World Famous Comics: The Creativity Book: A Year's Worth of Inspiration and Guidance
The Creativity Book: A Year's Worth of Inspiration and Guidance
By: Eric Maisel Publisher: Tarcher Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Tarcher Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 304 Publication Date: June 19, 2000 Release Date: June 15, 2000
Book Description: A complete creativity education in one volume. Everything you need to know to increase and unleash your creativity, by America's leading expert on the psychological side of creativity.
Whether you're a painter or a human resources manager, a novelist or an information services specialist, says Eric Maisel, whatever you do, creativity helps you do it better.
In this book, Maisel presents a complete one-year plan for unleashing your creativity. It uncludes two discussions/exercises per week, and culminates in a guided project of your choice--from working on your current novel to planning a new home business.
Bite-Size Brillance Since creativity usually reveals itself in small doses (and because most creative folks have short attention spans), I'm drawn to creativity-related books that stick to the point and offer bite-size morsels of materials. (In fact, both books I've written on this topic -- "IdeaSpotting" and "Zing!" take the approach of single-page messages.)
By presenting his content in a sequential, year-long plan, Maisel gives the reader digestible, easy-to-access inspiration and exercises for higher creativity and fresh ideas. Too many books force the reader to dig for the nuggets in volumes of narrative. Maisel's Creativity Book keeps the reader doing rather than digging!
Worth a Year of Your Time 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.
Creativity for anyone--not just writers and artists 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.
Worth reading, doing, keeping, re-reading 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.
Excellent Resource for All Artists 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.
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