All it takes to make creativity a part of your life is the willingness to make it a habit. It is the product of preparation and effort, and is within reach of everyone. Whether you are a painter, musician, businessperson, or simply an individual yearning to put your creativity to use, The Creative Habit provides you with 32 practical exercises based on the lessons Twyla Tharp has learned in her remarkable 35-year career.

In "Where's Your Pencil?" Tharp reminds you to observe the world - and get it down on paper. In "Coins and Chaos", she gives you an easy way 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 you how to clean the clutter from your mind overnight.

Tharp leads you through the painful first steps of scratching for ideas, finding the spine of your work, and getting out of ruts and into productive grooves. The wide-open realm of possibilities can be energizing, and Twyla Tharp explains how to take a deep breath and begin....

Listening Length

8 hours and 51 minutes
Author

Twyla Tharp
Narrator

Lauren Fortgang
Audible release date

March 26, 2013
Language

English
Publisher

Audible Studios
ASIN

B00BTELWYO
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	8 hours and 51 minutes
Author	Twyla Tharp
Narrator	Lauren Fortgang
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	March 26, 2013
Publisher	Audible Studios
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B00BTELWYO
Best Sellers Rank	#17,728 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #33 in Creativity (Audible Books & Originals) #176 in Creativity (Books) #1,167 in Personal Success

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Beguiled By Books

Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is a result of good work habits.

Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2023

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Synopsis: Sixteen years after publication, Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit holds up well. Tharp, a household name in the dance community, breaks down what it means to create. Creation is hard and an act of sheer will, but that sheer will must have the discipline to back it up. As Ryan Holiday said, you can’t be the noun if you don’t do the verb. The Creative Habit is about how to set up your life so doing the verb gets easier for you.

Likes & Notes: The first half of this book was full of great wisdom. As the book progressed, it leaned heavily on direct examples from Tharp’s life in choreography. This wasn’t a bad thing, but I found it a bit repetitive.

Quotes: Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is a result of good work habits. That’s it in a nutshell.

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Enjoy the pleasure of her company and the magic of her mind

Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2012

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As is my custom when a new year begins, I recently re-read this book and The Collaborative Habit. The insights that Twyla Tharp shares in them are, if anything, more valuable now than when the books were first published.

It would be a mistake to ignore the reference to "habit" in their titles because almost three decades of research conducted by K. Anders Ericsson and his associates at Florida State University clearly indicate that, on average, at least 10,000 hours of must be invested in "deliberate," iterative practice under strict and expert supervision to achieve peak performance, be it playing a game such as chess or playing a musical instrument such as the violin. Natural talent is important, of course, as is luck. However, with rare exception, it takes about ten years of sustained, focused, supervised, and (yes) habitual practice to master the skills that peak performance requires.

Tharp characterizes this book as a ""practical guide" but she also frames much of its material within a spiritual context. The creative process can probably be traced back to the earliest humans and yet so much of it remains a mystery. When Henri Matisse was asked if he was always painting, he replied, "No but when the muse visits me, I better have a brush in my hand." Of course, he was also prepared to transform an in inspiration into a work of art...and did on countless occasions.

In the first chapter, Tharp acknowledges what she characterizes as "a philosophical tug of war...It is the perennial debate, born in the Romantic era, between the beliefs that all creative acts are born of (a) some transcendent, inexplicable Dionysian act of inspiration, a kiss from God on your brow that allows you to give the world The Magic Flute, or (b) hard work." She adds, "Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is a result of good work habits. That's it in a nutshell."

Throughout the remainder of her book, Tharp draws heavily upon her own personal as well as professional experiences (she would probably not make that distinction) while citing countless examples of other real-world situations that indicate "There are no `natural' geniuses." However, there are immensely creative people in every domain of human initiative. Therein, I think, is her primary purpose: To convince everyone who reads this book that they can be creative if they are willing to work hard enough.

Here is a representative selection of what she affirms:

o "In order to be creative you have to know how to be creative."
o "Build up your tolerance for solitude."
o "Trust your muscle memory" when physically exercising.
o "If you're like me, reading is the first line of defense against an empty head."
o "You never want the planning to inhibit the natural evolution of your work."
o "Work with the best."
o "Never have a favorite weapon." (Miyamoto Musashi, A Book of the Five Rings, circa 1645)
o "Build a bridge to the next day."
o "Know when to stop tinkering."
o "Creating dance is the thing I know best. It is how I recognize myself."

There is so much of enduring (and endearing) value in this book. Perhaps (just perhaps) this brief commentary helps to explain why I read The Creative Habit and The Collaborative Habit at least once a year and consult passages in them more often. Oscar Wilde once advised, "Be yourself. Everyone else is taken." Those who require proof of that need look no further than Twyla Tharp whose career is her art...and whose art is her life.

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C. McNair Wilson

Inspiring, Practical, Essential

Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2014

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"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: In order to be creative, you have to know how to prepare to be creative. In The Creative Habit, Tharp takes the lessons she has learned in her remarkable thirty-five-year career and shares them with you, whatever creative impulses you follow--whether you are a painter, composer, writer, director, choreographer, or, for that matter, a businessperson working on a deal, a chef developing a new dish, a mother wanting her child to see the world anew.
When Tharp is at a creative dead end, she relies on a lifetime of exercises to help her get out of the rut, and The Creative Habit contains more than thirty of them to ease the fears of anyone facing a blank beginning and to open the mind to new possibilities.
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. Amen! 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!
Twyla Tharp's rich and remarkable The Creative Habit is a book I will keep close at hand for re-reading and re-inspiring ...f-f-f-frequently. It is one of the most highlighted, underlined, marginal thoughts notes books I have in a library chock full of creativity books. This one is one of the top five on my list.

