Your Elusive Creative Genius by Elizabeth Gilbert

1. Your Elusive Creative Genius
By Elizabeth Gilbert

3. A lot of stars in the 20th
century have committed
suicide or suffered
depression

5. I am not interested
in money. I just
want to be
wonderful
- Marilyn Monroe

6. Plath was clinically
depressed for most of her
adult life

7. PEOPLE ASSOCIATE
CREATIVE WORKS WITH
MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES
AND A FEAR THAT THEIR
WORK WON’T BE GOOD
ENOUGH, OR NOT AS
GOOD AS THEIR PAST
WORK.

8. “I believe my
greatest work is
now behind me,
which is a scary
thought”

9. How to construct
barriers between work
and this anxiety?

10. The ancient Greeks & Romans believed an artist
had a spirit that helped their work – called a
daemon or a ‘genius’

11. Daemon or ‘genius’
insulated the artist
from criticism and
narcissism

12. The work was not theirs and they could not
take all the credit or blame

13. Changed the paradigm

14. Artist himself is genius.
Made Artists
Responsible to Critics

15. Distorted egos and
unmanageable
expectations

16. Can we go back
to classical
period?

17. Elizabeth describes a poem
coming to a poet like an
approaching train.
She must write it down
before it passes never to be
seen again.

19. Let your Idea daemon be responsible
for creativity

20. Separate yourself from this Deamon

22. A musician once, when struck
by an idea said,
“Can you not see I’m driving…
If you really want to exist, come
back at a more opportune
moment. Otherwise go Bother
Leonard Cohen”

23. Essentially, feel free from anxiety, performance pressure

24. “I am doing everything I can. If you want
better work, turn up to do your own bit.”

25. Understand, Creativity is a flow

26. Show up for work. Keep writing.

27. Credits
Submitted to :
Submitted By :
Nadeem Natrajan
Student, IIML
PGP30148