When life gets busy, it’s hard to slow down and focus on the things that keep us alive. No, not food, or water, or sleep. I’m talking about the things that invigorate us, empower us to keep moving and connect us with our humanity — our creative pursuits.
But what happens when you feel stuck, and can’t grasp onto that next good idea? What if you don’t feel much like an artist, a writer, or a creative, because you haven’t made something in a while? Or how about when your creativity is your business, and it pays the bills? Have no fear. These five books will help you tap back into that creativity by reminding you how great ideas start, offering tips and tricks to maximize creativity, and guiding you back onto the path of success.
Artpreneur: The Step-by-Step Guide to Making a Sustainable Living from Your Creativity by Miriam Schulman
Turning your art into a business can be intimidating — and that fear can crush your creativity. With this step-by-step guide, you’ll be able to bypass that fear and take a direct approach to making a living from your creative work. Whether you’re a musician, photographer, painter, writer, actor or singer, your dream of marketing and selling your art is easily attainable. Coming up with ideas on how to market yourself takes its own kind of creativity, and Miriam Schulman is here to help.
Artpreneur provides the methods and tools to build a confident mindset, take charge of your destiny, and create a clear path to success. From gaining a following, to embracing authenticity, managing a work-life balance, promoting genuinely, and determining your value, you’ll have your business up and running in no time. With that taken care of, your creative pursuits can once again become your main priority.
Your Next Big Idea by Samuel Sanders
You might think you don’t have a creative bone in your body. But you’d be wrong. Most of us come up with novel ideas at one time or another. They may be big or small, good or bad, doable or not so doable. If you have to solve an unusual problem or fill an unexpected and urgent need, you’ll likely come up with something that will do the trick. That’s what humans are built to do. But what about game-changing ideas?
This non-fiction business and self-help creativity guide encourages innovation in aspiring entrepreneurs and business leaders. Your Next Big Idea takes you through the idea generation process from fleeting thought to concrete product, service or system. It also provides exercises to train your brain so that you not only get faster and better at generating ideas but also come up with innovative ones that are useful, feasible, and in the case of business, marketable.
(Read the review on BookTrib)
The Need-Not Artist by Kasha Ritter
If you are looking to unshackle yourself from your own limitations and get down to the act of creating art, this is the book for you. The Need-Not Artist sets readers down a path to artistic freedom by demystifying the creative process and encouraging us to simply be, to let go and play. If you think you aren’t creative, think again. If you think you need lots of time, talent, and an ever-flowing wellspring of inspiration to create art, you are mistaken. Because art is what we already do, and artists are who we already are.
In Ritter’s encouraging book, she breaks down every barrier we’ve put in our own way by changing our perspective on ourselves, our creative processes, and the value of our art in our world. For those who have ambitions to take their art to a more professional level, Ritter includes a chapter on the management of your art business. Along the way, she offers useful exercises, both for thinking and for creating, that help us to overcome our “need to” mindset. The result is a practical as well as inspirational guide to creativity.
(Read the review on BookTrib)
The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield
What keeps so many of us from doing what we long to do? There are so many roadblocks to creativity — from the chaos of daily life, to stress, to emotional turmoil, to a lack of confidence. Whether our dreams are to start up a business venture, write a novel, or paint a masterpiece, creativity is essential to begin.
Bestselling novelist Steven Pressfield identifies the enemy that every one of us must face, outlines a battle plan to conquer it, and then pinpoints how to achieve the greatest success. Through part tough love, part acceptance of our abilities and limitations, The War of Art serves as a no-nonsense guide to tackling the obstacles that hound us every day. With this helpful book, readers will be ready to achieve creative discipline and brave anything that blocks their path.
Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done by Jon Acuff
What if getting started is easy, but following through and finishing that great idea is impossible? Many elements of being an artist, writer, musician, and more require creativity beyond that first spark. Sometimes, finishing your project requires a creative approach. Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done teaches readers something the author was surprised to learn himself: “The most effective exercises were not those that pushed people to work harder. The ones that got people to the finish line did just the opposite — they took the pressure off.”
It is easy to worry about being good enough or needing your project to turn out perfect, and that combination can make it impossible to quit. The data shows that having more fun, eliminating your secret rules, and choosing something to bomb intentionally works to combat project-ruining perfectionism.
