This book has been on the bestseller lists for quite a while now and most of my creative peers read it a long time before I did. As it is, “Big Magic” is not only helpful for people who already earn their living by making stuff – not at all: After reading it I can safely claim that this is actually far more interesting for people who believe that they aren’t creative or who already know they have a creative streak in them but are afraid to follow their creative potential.
Big Magic is wonderfully entertaining, cheesy at times, but always entertaining. I found “Big Magic” to be incredibly liberating and empowering me to keep photographing and blogging without a care in the world and without listening to my fearful inner voice. Here is a list of all the things this afraid voice says to me and I don’t care about:
“English isn’t my first language and it will never be good enough to write a blog.”
“My photos are pretty but they aren’t art.”
“My photos aren’t pretty.”
“My photos aren’t important.”
“Some photographers are better.”
“All REAL photographers are better.”
“I’m not a REAL photographer.”
“I have no right to write about photography.”
“Nobody cares.”
(…)
This list is endless and it is boring too. The situation is this: Nothing of it matters, as long as I enjoy photography and blogging and even colouring in books. Also, I don’t want to do anything else and I don’t want to stop. It isn’t really a choice now: I will keep putting my stuff out there because there is nothing else I would want to do even if I stopped.
*I listened to this on audio book. Big Magic is read by the author Elizabeth Gilbert herself and she does a fantastic job at it. Highly recommended.
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