Book Report: Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

How to dance with creativity

I am in love with Liz Gilbert right now. Eat Pray Love was so lovely. I only read it a couple of years ago, and then I re-read the “Eat" part when I was in Italy. I picked up Big Magic because it’s about her writing process, her creative process, and lessons for each of us in how to pursue a creative life. Since recently discovering Substack, I’ve been following her here too.

I’ve had an unusual year. I did not work for any employer in 2023. I have no W-2. That’s never happened before. My full-time job was healing my body. I suffered an injury in May of 2022 that took all of 2023 to figure out. I went to hundreds of appointments. I was on doctor’s orders not to lift, push, pull, squat, or bend in any repetitive way, which disqualified me from all the physical jobs I tend to work: field biologist, large animal trainer, fisheries observer, deckhand, naturalist, kayak guide, vet tech. 

Rest has never been a priority. 

All year, I felt like I was drifting. I felt like I was not contributing to society. I felt like my minimum-wage disability checks were unearned, and simultaneously not actually enough to live on here in Hawaii. I had chronic pain. I was also grieving the loss of my mother and grandmother, who both passed at the end of 2022. 

I knew that I needed something fulfilling in my life, something to accomplish. I started to look a little more closely at writing. I wanted to write a book. I had a new year’s resolution in 2023 to write daily, but I just didn’t. I knew writing would help, but it felt like a chore instead of a joy, so I just didn’t do it.

I wanted to be a writer, though. I wanted to take it seriously. I took a bunch of Masterclasses from writers I respect: Neil Gaiman, Amy Tan, Margaret Atwood, Roxanne Gay, Amanda Gorman. When I perused used bookstores (a favorite pastime), I started noticing books about writing. I picked up Big Magic, and later, Consider This by Chuck Palahniuk. I thought that having brilliant writers tell me how it works might unlock something and get me writing. 

Big Magic is the first thing that has given me a writing jolt. Many times while reading this book, I set down the book and went straight to my laptop to write. I need to write right now is such a wonderful feeling. It makes me feel like I’m on the right track, like I’m ready for the words to flow, finally! This book resonates so exquisitely with me, it was exactly what I needed to read right now. I have a strong urge to carry it around and re-read it immediately, one little morsel at a time so that I keep listening to Liz, and keep writing, into 2024. 

Liz Gilbert’s voice sings in such harmony with my own that reading her work feels like my dearest friend is telling me stories and giving me advice. Her writing voice is a comfort and an inspiration. This isn’t the first time I’ve felt this way about an author - Brené Brown, Amanda Palmer, and Robin Wall Kimmerer all feel like kindreds to me too. Funny thing - at least two of those three are good friends of Liz Gilbert. Reading the work of these women feels like sitting around a big table with them, sharing what we’ve learned, sharing the important things, making more magic. I want a seat at that table, and therefore I must write. And I’ve got some catching up to do. 

Big Magic is so wonderful because it brings a glorious lightness to the creative process. Gilbert takes away all the pressure to do something good, something new, something helpful, something innovative, and urges us to just do something, create something. Creating anything and putting it out into the world is so important to our well-being that it must not be feared or delayed any longer. Embracing the muse, the creative spark, the little shimmering bit of the universe that wants to work with us to make something - working with this magic to live a life filled with wonder is what it’s all about. 

Here are some choice quotes that made me wiggle with delight:

“In ancient Greek, the word for the highest degree of human happiness is eudaemonia, which basically means ‘well-daemoned’ - that is, nicely taken care of by some external divine creature spirit guide. (Modern commentators, perhaps uncomfortable with this sense of divine mystery, simply call it ‘flow’ or ‘being in the zone.’)”

***

“This proclamation of intent and entitlement is not something you can do just once and expect miracles; its something you must do daily, forever. I’ve had to keep defining and defending myself as a writer every single day of my adult life - constantly reminding and re-reminding my soul and the cosmos that I’m very serious about the business of creative living, and that I will never stop creating no matter what the outcome, and no matter how deep my anxieties and insecurities may be.”

***

“The most evil trick about perfectionism, though, is that it disguises itself as a virtue. In job interviews, for instance, people will sometimes advertise their perfectionism as if it’s their greatest selling point - taking pride in the very thing that is holding them back from enjoying their fullest possible engagement with creative living […] but I see it differently. I think perfectionism is just a high-end, haute couture version of fear. I think perfectionism is just fear in fancy shoes and a mink coat, pretending to be elegant when really it’s just terrified. Because underneath that shiny veneer, perfectionism is nothing more than a deep existential angst that says, again and again, ‘I am not good enough and I will never be good enough.’” 

***

“You might spend your whole life following your curiosity and have nothing to show for it in the end - except one thing. You will have the satisfaction of knowing that you passed your entire existence in devotion to the noble human virtue of inquisitiveness.” 

Check out this book if you are questioning your own creative life in any way, if you feel like something is missing in your life, if you feel scared to share your true self with the world. Liz Gilbert will talk you right into partying with creativity in ways that will light your life right up.