The Creative Habit

Learn It and Use It for Life

Twyla Tharp

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Year: 2009
• eBook ISBN:
  9781439106563
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Creativity

One of the world’s leading creative artists, choreographers, and creator of the smash-hit Broadway show, Movin’ Out, shares her secrets for developing and honing your creative talents—at once prescriptive and inspirational, a book to stand alongside The Artist’s Way and Bird by Bird.

All it takes to make creativity a part of your life is the willingness to make it a habit. It is the product of preparation and effort, and it is within reach of everyone. Whether you are a painter, musician, businessperson, or simply an individual yearning to put your creativity to use, The Creative Habit provides you with thirty-two practical exercises based on the lessons Twyla Tharp has learned in her remarkable thirty-five-year career.

In “Where's Your Pencil?” Tharp reminds you to observe the world—and get it down on paper. In “Coins and Chaos,” she gives you an easy way 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 you how to clean the clutter from your mind overnight.

Tharp leads you through the painful first steps of scratching for ideas, finding the spine of your work, and getting out of ruts and into productive grooves. The wide-open realm of possibilities can be energizing, and Twyla Tharp explains how to take a deep breath and begin.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Chapter 1: I Walk into a White Room
• Chapter 2: Rituals of Preparation
• Chapter 3: Your Creative DNA
• Chapter 4: Harness Your Memory
• Chapter 5: Before You Can Think out of the Box, You Have to Start with a Box
• Chapter 6: Scratching
• Chapter 7: Accidents Will Happen
• Chapter 8: Spine
• Chapter 9: Skill
• Chapter 10: Ruts and Grooves
• Chapter 11: An “A” in Failure
• Chapter 12: The Long Run
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Copyright