Rating: 
Summary: Best book on how to develop a creative practice
Review: As a frequent consumer of self-help genre books, I had a fair amount of skepticism regarding this one. What could a dancer teach me? However, having read the entire book cover to cover while underlining key ideas, words, or phrases, I have to say this is probably the most practical and insightful book on the creative process that I have ever read. Kudos to Twyla for demystifying creativity. She demonstrates that while there is no substitute for talent (and perhaps the blessings of the gods), much of the creative process is about discipline, focus, dedication, rituals, and creating space for allowing your creative spirit to spring forth. This is a book I will turn to again and again. Simply the best of its kind.
Rating:
Summary: Infuriatingly Simple
Review: Boil this book down and you're left with one idea: Work at your craft ever day. Twyla Tharp has created a book that is inspiring while being infuriating, especially for someone trying to master something new. The transcendant talent of Mozart or Isaac Newton inspires, but Ms. Tharp insists that those transcendant geniuses were the product of showing up every day and working at whatever their craft was. There's no magic; there might be inborn talent, but it's doubtful. Instead, you have to sit down every day and work through idea after idea until you find the gem that creates art. With practice, again every day, this will happen more and more often, and if you work at it every day for long enough, you will make being a great talent into a habit that becomes your way of life. Thank you and curse you Ms. Tharp for reminding me of what my parents and teachers always told me: work hard, do your best, stick to it, and good things will happen.
Rating:
Summary: Don't just sit there.
Review: Create something new. This book describes how Tharp, and the intent reader, can amplify their creative energies and direct them into creative output. It is so effective that, just a few pages in, I had to put the book down to go back to some writing that had languished. When I got back to the book, I enjoyed it immensely. If anyone thought for a moment that creativity is some little light that flips on when it will, they are seriously mistaken. Occasional, random flashes do not support a livelihood. The good news is that, whatever your field, creativity can be cultivated. Someone working hard enough and working the right way really can generate what is needed, on a reliable basis. The process she describes is grueling. It involves massive amounts of training and effort, every day, for years at a stretch. Like it or not, that's the way it has to be. Scientific creativity requires identical dedication and single-mindedness, as described by Santiago Ramon y Cajal in his 'Advice to a Young Investigator.' The good news is that the training works. The process is the same for a mathematician as for a painter or dancer. It is certain and effective. This doesn't mean that every painter will become a Picasso or that every dancer can be a Tharp. It does mean that a sufficiently dedicated worker can generate new ideas, good ones, predictably. Maybe, at this point, you can imagine some whiner mewling "I'm dedicated, but that's way too much work and it's boring." Such people have no idea what dedication means. Don't argue with them. It won't do them any good, and it will waste time you could have used productively. I admit that I never learned to appreciate dance, let alone Tharp's ouvre. I still respect her as an artist and innovator, even though I do not understand her art. This book was very well written - surprisingly well, since dancers I've known tend not to be verbally oriented. I enjoyed the way she opened her thoughts to the reader. It even felt voyeuristic at times, when she shared few words of her private vocabulary. I recommend this to anyone who creates new ideas of their own, or who wants an insider's word on the act of creation.
Rating: 
Summary: Mozart's deformed fingers
Review: I enjoyed this book (more for the Twyla-ness of it than anything else, especially the self-help thumping), but I would like to take issue with a previous reviewer's idea that anyone could make himself a Mozart. Heard of Salieri? Only Mozart could become Mozart. Life isn't like that; it's that 1% of slippery, uncontrollable magic that gets you every time.
