Customer Reviews

The Creativity Book: A Year's Worth of Inspiration and Guidance

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Maisel consistently challenges the artist to be true to his/her artistic self in all his books, and this is no exception. Unlike The Artist's Way (a fine book for the creatively blocked or undiscovered), The Creativity Book targets the artist who has achieved a higher degree of self-knowledge and acceptance. He asks the reader to choose a Dream early in the year, which will be accomplished as the year unfolds. Each week highlights an aspect of living as a creative being, and includes exercises to clear the way to living more fully. The exercises range from easy (have a morning and evening tea ritual for three days) to much harder (sit for 40 minutes and do NOTHING), but the difficulty will doubtless vary for each reader.

Maisel has a no-holds-barred style that doesn't permit excuses, whining, or hedging. His message is simple: one must actively pursue the muse at all times, and embrace her when she appears. You don't HAVE to do any of the exercises, although he'd like you to do them all. He makes it clear, however, that choosing not to do the exercises is also a clear statement of your degree of commitment to your Dream, which ultimately boils down to art.

If you're looking for coddling, this is the wrong book. But if you're ready to be gently but firmly led to create as you know you can "if only...", Maisel removes the "if only..." and leaves you with a fuller, more satisfying relationship with your artistic self.

This wonderful book came to me at a time when I was experiencing a painful and desperate disconnection from my work as a sculptor. I took the fast track with the book and read it in 4 days. My resistance, fear, uncertainty, grief,...etc. has miraculously resolved. I have begun a new and extremely satisfying body of work, and I'm filled with new creative energy in all aspects of my life. It was the right book at the right time for me. My hope is that it may that for you. I will always be grateful to Eric Maisel for writing this book!

I'm quite fond of Eric Maisel's books. He's a psychotherapist and "creativity consultant," and he has written a number of books on writing, art, and creativity. Several of them are among my favorite writing books: "Living the Writer's Life," "Deep Writing," and "Write Mind." Unlike those books, "The Creativity Book" is not aimed specifically at writers. It's aimed at you, me, your brother, and the guy in the cubicle down the hall. In other words, anyone who'd like to use a little more creativity in their lives, whether for painting, writing, mathematics, relationships, or business plans.

The book is designed to be read one section at a time, to take you through a year of learning. It has 88 sections, two per week, to get you through ten months, and then the idea is that you spend the last two months of your year devoted to a particular creative project. Each base section is pretty short--generally a page or three--so you'll have no trouble reading it in a few spare minutes some evening. Then it's followed by at least one exercise, and sometimes several. Sometimes the exercises are very specific; at other times, Maisel suggests ways to apply the exercises to whatever area you're trying to become more creative in.

Many of the ideas in the book are relatively basic, but this in no way makes them useless. After all, they're only basic for people who are already highly creative and making abundant use of that creativity. In large part this book is designed to help those who aren't sure where to start when it comes to creativity, and who haven't had much luck sitting down and getting started with their creative projects. Even highly creative people will still find things of value in this book, however. Some sections will feel like remedial schooling, but others might unlock surprising ways for you to move forward in your work. People with more experience using their creativity might prefer to skip from section to section instead of following the "plan," however, using the bits that have particular value to them.

Eric Maisel has given us a nice book filled with inspiration and creative guidance.

This book is structured in 52 weekly segments starting with beginning work and ending up with a project that should be completed. Each short chapter contains a brief essay of guidance and then an inventive exercise to try on for size.

The author of this book, Eric Maisel, Ph.D., is a psychologist who teaches that the act of creating impacts all aspects of one's life. So this book is intended for everyone, not just those struggling to survive artistic blocks. Executives can develop new business ideas, cooks can create better dishes, lawyers can find new ways to argue, politicians can consider alternative ways to create democracy, children can become better students and so on. Overall an extremely good book for those willing to put forth a bit of effort towards creating new ideas.

