The Creative Habit / Twyla Tharp / 2009 Best Book + A Fresh Giveaway
Today is Day 4 of The Best of 2009 Blog Challenge.
And we all know a day is a year in blog land. So, now we're in our fourth year.
A bit o' housekeeping
Today the challenge got its own Twitter List. If you want to follow your favorite bloggers participating in the challenge, you can follow the list. Overnight, the master list of blogs in the challenge grew to over 400 participants. Which means, on the admin side of things, I'm adding new participants to the Twitter list as quickly as I my ten digits and four eyes will allow. (Read: If you don't see yourself, just shout in my direction.)
I reignited my Google Reader to read #best09 posts exclusively (Helvetireader is beautiful. And soothing. As are these Google Reader Fluid App icons my friend Matt made.)
Win something beautiful
No, you can't win Bryce Widom (above). But you can win a piece of his art (valued at $150).
Bryce is my friend, a painter and one of the most intriguing conversationalists I have met this year. I like that his name is one "s" shy of "wisdom." This is a man on a mission. (Well, two, actually. He's also participating in #best09.) The mission is to paint 1,000 Views of God. And he's going to gift one of your choice to one of you. You have through the weekend to get your posts up on your best book (day 4), night out (day 5), workshop/conference (day 6). For the first giveaway, random.org chose.
For this one, I'm choosing.
I'm choosing based on the creative quality of your writing. You'll know Monday if you won. And I'll announce it here along with a roundup of the posts that have inspired me the most so far in the challenge. (If you want to make extra sure your post is considered for this giveaway, tag it #best09 and #1000views when you tweet.)
What is this?
Some call it a reflect-a-thon. Others call it prompts that don't suck. Here's the official Q&A.
Call it what you will and join us. More-or-less the entire world is invited.
And we're serving up more choice end-of-year (and rest-of-decade) reading than you can shake a stick at.
Speaking of reading. This is my book of the year.
From Twyla Tharp's, The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life
Perfectionism at the Start
Another trap is the belief that everything has to be perfect before you can take the next step. You won't move on to that second chapter until the first is written, rewritten, honed, tweaked, examined under a microscope, and buffed to a bright mahogany sheen. You won't dip a brush in the paint until you've assembled all the colors you can possibly imagine using in the course of the project. I know it's important to be prepared, but at the start of the process this type of perfectionism is more like procrastination. You've got to get in there and do.
Beat a trail to your local bookstore and buy The Creative Habit. Hibernate with it and imprint its message on your eyeballs. I have this book to thank for a few new routines that I share with Susannah Conway in this interview on my creative life.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Reader Comments (13)
I've been so busy getting my blog off the ground I have not read a book in months, sad huh. But I will beat it to the bookstore to buy this one, coupon in hand!
Gwen, I loved when you pulled out this book during the yoga segment of the Vancouver workshop. In 2004 my yoga friends and I kicked off the new year with a 40 day sadhana that included a daily yoga practice along with readings from a book of our choice. Many chose Patanjali's Sutras or the Bhagavad Gita, but I chose The Creative Habit - I considered my yoga practice a creative act and I used many of Twyla's ideas in making it more of a "habit". Great book choice!
Ooh, thanks for sharing this. It looks like just the book I need right now (I need to tape that quote to the end of my nose). Off to order it...
yay! That's totally my book of the year, too!!! I actually wrote about Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking instead, just because it's so freakin' funny.
But the Twyla Tharp book is the most underlined book I own. My girlfriend makes funny of me - that I basically just underlined the ENTIRE book.
I just started reading her next book "The Collaborative Habit" yesterday.
right on!
My favorite book of the year is Children of Fortune by Norman Spinrad. It is a rambling Sci-Fi story written in the mid-eighties about a future that is both full of pageantry and love making. In a time when the collective vision of the future appears to be so dystopian, I appreciate a future where the evolution of one's awareness is the primary precept held by the culture. I love Hippies in Space!
The Tharp book is definitely now on my Christmas list. She's such an inspiring woman with every movement, I know her words will be just as remarkable. And Bryce is amazing - just discovered him through this challenge, so thank you once again for the power of your ideas, chica!
I'm adding it to my Christmas wish list, next to a crock pot and Botox. Can't wait to read it! Did you see the Kennedy Center Honors last year when she was honored? Amazing!
This challenge has been so helpful for me already, and it has just been 5 days! Thank you so much for encouraging me to reflect on my year. I'm usually so busy at this time of year that reflection doesn't happen until New Years Eve!
:) I'm learning so much from reading the reflections of others. There are some incredible people out there!!!
Gwen ~
I am having so much fun with this challenge as well as reading everyone else's entries. I stayed up way too late last night reading lots of the "best of" articles and now feeling incredibly tired but so enlightened! It was worth every hour of sleep I missed. Also compiling the list of must-read books and so looking forward to all the remaining days' entries.
Thank you for doing this! xox
@amykoehler
Hey Gwen, thank you for launching this enriching and wonderful blog challenge! I don't think I'm on the Twitter list. Could you add me (outremesure)? Many thanks! (Apologies if I'm there and I just don't see me.)
Gwen-thanks for hosting this-it is enjoyable to read others best of lists and have something to look forward to for next year.
Gwen- What you have quoted from Twyla Tharp and the trap of perfectionism is EXACTLY why I hadn't started a blog of my own until your blog challenge. I even write about this on my day 1 blog post. There were so many imperfect reasons (read: excuses) as to why I wasn't ready to start my blog but I took your challenge and dove in knowing the process is more important than perfection. Thank you for being the catalyst. You rock.
Gwen,
Just reading the exerpt from Twyla's book, makes me want to run out and grab it!. Analysis Paralysis, Perfectionism or whatever you want to call it...I've got it! I've been wanting to blog for the last several years, but I can always find a gazillion reasons why not to. The lesson for me right now is Let Go. Be in the present and just do. Embrace the perfectly imperfect. You rock! Thanks for sharing your bests :)