You may be a photographer, a painter or a choreographer, but fundamentally you are creative. The same creative force is manifested in different ways with different outcomes, but comes from the same place and needs similar nourishment.

I recently came across Twyla Tharp’s book The Creative Habit, Learn It And Use It For Life. For anyone seeking to get the most from their creative life, it is indispensable.

Tharp is a highly successful choreographer whose job is to create dances. She writes about how to maintain a creative mindset, how to find inspiration when it’s difficult to find ideas, how to be constructively critical of oneself and how to handle the bad times.

It’s a relatively quick read and it should probably be referred to again and again, whilst both seeking inspiration for a project and running it.

It’s a valuable and readable manual for creative people to keep being creative. And it does have genuine application across the arts. Tharp is a choreographer and musician, she draws on the experiences of painters, photographers and writers.

I’m happy to recommend this book to anyone who wants to lead a productive creative life.