Twyla Tharp and the Creative Bubble

[carolinayellowdog]

Hey,

I've just started reading Tharp's new book The Creative Habit, for a specific reason. After three fairly positive experiences with writing books, I'm blocked on the fourth. In three years of research I've amassed over 300 pages of historical documents and plenty of relevant secondary sources. But actually starting to write keeps getting postponed. Maybe it's because I now have a more demanding job, more civic responsibilities, and am happily partnered, in contrast to the circumstances of the earlier projects.

Here's Tharp on the creative bubble:

"When I look back on my best work, it was inevitably created in what I call The Bubble. I eliminated every distraction, sacrificed almost everything that gave me pleasure, placed myself in a single-minded isolation chamber, and structured my life so that everything was not only feeding the work but subordinated to it...not all of us have the resources to achieve the pure bubble state...but even within our distracted existence, we have to cultivate a version of a bubble if we want to work freely and with maximum fluency in making connections and harnessing our memory-- and to maintain all this as a habit."(pp. 237, 239)

My best work was also created in a bubble of single-minded devotion. That's just not feasible now but I don't want to postpone creativity until such time as it is. So the question is how to make a little space in life to focus on a creative project even in the midst of heavy career, relationship, etc. demands.

Any DUers out there with experience and advice?

CYD

[Race4Peace]

1. o...k...

not me. I dont know f I have any advice but go ahead.I'll try