Rating:
Summary: The Necessary Discipline Framework for a Creative Profession
Review: I was attracted to this book because I like to get ideas for how to improve my writing from reading about what others use to feed their creative efforts. I have been an admirer of Twyla Tharp's for a long time, and feel slightly connected to her by having attended the same high school after she graduated and knowing her twin brothers and sister there. The Creative Habit is a remarkable book on creative activities that anyone involved in dance, music, painting, sculpting, writing or theater will find very relevant. If you have a good imagination, you will also be able to extend the concepts here to other fields that require creativity such as business. Where most books on creativity focus on helping you get into a brief creative groove, Ms. Tharp's work focuses on having that groove all the time in your life. Her book is informed by not only her own very creative career . . . but also by extensive contact with other creative people and having read about how others have created in the past. I found her to be the best read person on creativity whose writing I have seen. Some of the issues she addresses include how to get started ("I Walk into a White Room"), preparation processes ("Rituals of Preparation"), your creative perspective ("Your Creative DNA"), drawing on your experiences ("Harness Your Memory"), getting your research and organized ("Before You Can Think out of the Box, You Have to Start with a Box"), finding inspiration when you have none ("Scratching"), taking advantage of the unexpected ("Accidents Will Happen"), having a clear idea of what you are trying to create ("Spine"), becoming competent in the necessary disciplines ("Skill"), dealing with stalls ("Ruts and Grooves"), learning from setbacks ("An 'A' in Failure"), and building on what you have done before to be more creative ("The Long Run"). Each chapter has exercises, many of which were new to me. I found the idea of either moving or thinking about moving to add new dimensions to my understanding of creative problems I am trying to solve now. I felt tremendously validated to find that most of my writing habits are identical to Ms. Tharp's ones for choreography. I even keep boxes full of material for projects I'm working on. The material in the book on how she switched from being a choreographer who could dance all of her roles to one who had to use others to dance those roles was especially interesting. Few works on creativity talk about how to shift from doing to enabling others to do as part of your creativity. I was impressed that she disciplines more hours of her day than I do. That made me realize that I have room to improve in my creative habits . . . and inspired me to want to improve. That was a great gift. If you want to be more creative in your profession, I strongly urge you to read and apply this book. It will make an enormous difference in the long run! Thanks you, Ms. Tharp! Please take another bow!!
Rating:
Summary: The Necessary Discipline Framework for a Creative Profession
Review: I was attracted to this book because I like to get ideas for how to improve my writing from reading about what others use to feed their creative efforts. I have been an admirer of Twyla Tharp's for a long time, and feel slightly connected to her by having attended the same high school after she graduated and knowing her twin brothers and sister there. The Creative Habit is a remarkable book on creative activities that anyone involved in dance, music, painting, sculpting, writing or theater will find very relevant. If you have a good imagination, you will also be able to extend the concepts here to other fields that require creativity such as business. Where most books on creativity focus on helping you get into a brief creative groove, Ms. Tharp's work focuses on having that groove all the time in your life. Her book is informed by not only her own very creative career . . . but also by extensive contact with other creative people and having read about how others have created in the past. I found her to be the best read person on creativity whose writing I have seen. Some of the issues she addresses include how to get started ("I Walk into a White Room"), preparation processes ("Rituals of Preparation"), your creative perspective ("Your Creative DNA"), drawing on your experiences ("Harness Your Memory"), getting your research and organized ("Before You Can Think out of the Box, You Have to Start with a Box"), finding inspiration when you have none ("Scratching"), taking advantage of the unexpected ("Accidents Will Happen"), having a clear idea of what you are trying to create ("Spine"), becoming competent in the necessary disciplines ("Skill"), dealing with stalls ("Ruts and Grooves"), learning from setbacks ("An 'A' in Failure"), and building on what you have done before to be more creative ("The Long Run"). Each chapter has exercises, many of which were new to me. I found the idea of either moving or thinking about moving to add new dimensions to my understanding of creative problems I am trying to solve now. I felt tremendously validated to find that most of my writing habits are identical to Ms. Tharp's ones for choreography. I even keep boxes full of material for projects I'm working on. The material in the book on how she switched from being a choreographer who could dance all of her roles to one who had to use others to dance those roles was especially interesting. Few works on creativity talk about how to shift from doing to enabling others to do as part of your creativity. I was impressed that she disciplines more hours of her day than I do. That made me realize that I have room to improve in my creative habits . . . and inspired me to want to improve. That was a great gift. If you want to be more creative in your profession, I strongly urge you to read and apply this book. It will make an enormous difference in the long run! Thanks you, Ms. Tharp! Please take another bow!!
