On Monday 10th January 2022 PropelHer’s Book Club discussed Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert.

 

In this summary of Big Magic, I’ll be briefly summarising the book to help you make a decision about whether you should buy a copy of the book for yourself.

 

The book is broken down into 6 sections: Courage, Enchantment, Permission, Persistence, Trust and Divinity.

 

In the first section, Courage, Elizabeth writes about the requirement to be brave and have courage. Elizabeth shares her definition of creative living and it is not only bound to those who follow a life as a ‘creative’ in the sense of being an artist, writer, musician etc. A creative life is about following curiosity and living a bigger, happier and more interesting life. In this section she also explores how to deal with fear

 

The second section, Enchantment, is focused on ideas and how they work. Elizabeth shares her thoughts on how ideas start, grow and how they can die too. 

 

Permission, the third section, explores why you don’t need permission from anyone else to live a creative life. Elizabeth discusses how ‘high culture’ and gatekeepers can stop people from following their creative endeavours, but that everyone is allowed to have a voice and vision.In this section she also discusses risk and how when making art you are always gambling. She also touches on how there is no job security in creativity and the impact debt can have on creativity. 

 

In the fourth section, Persistence, Elizabeth shares the vows she made to herself when she decided to commit to being a writer and how she never wanted to burden her creativity with having to finance her life. This section explores the importance of practice and how the journey can be long and hard, and you need to be prepared for that.

 

The fifth section, Trust, explores the relationship between artists and pain. Many artists feel fueled by pain and many aspiring artists believe that without living in pain they aren’t a real artist. Elizabeth doesn’t agree with this viewpoint and shares how instead she approaches her work with ‘stubborn gladness’.This section also explores curiosity. Elizabeth believes that curiosity is ‘the truth and the way of creative living’ and that we all need to embrace it more. 

 

Divinity is the final, and very short, section of Big Magic. Elizabeth shares a story from her Bali and discusses accidental grace. And then the book ends with a super short one-page conclusion.

 

That’s it!  You now have an idea about what you can expect to find inside of Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert.

 

Like the sound of Big Magic? Why not buy a copy of the book and read it yourself?

 

Buy your copy of Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert from The Bookshop (and support local bookshops) or Amazon.

 

Big Magic was read as part of PropelHer’s Book Club. PropelHer’s Book Club is an online non-fiction book club for ambitious women that meet monthly. Every month PropelHer’s Book Club reads a different book to help ambitious women concentrate on their personal development and professional success. You can see what else we have read so far here. If you would like to join PropelHer’s Book Club you can find full details here.

And don’t forget to share your book pictures! Tag @Propelherorg or use the hashtag #PropelHer