The Creative Habit

I've had a few books on my reading list lately, and I'm finally getting around to checking them out. At the very top of my list is a book called The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp. I first heard about it in a career feature on The Everygirl (shocking, right?) a few weeks ago and have been meaning to pick up a copy ever since.

So last Friday, I walked right into my local Barnes and Noble and asked where I could find the book. After some searching, the salesperson said, "It's at the top of the escalator, to the left, in the Self Help section." The Self Help section. I found this to be extremely funny for some reason. Regardless, I bought it. I’m only a few chapters in and I’m loving it already. The book is about integrating habits into your daily life that help you prepare to be more productively creative. It’s about learning to never fear a blank page or the start of a project again. 

I still can remember many a night in college procrastinating an essay or an architecture project precisely because of a blank screen. And now with blogging and design projects for The Everygirl, I’m still sometimes slightly afraid of that blank screen. My general method of overcoming this new project paralysis has usually been to dive in headfirst and get out an initial rough draft, no matter how awful. I did this in high school and college and still do it today. Then I edit that rough draft, and the rough draft after that, until I have a final product that is a fully edited version of my initial ideas. It's been a pretty effective method for me all these years, but I'm thinking there might just be a better way. My hope is that this book will help me develop a more efficient, and also less risky, means of creating. We shall see.

In the meantime, I'm curious to know, have any of you read this book? Or do you have any books you’re particularly loving right now? Let me know!