'Imagine:How Creativity Works' by Jonah Lehrer opened up a lot of head space for me. I know there was a scandal, but the important neurology bits had nothing to do with Bob Dylan quotes. I've also been watching 'Off Camera with Sam Jones' - Jeff Bridges, Kevin Bacon, Lake Bell, Ethan Hawke, Rashida Jones and Chris Moore gave transparent, honest, relevant interviews that made it abundantly clear how bringing any creative idea into the world is like touching the butterfly's wing. Lastly, I have several go-to TED talks - Andrew Stanton, JJ Abrams, Amy Tan, Elizabeth Gilbert, Beatrice Coron, Julie Burstein, Kirby Ferguson, Candy Chang, Eva Zeisel and my absolute favorite, Brene Brown. Although they represent a broad spectrum of disciplines, they all put in their time exploring creativity and brought a generous feast to the table. This is my first visit to your blog and I look forward to more inspiration and conversation on creativity. Thanks!

I was a little bit here, today. I didn't feel the creativity, but I needed to get some words down, I needed progress. What really helped was all the prep. I think it was you that told me that the prep would make it so that you could push through when it was time to write, and that's what I was able to fall back on. I had certain beats that I needed to hit, in this section. I know that I didn't get all of the emotion into these beats, but now they are written, and I have something to keep things moving forward. All the prep led to some real progress. So, to add to what you have here, good prep makes it easy to keep writing when you aren't "feeling it."

Hi all -- Elizabeth Gilbert just published a book called Big Magic, which is her musing on living a creative life. I found it helpful in this regard. She takes on the whole issue of fear and some of the practical ways to nourish and sustain a creative life -- given our very human foibles. Another book I found super helpful is Dennis Palumbo's essays on the writing life called Writing From The Inside Out. He is a former screenwriter who became a psychotherapist. These essays appeared in a column in Written By magazine, and they discuss many of the barrier issues writers face. Anyway, these are two books that really helped me figure out how to think about my writing life, and the ups and downs that are inevitable.