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Creative Habit: Learn It and Use I for Life Paperback – 6 Jan 2006

by Twyla Tharp (Author)

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An inspiring guide to unlocking one's creative potential provides a wealth of exercises, anecdotes, and advice that comprise evaluating one's creative history, stimulating oneself by becoming active, and making time for creative change. Reprint. 75,000 first printing.

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Product details

Paperback: 243 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (18 February 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9780743235273
ISBN-13: 978-0743235273
ASIN: 0743235274
Product Dimensions: 17.8 x 1.5 x 22.9 cm
Boxed-product Weight: 340 g
Average Customer Review: Be the first to review this item
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 21,499 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #125 in Psychology of Creativity & Genius (Books)
- #271 in Personal Transformation (Books)
- #389 in Creativity (Books)

Product description

Review

"[An] exuberant, philosophically ambitious self-help book for the creatively challenged."

-- The New York Times Book Review

"The Creative Habit emphasizes the work habits that lead to success."

-- C. Carr, O: The Oprah Magazine

"[A]s accessible, smart and eye-opening as her dance."

-- Linda Winer, Newsday

"An entertaining 'how to' guide, The Creative Habit isn't about getting the lightning bolt of inspiration, but rather the artistic necessity of old-fashioned virtues such as discipline, preparation and routine."

-- Cathleen McGuigan, Newsweek

"Twyla Tharp's amazingly plain-spoken treatise...is a frank, honest, and tough-love testament essentially arguing that art and creativity are matters of hard, old-fashioned work."

-- Sid Smith, The Chicago Tribune

"Though its context is a choreographer's world, its principles are universally applicable and sound....It could change your life."

-- Elizabeth Zimmer, The Village Voice

About the Author

Twyla Tharp, one of America's greatest choreographers began her career in 1965, and has created more than 130 dances for her company as well as for the Joffrey Ballet, the New York City Ballet, the Paris Opera Ballet, London's Royal Ballet, Denmark's Royal Ballet, and American Ballet Theatre. She has won two Emmy awards for television's Baryshnikov by Tharp, and a Tony Award for the Broadway musical Movin' Out. The recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 1993 and was made an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1997. She holds nineteen honorary degrees, most recently from Harvard University. She lives and works in New York City.

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Amazon.com: 315 reviews

Brian Johnson

I love Tharp's intensity!

18 August 2015 - Published on Amazon.com

Verified Purchase

"I will keep stressing the point about creativity being augmented by routine and habit. Get used to it. In these pages a philosophical tug of war will periodically rear its head. 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.

If it isn't obvious already, I come down on the side of hard work. That's why this book is call The Creative Habit. Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is a result of good work habits. That's it in a nutshell."

~ Twyla Tharp from The Creative Habit

Twyla Tharp is awesome.

One of the greatest choreographers in the world, she'd created more than 130 (!!!) dances for her company as well as for everyone from the Joffrey Ballet to London's Royal Ballet.

In this great book, Twyla shares some uber-Big Ideas on how we can develop our Creative Habit to more consistently rock it.

Hope you enjoy a few of my favorites:

1. Rituals of Preparation - They're a must.
2. Mozart's Genius = Discipline + work ethic.
3. Give Me 1 Week Without - Silly distractions.
4. Busy Copying - If you want to be great.
5. Reading - It does a mind good.

To find 250+ more reviews visit http://bit.ly/BrianReviews

35 people found this helpful.

Paula Cappa Reviews

The Best!

1 September 2015 - Published on Amazon.com

Verified Purchase

This is likely the best book on creativity you'll read this year. I'm not a dancer (I'm a fiction author), but The Creative Habit addresses all artists and business minds too. This is more than just practical suggestions to stimulate your creative juices and not the same ol' you've read before. Generous with deep perspectives, philosophy, and real life insights. What do you do if you are in a rut with your project or story or music? How can you unleash the energy you need to move ahead? "Muscle memory" was eye opening for me. Do you need to face your fears? Twyla has got something to say about that. How do you become lucky? This book is full of answers.

7 people found this helpful.

C. McNair Wilson

Inspiring, Practical, Essential

11 July 2014 - Published on Amazon.com

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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.

7 people found this helpful.

Customer Guy

For any type of artist -not just those in dance.

6 August 2018 - Published on Amazon.com

Verified Purchase

While I am not a dancer, I am a creative soul. Ms. Tharp uses her dance and choreography as examples, but speaks directly to artists in any genre as she describes the creative process. This book as thrilled my creative spirit and inspired me to allow myself to go beyond the self-imposed limits that I had unknowingly placed on myself.

3 people found this helpful.

Timothy Johnson

One habit you'll want to embrace.

12 March 2017 - Published on Amazon.com

Verified Purchase

Twyla Tharp's book is a great resource for the "left brained" creative. Although written by a choreographer, Tharp uses her experience as a backdrop to paint solid mental models, and does not beat the reader over the head with her trade. Interspersed with useful exercises and insightful anecdotes, this is the book I recommend first and foremost to those who ask me for resources on creativity... especially my analytical colleagues in finance, accounting, and IT. Very solid depth yet very digestible for the casual reader.

5 people found this helpful.

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