37 people found this helpful

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fiona spreadborough

Inseperation and persperation

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 10, 2023

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I love this book and Twyla Tharp, she is really inspiring and old school, face forward in the direction you want to go and keep going. She used to say, her workout or exercise as a ballerina didn't begin when she got into class it began from the moment she left the house. She's very focused, read her book it's great to help you realine your thoughts and work ethic. I'm going to read it again soon

Claudio

La creatività come abitudine

Reviewed in Italy on May 3, 2016

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Ballo come un tronco, sono leggiadro come un sasso: cosa c’entro io, umile e pigro lettore, con Twyla Tharp, ballerina e coerografa statunitense?
Più di quanto si possa credere, più di una curiosità superficiale; tutù e scarpette rimangono fuori dal colpo di fulmine.
Mi è stato sufficiente leggere poche righe per rintracciare una affinità profonda con questo saggio: dove si insiste sulla creatività come un lavoro, una abitudine, un esercizio senza tregua. Il problema è che (in qualsiasi campo si operi) bisogna trasporre un mondo in un altro, cambiargli segnali, linguaggio, vestiti, struttura, valori, per poter essere innovativi ed efficaci: non si può improvvisare, non ci si affida all’estro momentaneo. L’estro stesso risulta presto una tecnica che si deve coltivare quotidianamente, e i frutti si colgono anche (e) quando l’applichiamo inconsciamente, quasi da automi.
Tutto ciò che suggerisce l’autrice non è nuovo, neanche una virgola, ma è affilato e diretto il modo in cui lo propone, la banale ed immediata messa a punto di un sistema elementare: non sei un artista, uno scrittore, un ballerino, un pittore? Certo magari sei un ingegnere, un cuoco, un imprenditore, un insegnante, un genitore... “learn it and use it for life”, recita il sottotilo. Non esiste un solo aspetto della vita che non necessiti di creatività, che non ne chieda un baule, un sacco, un silos, una sporta.
Proprio perché si tratta di un esercizio, di una abitudine, il libro suggerisce una serie di esercizi pratici che servono a fare il punto, a ricoverare qualcosa di ovvio (probabilmente) di sé stessi, a darsi limiti certi o attaccarsi ad un filo, ad un inizio. Non sono obbligatori, e questo non è un libro che mira ad una psicologia debole, ad un lavaggio del cervello. Vale solo il lavoro sofferto su sé stessi, e non esistono scorciatoie (qualcosa che un italiano medio farà molta difficoltà a capire).
Il libro è stato pubblicato per la prima volta nel 2006, ma io l’ho scoperto insieme a quello di Austin Kleon, “Steal Like an Artist”, tradotto e pubblicato anche in italiano (2013); li consiglierei entrambi a chiunque desideri anche solo spargere un pochino di sale nella propria vita, privata o professionale che sia.
Per godere di questa lettura è sufficiente un inglese elementare ed un piccolo dizionario, non lasciatevi scoraggiare, ne vale veramente la pena!

14 people found this helpful

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Luana

Good read for creatives

Reviewed in Australia on January 6, 2023

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Great read for creatives. She provides a lot on insight on her journey as a choreographer and how to overcome creative block and create a habit to unleash creativity.

Samya Daleh

Creative DNA, interesting

Reviewed in Germany on February 14, 2022

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This book was written by a woman who creates dances, but actually it applies to any kind of creativity.
Yes, similar to the books about talent it is all about training, or better to say for creativity: working. Work creatively every day and you will see progress.
But there is more. There might be something in you you need to follow and nourish. Twyla calls it Creative DNA and I wonder if everyone has it in anyway. It means that your thinking is hardwired to one or the other kind of art. If you see a picture and start to make up stories in your mind, you might be a writer. If the picture makes you hear music in your thoughts, you are a musician. Interesting concept.
This book also gives hints about how to handle the bigger and smaller problems of an artist, like a creative block or what to do when the body doesn't allow everything anymore.

One person found this helpful

TheodoreStreet

Sharpies and ladders, notebooks and Banker's boxes

Reviewed in Canada on June 11, 2013

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This could be the book that spawned my own creative project, a series of projects that I have been meaning to do, some for a long time, others will be spawned along the way -- but if you mean it, sometimes there is not much difference between your plan and the result -- perhaps the result will be even better than the plan. I like the idea that there is some inherent talent in all of us, and we must discover what it is.

But don't just take your Sharpies and start writing lists. A list is generically, a set of items, that must be acquired or accomplished in order make something happen. Make sure that you have a variety of notebooks, some in graph paper or blue squares, some in lined paper, and some in unlined paper.

Don't be afraid to draw in any of your notebooks. Draw the finished product, the assemblies, the individual parts, and the way that the raw materials -- like boards and screws are transformed. My favourite tool is my hand-cranked drill. With this tool, I avoid screwing too many screws, or making too many holes. One of my projects is to build a chair, build a table, build a tube -- the way the Eskimos or the way the way many other indigenous people would do. By lashing and sewing pieces of bone and or wood together with sinewy ligaments taken from Caribou legs -- or as a substitute, using braided nylon cordage -- as the modern day Inuit would do -- when lashing slats to runners to make their modern day sleighs which could be pulled by dogs, but which are mainly pulled by Skidoos.

Many of the ideas and inspirations for my projects already existed. And by all rights, paying for and downloading one book isn't going to make it happen. But it could help, and in my case I will give the book credit where credit is due.

2 people found this helpful

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