Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert — My 10 Best Takeaways

Reading Big Magic made me start a blog and publish one post a week.

The book is like a comforting voice whispering to me “You’re allowed to write. No matter how boring, how nonsense the product will be, it’s okay. Just write, then share it with the world.”

Of course, sharing your writing with the world will force you to write the best way you can. As David Perell put it, “Writing in public is like inviting guests to your house for dinner. You have to clean and double check everything.”

The following are my ten takeaways from the book. Enjoy!

1. Ignore the outcome.

“I wish somebody had told them all to go fill up a bunch of pages with blah-blah-blah and just publish it, for heaven’s sake, and ignore the outcome.”

If you’re a beginner, it’s okay to write anything, even if the result is crap, even if no one wants to read your work, even if you hated it.

Ray Bradbury once gave a piece of advice to one of his students. It sounded like this: “Write one bad short story a wee. Do this for a year. And you’ll see that it’s not possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row.”

2. Don’t aim to be original.

“So what if we repeat the same themes? So what if we circle around the same ideas, again and again, generation after generation? So what if every new generation feels the same urges and asks the same questions that humans have been feeling and asking for years?

Everything reminds us of something. But once you put your own expression and passion behind an idea, that idea becomes yours.”

Some experienced writers say “Be original.” I say to myself “Don’t.”

If every meta-theme has thousands of writers who’ve already written about it, why still write? Because as Elizabeth Gilbert writes, “Most things have already been done — but they have not yet been done by you.”

3. Writing is not all about having the right answers.

It can also be about letting other people see the world through your eyes.

“…feel free to start sharing your perspective through creativity, even if you’re just a kid. If you are young, you see things differently than I do, and I want to know how you see things. We all want to know. When we look at your work (whatever your work may be), we will want to feel your youth — that fresh sense of your recent arrival here.

Be generous with us and let us feel it. After all, for many of us it has been so long since we stood where you stand.”

We all live in the same material world, but each of us sees it differently — creating varying versions of reality.

Seeing the world through other people’s eyes is like living a thousand lives. So let other people have a glimpse at your world just like how your favorite writers have let you see theirs.

4. Nobody wants to read your shit.

That’s the title of a book by Steven Pressfield. And that’s the first line I thought after reading this quote:

“Quit complaining. It’s not the world’s fault that you wanted to be an artist. It’s not the world’s job to enjoy the films you make, and it’s certainly not the world’s obligation to pay for your dreams. Nobody wants to hear it. Steal a camera if you must, but stop whining and get back to work.”

This was a reply from Werner Herzog to his fan, who sent him a letter complaining how the fan was not getting the success he believes he deserves.

The reply was a little bit harsh, but it was a form of tough love. And there’s some truth to it. We don’t care much about other people’s stories unless it reflects a part of who we are.

The problem is nobody can write a story that goes viral every time. “We don’t always know what’s good and what sucks,” writes Austin Kleon.

What we can do is to keep creating, keep experimenting, and see how the people react. Then repeat what works.

5. Welcome criticisms, from people reading your work and, most importantly, from yourself.

“…the reaction doesn’t belong to you — is the only sane way to create. If people enjoy what you’ve created, terrific. If people ignore what you’ve created, too bad. If people misunderstood what you’ve created, don’t sweat it. And what if people absolutely hate what you’ve created? What if people attack you with savage vitriol, and insult your intelligence, and malign your motives, and drag your good name through the mud?

Just smile and suggest — as politely as you possibly can — that they go make their own fuckin art. Then stubbornly continue making yours.”

Writing is a numbers game. Before you’ll have hits, you’ll have many flops. It means the ratio of success to failure is small at the beginning.

If, at first, only one out of your 50 articles goes viral or semi-viral, write 50 more. Next time, for every 50 articles you write, 2 will reap a huge number of reads, then 3, then 10, and so on.

The more you write, the higher your success rate will be.

6. Every piece you write is an opportunity to learn something new.

“I kept working. I kept writing. I kept not getting published, but that was okay, because I was getting educated.”

Write not to craft a perfect post. Because you can’t. No one can. For every finished piece, there’s always room for improvement. There’s always something you can add, replace, or delete.

I once watched an interview of Cal Newport, author of the New York Times Bestseller book Deep Work, where Cal said, “There were times when I see one weak section on my final manuscript, but because I don’t have time left to revise it, I just tell myself ‘I’ll do better next time’.”

Don’t aim to craft a perfect post. Instead, do the best you can within your timeline, then toss it out to the world. If you see some parts that need improvement, copy Cal Newport, and say: “I’ll do better next time.”

7. Don’t think about making money from your writing until you’ve practiced a lot.

“I held on to my day jobs for so long because I wanted to keep my creativity free and safe.

…I was always willing to work hard so that my creativity could play lightly.”

Elizabeth Gilbert didn’t leave her day job even after she published two books. She left her job only after her book, Eat, Pray Love, had a huge success.

If you’re a beginner writer, don’t think of making money from your writing at first, because you will put too much pressure on your writing that you will end up hating it.

Your first goal is to get good at your craft, to hone the micro-skills of writing, to learn the nuances and techniques to develop your style.

It’s easier to find a way to make money if you’re already good enough.

Nicolas Cole wrote that before thinking about earning money from your writing, write your first 100 articles first.

8. Your first attempt to capture your thoughts on paper sucks.

“…because the work never came out on the page quite as exquisitely as it lived in his head. He found it all too frustrating. He didn’t want to sully the dazzling ideal that existed in his mind by putting a clumsy rendition of it down on paper.”

It’s okay to write a dirty, yucky first draft.

Some writers prefer to write a sentence close to its final version. And they preach about it — that it’s the best way to write. But if you’re a beginner, like me, with no experience writing an article, writing the perfect sentence during the creation stage is the most dangerous advice you can follow.

Write a bad first draft. You can always fix it later.

9. Create to stay sane.

"I firmly believe that we all need to find something to do in our lives that stops us from eating the couch. Whether we make a profession out of it or not, we all need an activity that is beyond the mundane and that takes us out of our established and limiting roles in society (mother, employee, neighbor, brother, boss, etc.)”

"…if I am not actively creating something, then I am probably actively destroying something (myself, a relationship, or my own peace of mind.)”

Creating art makes us feel alive.

Having the power to do something that makes you feel alive, outside your job and other responsibilities, is the best way to stop seeking happiness from outside yourself — from other people, from social media, from material things.

I read a quote months ago that says, “The strongest person is one who knows how to be happy alone.”

“Give your mind a job to do,” writes Elizabeth Gilbert, “or else it will find a job to do, and you might not like the job it invents.”

10. Write what you love thinking about.

“You are not required to save the world with your creativity. Your art not only doesn’t have to be original, in other words; it also doesn’t have to be important.”

You don’t need to save the world or other people with your writing. You are allowed to write to help yourself, to make sense of what happens to you, or to spend time thinking about the subjects you love thinking about.

Elizabeth Gilbert wrote the book Big Magic because she loves thinking about creativity. She writes, “I did not write this book [Big Magic] for you; I wrote it for me. I wrote this book for my own pleasure, because I truly enjoy thinking about the subject of creativity. It’s enjoyable and useful for me to meditate on this topic. If what I’ve written here ends up helping you, that’s great, and I will be glad. That would be a wonderful side effect. But at the end of the day, I do what I do because I like doing it.”

This article first appeared here.