Big Magic Book Summary

Book Summary

15 min

Audio available

Brief Summary

Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert is a powerful and uplifting guide to living a creative and inspired life. Drawing on her own experiences and stories from others, Gilbert explores the nature of inspiration and the challenges that often accompany creativity, such as fear, self-doubt, and perfectionism. She encourages readers to embrace curiosity, take risks, and approach their creative endeavors with playfulness rather than pressure. With a blend of practical advice, motivational insights, and heartfelt storytelling, Big Magic inspires readers to let go of fear, invite magic into their lives, and unleash their full creative potential.

About the Author

Elizabeth Gilbert is an American author. She wrote the renowned book Eat, Pray, Love, which was on the New York Times Best Seller List and was made into a film of the same name in 2010. She graduated with a degree in political science from New York University in 1991. She worked as a journalist for national magazines such as New York Times Magazine. She made a career as a highly paid freelance writer.

Her first book, Pilgrims, was a collection of short stories and received the Pushcart Prize. It was also a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award.

Her memoir, Eat Pray Love chronicles her year of spiritual and personal exploration spent traveling abroad. She financed her world travel for the book with a $200,000 publisher’s advance after pitching the concept in a book proposal. The movie for the book starred Julie Roberts. She was named one of the most 100 influential people in the world by Time magazine and named Oprah’s Supersoul 100 list of visionaries and influential leaders.

Topics

Self Development

Big Magic Book Summary Preview

By Elizabeth Gilbert

Key Insights

Elizabeth Gilbert may be best known for her book, “Eat, Pray, Love,” but that timeless memoir of personal discovery is not the only story Gilbert has to share with her audience.

In “Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear,” Gilbert uses anecdotal stories to share the words of wisdom she has learned throughout her passion for writing.

“Do whatever brings you to life, then. Follow your own fascinations, obsessions, and compulsions. Trust them. Create whatever causes a revolution in your heart.”- Elizabeth Gilbert

Gilbert gives insight to her readers about the damaging effects fear can have on your ability to live a creative life.

She goes on to discuss persistence, the idea of Big Magic, being brave, and being open to inspiration from the world around us.

Face Your Fears

In order to live a creative life, you must uncover the hidden treasures within yourself and let them lead the way.

“The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them.”- Elizabeth Gilbert

You must be driven by curiosity and must always ask questions rather than living in fear of failure.

Living with curiosity will make you happier, diversify your perspective on the world, and give you a much more interesting story to tell.

You must never think you are too young or too old to follow your dream. Everyone has their own timeline. Everyone is capable of living a creative life and pursuing the things they are passionate about.

Fear kills creativity. It doesn’t just hinder the process, it can sometimes stop it before it even starts.

Oftentimes a person can overcome their fear to do something creative such as write a novel, but once that is done fear may stop them from letting others read it.

Leave motivational post-its and images for yourself in your creative workspace. This is a helpful way to prevent fear creeping in and taking over your creative process.

The Paradoxes of Creativity

Although fear can hurt the creative process, it is also necessary for the creative process. This is one of the paradoxes of the creative world.

Creators must embrace their fears, rather than ignore them when it comes to their works. That’s because this can help secure their motivation for the piece. Without the fear, the piece isn’t what it originally was. To keep the organic idea intact, you must embrace the fear that comes along with it.

Another paradox of creativity are that it is work and a privilege. It may seem like a lot of time to spend on a passion, but that passion is a privilege to have.

“Creativity is sacred, and it is not sacred. What we make matters enormously, and it doesn’t matter at all. We toil alone, and we are accompanied by spirits. We are terrified, and we are brave. Art is a crushing chore and a wonderful privilege. Only when we are at our most playful can divinity finally get serious with us. Make space for all these paradoxes to be equally true inside your soul, and I promise—you can make anything....