Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life (Simon & Schuster, 2003)

Reviewed by Claudia Mills

Writers and illustrators begin each project with a blank sheet of paper, blank canvas, or blank computer screen; choreographer Twyla Tharp begins hers by walking into "a large white room … Other than the mirrors, the boom box, the skid marks [on the floor], and me, the room is empty." But Tharp claims that we can face and fill our empty spaces by developing "the creative habit:" "Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is a result of good work habits."

She shares this advice in an inspiring series of reflections drawn from her 35-year career:

• the importance of "rituals of preparation," which reassure each of us that "I've done it before. It was good. I'll do it again;"
• tips for artistic organization ("Before you can think out of the box, you have to start with a box");
• where and how to "scratch" for ideas (e.g., "Scratch in the best places" and "Never scratch the same place twice");
• capitalizing on lucky accidents--and the skill of making them happen in the first place ("Something good may happen to you between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. today. Make sure you're at your desk working");
• how to escape from demoralizing "ruts" and find your way to groovy creative "grooves"; and
• why you should strive to earn an "A" in failure (Tharp quotes golfer Bobby Jones as saying, "I never learned anything from a match I won").

© Mark Ludy

The book is studded with fascinating anecdotes of the creative habits of dancers, actors, writers, artists, athletes, even businessmen, each one offering a hard-won nugget of creative wisdom, as well as an array of intriguing exercises to try. Best are Tharp's candid confessions of her own creative triumphs and tribulations. My favorite is her finally facing the fact that the first act of her Broadway-bound show, Movin' Out, was failing in its Chicago debut: "During intermission, I overheard one waiter tell a couple, 'Don't worry. The second act is much better.' When the waiters in town know the problem and you don't do something about it, that's denial."

Step One for facing and overcoming your own parallel pitfalls is to immerse yourself in Tharp's bracing, exhilarating book. This is going on my read-over-and-over-and-over-again shelf next to Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird and Brenda Ueland's If You Want to Write.

Claudia Mills's 37th book for young readers, Makeovers by Marcia, the 5th and final title in her West Creekseries, is out this spring from Farrar, Straus, & Giroux. Ziggy's Blue Ribbon Day, a picture book illustrated by R. W. Alley, is coming out this fall.