**I received this book for free to review, but all opinions are my own.**
★★★★★ (5 out of 5)
MY REVIEW
Let me start by being honest: For a long time I thought creative self-help books were for people who just liked trying various different hobbies, and something I would never, ever need. However, during the past year a doubt has seeped its way into the back of my mind, preventing me from writing. Sure, I've been writing down notes and inspiration, but since graduating in December of last year, I haven't written any actual narration.
But now that's I've read Tom Sturges' Every Idea is a Good Idea: Be Creative Anytime, Anywhere, I've come to see that inspiration isn't something that you wait for. Creativity may be in all of us, but you have to actively pursue it. That moment of inspiration that we all want (no matter what type of creativity you work towards) can happen every single day if you cultivate it.
There are a few things that I love about this book:
1. The Structure
This isn't the most important part of the book (obviously that's the content), but how this book is broken down makes it easy to digest and understand. The chapters are called "Creativity In Action," "Creativity And History," "Creativity And You", and more. You know exactly what each section is about in case you're looking for something specific.
Within those bigger chapters are smaller sections that are only a few pages long at the most. These smaller sections are stories about real people that give you an option for your creativity (ie. how other people are creative, so that maybe you'll get an idea for how you can be too). At the end of (almost) every chapter are brilliant creative exercises and I can't wait to do them myself.
2. The Content
I'm mostly talking about the smaller sections within each chapter: the stories about people alive and dead. What I really enjoyed about this book the most was reading about how other people cultivate their creativity, from songwriters to scientists, from painters to hip hop rappers. We all have our own way of digging down deep to access our creativity and inspiration, so it was fascinating to read about how others do it.
But not only were these stories engaging, but they gave me so many ideas. Creativity is unique to everyone, but now and then it's good to try something new, a new way of accessing that inspiration. I got numerous ideas from this book that I'm excited to test out to see what works for me and what doesn't.
3. The Creative Exercises
At the end of the first five chapters are creative exercises that I think are brilliant. They're short enough that you're not overwhelmed by the ideas, but still intriguing enough that you want to do them instantly. I'll share my favorite one with you: Reductions and More Reductions. In short, you start by telling a story in a paragraph, then a sentence, then a headline, then a word, and finally an onomatopoeia (words that are a sound, like bam).
I have nothing bad to write about this book. I devoured it in two days, highlighting sentences and paragraphs that spoke to me about creativity, and highlighting the exercises of others that I could see myself doing. If you're in need of inspiration yourself or you're not sure where to start, give this book a try. You might just discover something about yourself that you didn't understand when you first started this book.
FAVORITE QUOTES
"Creativity is a gift, from life to us. It exists in varying degrees, measures, and amounts in each of us, but we all have it inside. There is as much creativity in our lives as we allow there to be." (p. 4)
"Suppose that instead of forcing the issue when trying to create something, we let it emerge. Instead of demanding that the subject matter bend to our will, we let it bend our will." (p. 115)
"Just create. Be thankful that creativity exists in your life and move on from there. When you have an idea, capture it. When you find a solution, remember it." (p. 163)
Would you read this book?
Have you read it?
