefs" that get in the way of what you want in life, it's worth three times the price. Fritz argues creating is not discovery. Some people take his seminar to discover what really matters to them, but as he says, that idea "presumes that what matters somehow already exists (p. 118)." Creating brings into existence something that did not exist before, makes something from nothing. This book is broader and deeper than the typical how-to-create book -- it doesn't talk about brainstorming or problem-solving or creativity. It describes how to become aware of the process and some of its pitfalls, and how to do it in a way that helps you get the results you want. I have no problem with a point of view that our ideas can help or hinder us in getting what we want. For those who do, this book may open their eyes.

This book sets out to demystify creating, to pragmatically assist the reader in learning ideas and processes that can be applied to creating works of art, craft, business, et cetera. It's well worth reading for that pragmatic purpose. The first chapter sample, available on "look inside" on this web site, gives a good sample of Fritz' approach, uncluttered by the flaws noted in later sections of the book. He emphasized some steps and aspects of process that I wasn't so starkly aware of. I've created effective cartoons, articles, essays, songs, clothing designs, gardens, et cetera, but this book could help in becoming much more productive.

Some sections of the book launch into an attack on cultural assumptions. Bravo. Most of it was valid in supporting his approach to creating. However, I was uncomfortable with some of his extreme statements about certain disciplines and cultural traditions. He seemed to dismiss all of psychotherapy, and take some cheap shots, for instance, rather than limiting his comments to self-indulgent and deluded approaches. He overgeneralized and thus misrepresented other cultural traditions, ideas, and disciplines. For example:

"While meditation and psychotherapy may have replaced tranquilizing and recreational drugs, all of them presume you are entitled to feel good, even if you need to dull your senses and color reality to find happiness, self-love and fulfillment." p122 Fawcett edition, 1991

On the contrary, I would argue, going through a course of therapy based on Alice Miller's (sample title: Thou Shalt Not be Aware) views might allow and traumatized individual to function in life without enduring constant shaming, flashbacks, and emotional paralysis. It can be important to examine emotions, and feel good at times. Also the meditation I have personal experience of, mindfulness and insight meditation, as described by Chogyam Trungpa (sample title: Meditation in Action) and others are not about brainwashing oneself or dulling the senses. In fact, mindfulness meditation is likely to lead to some of the same insights and awareness Fritz describes in his discussion of the mind, separation, and so on. Fritz would do better if he didn't dismiss everyone else's work. Yes, it's true that people can get too focused on transient emotions and fixing the self. However, meditation and psychotherapy do still have something to offer, keeping in mind the 80/20 rule -- most of everything is crap, so buyer beware.

Ironically, right after Fritz' section on the lack of necessity to choose a right worldview, he launches into what is obviously his worldview. Oh, he has a disclaimer, and he's not dogmatic at that particular moment, but still, throughout the book, he does argue for his views of how things work, what will be if you follow his process. My suggestion: just ignore his adamant, paternalistic ranting, see through it, and go for his basic ideas, which are useful even though he has an obnoxious personality and a bit of a ham-fisted way of throwing around generalizations.

If you want to create something, this book can challenge you in a useful way.

I had to give it five stars because it did such a job stimulating me with its new ideas about creating. At times it's slow to pore over. You're excited at the stuff you're learning, but the prose feels a bit tedious, so it's like being chin-deep in water and wanting to race ashore for something great. But this book's concepts, about the structure of creating, are so mind-blowing to us "creatives" that it's a must to sit and take it a swallow at a time. Fritz's challenging ideas allowed me to expand my thinking about myself, to see myself not as a writer but as a creating person (one of whose creating modes is writing). My promotion of my written materials is an act of creating. So is the plan I'm putting together for my life. Wow!

While some reviewers may have hoped for help on overcoming creative blocks, it seems they miss the point.

Robert Fritz makes a big distinction between creating and creativity. To create, you have to care about bringing something into reality that doesn't exist. As Fritz says, "Creating is in the realm of the noninevitable."

