“I went to the library today in search of a book on creativity. I’m looking for something, yet I don’t want to read. I, deep down, don’t think they will help me.”

I sought out The Creative Habit: Learn it and Use it for Life by Twyla Tharp. I figured if I surrounded myself with at least one book on creativity maybe it would rub off on me. That night, I skimmed through Tharp’s book uninterested, yet hoping I would find something to ignite me.

She has this list of 33 creative autobiography questions that you’re supposed to answer on a whim without thinking about them too much. Sitting alone in my living room, I went through each of these and answered them out loud. I needed to talk to myself about them and hear my voice to see what I was thinking.  The process helped my answers flow, even though I didn’t have answers for a handful of them.

The following 12 questions made the biggest impression: 

1. What is your creative ambition?
2. What are the obstacles to this ambition?
3. What are the vital steps to achieving this ambition?
4. How do you begin your day?
5. What are your habits? What patterns do you repeat?
6. Which artists do you admire most?
7. Why are they your role models?
8. What do you and your role models have in common?
9. When you work, do you love the process or the result?
10. What is your ideal creative activity?
11. What is your greatest fear?
12. What is the likelihood of either of the answers to the previous two questions happening?
    
    

Questions #1 and #8 made their way into my journal a few days later. “Twyla’s autobiography questions got me thinking about my tendencies. Am I a writer? or an artist? What do I normally write about? What is my perspective? What is my angle? What is it that I’m trying to say? What makes my DNA?“