I Fought a Book Once
What's even stranger than that is I can't tell who won.
Lots of people have heard of the book The Creative Act by Rick Rubin. I've tried to come up with my own description of this book, and I guess I've landed on "a 400-page grouping of creative affirmations."
I bought this book thinking it'd help me understand a few things about myself and my creative process, but I had a lot of negative thoughts at first about it. Every other line I'd find myself going "yeah that's obvious," or "this was an overly-poetic way to express common knowledge." Every so often though, a line would resonate with me and I'd carry it with me for a day or two.
I bought this back in 2023 if I remember correctly, and today I'm reading it through a completely different lens. I was journaling this morning and realized I used to write music like I was the main character of an RPG: following a set storyline, sticking strictly to specific topics, having everything set in stone before I'd even started writing. If MCs sometimes take longer to release projects because they're also their own meticulous producers, I was quadrupling the amount of time it took because I closed off all but one predetermined creative route.
I posted a couple days ago about my current views on practicing and how you'll eventually get out what you're looking for if you continue to practice quickly and frequently (for me this has been in the form of automatic writing/drawing). This positions you more as a creative conduit (which I've always hated the sound of until now) than someone who "can just create a few pieces of art." You'll get what you need out of it as long as you show up, and I'm finding this to be more and more true daily. This is very close to how the book reads, but I was blind to it for a while because of my past mindset.
I used to fight with this book a lot, so much that I put it down for a couple years, but I'm seeing it wrestle its way back into my life. I like to think that I'm generally fairly open-minded, and maybe that's true given that I haven't fully given up on the book. I'm excited to see how my newfound creative flexibility lines up with it even if it happens to be the same as before.
Fight less, make more.