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: I won't get into details, but it's a personal and engaging autobiographical book (even though it's massaged to fit the self-improvement formula--I suspect under the publisher's influence). The main difference between this book and the most of the rest of this highly exploitative genre, is that in this case, the author is not a professional scribbler and actually has something to say--which she does in a refreshingly simple and direct manner.
The reader below who said it's under-edited is correct--the book is at times unclear--however, at the same time, if you compare it with Tharp's previous book, Push Comes to Shove (also very good, imo), you'll see a huge improvement in that department. Finally, this is the kind of book where the flaws actually become part of the work's attraction, however unintuitive that may sound on the surface of it. Imperfections make it more personal, uncontrived, honest.
Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Artist's way of discipline
Review: Inevitably any self-help creativity book will be compared to Julia Cameron's block-buster, The Artist's Way. Those who liked Cameron will find similarities here, but also differences. I will be recommmending both for my career change and business consulting clients.
Cameron directly uses "spirituality" throughout her book, with references to "God," who, she says, can be broadly defined. She appeals to images and emotion.
Tharp goes directly to action. She's strictly verbal: no cute sayings, no quotations all over the page. She's as unadorned as the Nike swish and just as straightforward: "Just do it" could be her motto.
Her own life seems starkly disciplined. Lots of people get up before dawn (they must not have dogs -- mine demands a walk right away) but Tharp actually gives up movies while she's working on a project. Not just movies, but videos as well. Too distracting, she says.
The key to art, she says, is practice. Dancers start with class, whether they're stars or corps members. Painters prepare their material. Practice harder, she says, but with "purpose." And practice what's difficult. We tend to practice only what we do well. I think not only of dancers, but of basketball players like Cynthia Cooper, who practiced left-handed dribbling and three-point shots for hours.
My favorite part of Tharp's book was her discussion of ruts. A rut can be associated iwth bad timing, a bad idea, bad luck, most likely because you don't realize you have changed and the world has changed.
Her advice foro a typical artist problem - when to stop tinkering - is straightforward: When you feel that you have straightened out a messy room, stop! Otherwise, keep working.
While I enjoyed Tharp and recommend the book to everyone, I believe it's targeted to people who are already committed to making a living through creativity. Some people have an innate sense of what sells while others struggle with unread manuscripts and unseen artwork.
I would read The Creative Habit as a set of ideals, a philosophy rather than a prescription. For example, to get out of a rut, Tharp recommends, "Challenge your assumptions." This is not easy, as few people recognize their own assumptions. And as for acting on challenges...well, that's a whole new world!
Finally, as a career consultant, I am reminded that much of our world favors commercialism over creativity. Jobs often reward those who stay quietly in their boxes, rather than going outside the box. Once your creativity awakens, it's easy to become frustrated because there's no place to carry it out. But for most people, the creative life can bring its own rewards. And a daily practice session (if you know how to create a purposeful practice session) can surprise you.
-- Cathy Goodwin (.com)
Rating:
Summary: My habit has become an addiction!
Review: Like I said in my title, my habit has become an addiction! What habit, you ask? The creative habit, silly! Every morning I wake up and do the "creative stretches" outlined in the book, then I take a "power shower" and brush my teeth. (creatively, of course!) For breakfast I munch on Creative Crunchies with soy milk, then I go to my job. But I don't get there just any old way! No car or bus for this guy! I take what's called "The Creative Underground." It was founded in 1987 by creatives just like me, who needed alternate routes of travel for mind-expanding purposes. Then I get to work and I hate my job. But when I get home I put all my creativeness to use and I make dioramas of different political debates. My newest is the Lincoln/Douglass Diorama, and it's sure to bring emancipation to any proclamation! Read this book!
Rating:
Summary: Creativity is what life is about
Review: Loved this book. It gives a different, easy to follow, inspiring perspective on creativity. And get a hold of Optimal Thinking: How to be your best self to learn how to make the most of every moment and create your best life.
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