Creativity, in contrast, refers to the unusual and inventive, and Fritz argues that:

"Creating sometimes includes creativity, but most often it does not. As you master the creative process, the unusual becomes usual, and so it will seem less creative. You may be creating, then, and not have creativity. Likewise, you can have creativity but not be creating."

I had this discussion with a software engineer working on a major user interface introduction. Fritz would have him first determine what he loves enough to create, what are its qualities, and what is the "result" he wants to create. It's not about being infinitely creative, his engineers are already doing too much of that. It's about creating around a single design point versus maintaining too many open possibilities.

Another part of the book I really liked was "First Person/Third Person." Fritz makes the distinction between people who see their creations as part of their identity (meaning they are apt to "advocate a specific position") and those who remain separate from, while still passionate about, their creations (people "more apt to seek accuracy") as they encounter reality.

In "The Worldview," Fritz carries this theme further, quoting Robert Frost in saying: "The artist must not select a universal and then find particulars to fit it."

In the end, Fritz argues for pure emotion ("you want what you want") along with a rigorous process ("the creative process is made up of many steps in a particular sequence"). He believes that if you're frustrated in creating something, it's nothing more than not knowing what you want and/or inexperience in the creation process!

This book was full of fluff, if you ask me - or at least the first 50 pages or so. Then it got down to business and I was really impressed with how thought provoking it was. I'm still chewing on quite a few concepts and re-examining motivations.

I'd recommend this book to anyone making, or trying/wanting to make, changes in their life or business. It outlines streamlined uses for the many transferable, intrinsic, skills that we all know are there but rarely make full use of. This book won't fix you, it will remind you of healthier thought patterns in relation to decision making.

I especially liked the awareness it created in me about active and passive decisions and how we often don't manage behavior patterns even though we don't like the result of the behavior...victimizing yourself...etc. A deal of a price for a wealth of insight.

The negative part for me were the examples. I found them tedious, oversimplified, and contrived. They did nothing to lend themselves to the concepts presented.

By the time I was 2/3 of the way through the book the powerful message was starting to kick and I ended up scribbling pages of notes. If you are looking to begin a creative process such as a new business like I am I would recommend this book as a very good read with thought provoking ideas. I gained new perspectives on the creative process that has helped me isolate and eliminate fluctuating emotions through the creative process and maintain structural tension on my end goal.

I bought this book because I read The path of least resistance and wanted to reinforce the messages of that earlier book. Creating does repeat a lot of Fritz's messages so you don't necessarily need to read both, but you may find yourself hooked and want to ! Fritz is very forceful in delivering his message which is a good one. Sometimes you might feel uncomfortable reading it because he is challenging you in deep ways. However, the result is a way of seeing your life which is productive and freeing. His methods are well honed and will work in making you more creative regarding your life as a whole or any part of it. I took away one star because I also felt his comments on meditation and psychotherapy were unnecessary.

I would recommend this book over any self-help book any day of the week! I loved it! It is such a fresh perspective!

I have to admit, I was pretty excited to read this. However, after finishing it, I am fairly neutral to the application of Fritz' theories. I was expecting a book on methods of relieving creative block and getting into the creative mindset. While the book does accomplish this to some extent, most of it takes you through many of Fritz' anti-philosophical/self-help theories. This is fine for a book about that sort of thing, and I agree with what he says (for the most part) but I fail to make the connections he is trying so hard to show the reader. Maybe I just need time to absorb, and test his theories in real life. Oh, and if he plugged his "Technologies for Creating" workshops (registered trademark) one more time, I was going to throw the book out of my car window. Anyway, I will re-review this book after I have some time to put into practice some of his theories. Who knows, maybe there is a connection between painting a picture and the Holocaust. (see section on identity)

I was really glad to have stumbled upon this book. Even though Robert Fritz has been around a good many years and written several books, I had not heard of him. He was new to me as were his ideas. It was really refreshing to find something new and unique. I would highly recommend his book to anyone interest in improving their life. The new perspective he presents is worth exploring. IT is about changing the way you approach things to a more direct, creative way.