The tail end of an idea

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Welcome to Battered Brilliance - So Glad You're Here!https://www.elizabethgilbert.com/books/big-magic/

This morning, as I walked from my new home in Rome to Scuola Leonardo da Vinci, where I am taking an intensive course in Italian language and history, I found comfort listening to Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic. She discussed how catching the tail end of an idea was one of the reasons behind her worldwide success. Eat, Pray, Love, to her surprise, reached twelve million people. Why was it a surprise? Because she realized that paying attention to a persistent curiosity—a divine and inspired idea—could only be hers to bring forward if she decided to play. And then she let go of asking what she had brought forward on the written page to give her anything in return. She said, “Who knows what will happen next?” The same way these stories arrived—as gifts, she was brave enough to play the trickster and catch the tail end of the magic.A flat lay of “Big Magic” and “Eat, Pray, Love” with your favorite writing tools and colorful sticky notes.

Venice is the perfect place to listen to whispers and get inspiration listening to “Big Magic.”

Letting Go of the Outcome

“Who knows what will happen next? The same way these stories arrived—as gifts I was brave enough to catch—they will continue to move through the world without me controlling where they land.”

Today is day forty-two—my book Battered Brilliance and screenplay Sugarthorn were sent to agents in Rome, New York, and Los Angeles. Who knows what will happen next? The same way these stories arrived—as gifts I was brave enough to catch—they will continue to move through the world without me controlling where they land.

Creative ideas are not mine to keep; they are meant to be shared with the world

Inspiration and Interpretation

“Everything I’ve written has been divinely inspired, too.”

And so here I am, listening to Big Magic on Audible, reminding me that everything I’ve written has been divinely inspired, too. According to the gospel of MG, she would probably say it wasn’t her idea, but it’s my interpretation of what she wrote and why. I played the trickster, the one who writes with lightness, curiosity, humor, and flexibility, instead of the martyr who suffers for art and believes that a real writer must have a suffering life to be a success.

Becoming the Writer

“The whispers that I'd heard since I was 12 to become a published writer started screaming at me.”

I followed through on what the idea asked me to do. I listened and became courageous by finishing the book. After reading Eat, Pray, Love and Big Magic, the whispers that I’d heard since I was 12 to become a published writer started screaming at me, so I color-coded, cut, and pasted years of writing into a puzzle and taped it to the wall. Then I developed the characters’ flight of ideas, the decor, time, place, and costumes.

Being an artist does'nt mean that I have to suffer

Letting Go of Judgment

Image suggestion: Reflective portrait, you looking out a window, or a symbolic empty chair.

“When I stopped telling my life what I wanted and started listening to what it wanted for me, I read something that changed my life: on your deathbed, ‘You remember the way that you lived or the way that you died.’”

In my 20s and 30s, I cared what everyone thought about me; in my 40s, I wanted everyone to know how smart I was. In my 50s, I’ve realized that no one ever cared and was never watching. When I stopped telling my life what I wanted and started listening to what it wanted for me, I read something that changed my life: on your deathbed, “You remember the way that you lived or the way that you died.”

Stories as Gifts

“The same way these stories arrived—as gifts I was brave enough to catch and send out into the world—without me controlling where they land, because they were never mine to keep.”

Author’s NoteWritten in Rome, Day 42 — Battered Brilliance Journal.