Another mid-read book report from me. Finally reading Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat, Pray, Love). It’s a delightful read about how ideas really work. Here’s some of the things I’ve learned from it:
1. Each idea is its own free floating entity looking for collaborators
2. In order for ideas to present themselves to us, we need to be looking for them, open to them, moving slow enough to notice them
3. If we decide to collaborate with an idea, we enter into a contract with it
4. In that contract we agree to work hard, and do whatever it takes to bring that idea into fruition
5. The idea has no interest in our fame, fortune or success–we might end up with fame, fortune or success or total ruin, the idea is interested in the idea.
6. The idea is not interested in our “helping people,” the idea is interested in becoming a reality. We might help people. We might not. The idea does not care. [not sure I agree with this entirely, although there are a lot of ideas that harm a lot of people so I guess it makes sense]
7. We don’t need to give up our day job to enter into a contract with an idea.
8. We don’t need to borrow $100,000 to get a Masters of Fine Arts to enter into contract with an idea.
9. We don’t need to have any special credentials whatsoever to enter into a contract with an idea.
10. If we don’t actually fully our contract in a timely fashion, working “like a farmer” (as Gilbert, the child of hardworking farmers continually says), the idea will move on. It has no loyalty to us.
11. It may even be presenting itself to more than one person at a time (some ideas are a bit slutty–my word, not hers).
Okay, this is what I’ve gleaned so far. This makes sense to me. I’ll keep reading.