Eric Maisel is a prolific writer with a penchant for helping artists. And this book is no exception. For those who have read Cameron's "The Artist's Way," in the required number of weeks and wish there were other timed guides, Maisel's book is the answer. It's a year's worth of creative work, some gentle and imaginative, some kick-in-the-rear tough. I'll admit I read all the way through it, and I'll bet Maisel knew that most readers would. It's an interesting read that way, with Maisel's wry observations and self-deprecating humor serving as another level of inspiration. There is a lot hiding in this book, waiting to be discovered. The quotes in the scholar's margins create their own interesting commentary. Use this book to dip into when you are bored, stymied, frustrated, lonely or stuck. You won't come away feeling the same way. You might not want to do every exercise Maisel suggests, but imagining them might be enough to give you creative traction again.

Eric Maisel understands that fear comes with unleashing our creativity. Gently prodding us in a day-by-day program, he shows us that we can get past our doubts to produce the work we're inspired to do and achieve creative success.

His specific suggestions will help you get past your frozen moments that might otherwise turn into years.

~~Joan Mazza, author of DREAMING YOUR REAL SELF and DREAM BACK YOUR LIFE

Disclaimer: I am not this book's target audience. I didn't buy it or intend to read it. I'm only even aware of its existence because a friend had a copy in her bathroom, which I've now read in bits and pieces. The only reason I'm moved to comment on it is because I suppose I qualify as what the author calls an Everyday Creative Person; I have made my living for my entire adult life primarily as a musician, and to lesser degrees as a writer, inventor, and theatrical performer. And as a creative person, I'm here to say this guy is grossly misrepresenting us. Neither I nor any of my professionally creative friends (or at least, the ones I've discussed it with) have ever done any of the stuff in this book. In fact, we all think it's silly and rather lame.

This book does not teach you how to be creative. Rather, it teaches you how to be a pretentious, self-important eccentric with delusions of creativity, which you're then encouraged to inflict upon the world around you. The exercises in it seem designed to make you go out and do wacky, unconventional, mind-expanding things, which in turn are supposed to help you think and act creatively. The problem is, the creative people I know don't do those things, and the people I know who DO do those things really aren't creative; they only wish they were.

The author openly and unapologetically approaches creativity as a religion, and appropriately, he endows it with all the heavy-handed dogma you would expect: lots of Thou Shalts and Thou Shalt Nots; lots of bold proclamations about the way things are, what creative people do, and what they don't do; and precious little in the way of supporting evidence other than his own say-so. And frankly, it's all, in this creative guy's humble opinion, wildly off the mark. In real life there are no specific things that creative people do, that other people don't do, except for the obvious: create. Everything else - the methods, the inspirations, the preparation, the execution - is a crap shoot, with as many variations as there are creative people. Sure, I suppose there might be a creative person somewhere who, for example, was helped in some way by writing the names of her heroes in all capital letters on Post-It notes and sticking them around her house... but for someone else to do that because they read it in a book, and expect the same result, misses the point entirely.

I don't know if there are prescribed exercises or action plans that can truly enhance one's creativity. What I do know is that merely surrounding one's self with the (alleged) trappings of creativity won't do the trick. And unfortunately, that's what this book seems to teach.

All artists need a daily dose of positive thinking every single day, and this book provides just that. As a Creativity Coach who has studied with Eric Maisel, I can say that everything he writes is well grounded in his personal experiences and successes.

Maisel's book is a year long study and integrated plan to both practice and experience "creativity as a religion". The suggested plan is to work through the book sequentially... which is an EXCELLENT intention I hope readers take on. And at the same time, I am reading bits and pieces and chunks and applying not step by step but instead following syncronicity in my life.

My theory and observation is that either will neet positive results.

The bite sized chunks with the very human voice of the author, once again a book by Eric Maisel hits the target both artistically and effectively.

If you love books about unleashing your creativity, then you will love this book. It offers exercises to do everyday for a year. Some of the exercises are a little unrealistic (like shredding up a college text book. Being a lover of books, I could not bring myself to do that one), but there's many that are fun and inspire you to create. I couldn't wait to do each exercise so I could continue onto the next one and I couldn't help myself but to glance ahead with excitement about what's to come. The author tells about his own experiences as well, but in a way that is enjoyable! Whether you are creating a specific project or not, this book is still really fun to read.