The author of Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert has an inspiring TED Talk http://go.ted.com/CHBa
The topic is “genius, creativity and how we get in our own way when it comes to both.” She shares 11 helpful points about creativity. Point 3 for example, is “Make something, do something, do anything.” The first line is “If you have a creative mind, it’s a little bit like owning a border collie. You have to give it something to do or it will find something to do, and you will not like the thing it finds to do.”
Point 9 is “If you’re in the arts, you don’t need graduate school.”
I like the reasons she gives for why not. I have a Masters Degree in Education but I wondered if I should go back for an MFA. Maybe I need it to be recognized as a serious writer. Gilbert supported my reasons for not doing it. Besides, I like to explore specific topics I’m interested in and that will help improve areas in my writing I know need strengthening. An MFA program would have specific requirements and I’d be frustrated in moving away from what I want and already do study with on-line classes, conference workshops, and by writing. The time it takes to get the degree would leave no time to work on my novels and short stories. Thank you, Elizabeth, you’ve helped me make up my mind.
The other steps also offer new insights on questions most people in the arts ask themselves. Her new book published in September, 2015, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear explores “the attitudes, approaches, and habits we need in order to live our most creative lives.”
Have any of you read it yet?
Julaina Kleist-Corwin
Editor of Written Across the Genres
BTW I’ve posted the beginning of a collaborative story on my other blog. If you missed it, click here.
