A “How to” book has its own risks…
Thursday, November 5, 2009
..as I learned soon after "Forever Cool". The story of publishing my 2 books could easily be the stuff of it's own reality movie or memoir. It continues to unfold.
A friend just sent me a YouTube video of Elizabeth Gilbert (of "Eat, Pray, Love" fame) talking about the creative process--and it was interesting to me.
However my books dealt with ideas about style, some of which I knew to be original to me--and since my goal was to be unique as well as helpful to my readers--I laid much importance to that premise of originality. So I can add yet another fear to Elizabeth's fear of the missed creative opportunity (and indeed it was well founded) that only crystalized after my ambitious effort. And that is --that "intellectual property" of aesthetic ideas is no sooner written than it is read and absorbed by others who adopt it as their own.
So Elizabeth, and all like me who love to be creative (and unique)--I believe that much of what we "put out" to the world has to be a reward in itself. The hope that our creativity will be acknowledged--is understandable but cannot always be expected.
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