July 30, 2024 • 15 mins
In this episode, Lori shares six books she loves to help boost your creativity. We’ve all had creative dry spells, but immersing yourself in the creative struggles and triumphs of other writers can help. The best creative books remind you that inspiration is everything, you only have to be yourself, you are not alone, and creating doesn’t have to be painful. Stick around for a bonus inspiration exercise. Whether in a creative rut or looking for an uplifting read, check out these books to reignite your passion and fuel your imagination.
Visit thepoetrylab.com to find the Show Notes for this episode. The Poetry Lab Podcast is produced by Lori Walker and Danielle Mitchell. Hosted by Danielle Mitchell, Lori Walker, and bridgette bianca.
Theme song: "Simply Upbeat" by Christian Telford, Kenneth Edward Belcher, and Saki Furuya.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
(00:00):
if you're anything like me poets sometimes
when you just don't have the energy or
bandwidth or wherewithal or
whatever to be creative yourself it's nice
to surround yourself with creativity in
other ways
in fact hearing others talk about the
creative process or their writing life can
actually lead you out of a creative dry spell
(00:21):
there are many ways to jumpstart your
creativity
in fact danielle recorded a wonderful
episode for the podcast called five
practices to ignite your creativity and you
should totally listen to it after you
listen to this episode
but as a writer i often turn to books to
solve my problems
so here are some books that have helped me
(00:44):
see the light at the end of the tunnel or
fed my creative soul when the well was
running dry are you ready poet let's go
welcome to the poetry lab podcast
the poetry lab started 11 years ago to help
(01:05):
dedicated self taught and formally trained
riders find a place in their community to
write read
learn
and collaborate
we help writers tap into their craft with
radical self composing passion unlike
anything you've ever seen in a creative
writing classroom before if you're a
creative person trying to establish a
(01:27):
writing practice in the real world
this podcast is designed to help you carve
out the time the courage and an inspiration
to keep writing your new shit
are you ready poet
let's get into it
(01:49):
welcome to your listeners to another
episode of the poetry lab podcast
lori here again and today i am sharing some
of my favorite books to help jumpstart your
creativity
these are books that
when i read them they just make me feel
like i can do the damn thing and create
they are inspiring and thought provoking
(02:10):
and they help me feel less alone
plus in my opinion creativity is just a fun
topic to read about
so let's get those creative juices flowing
and also a quick note i am sharing these in
alphabetical order by author's last name
they are not ranked in any order whatsoever
and interestingly enough the alphabet
allows me to kick off this list with a book
(02:32):
by a poet
first up i want to talk about kim adenitios
bukowski in a sundrass confessions from a
writing life
it is a memoir in essays that provides a
humorous take on life as a writer
she talks about giving readings that are
very sparsely attended she talks about
(02:54):
hooking up writing conferences and she
talks about where she finds inspiration and
she even talks about the process of being a
writer and how she organizes her life
around her writing
initio is a sister poet in arms a writer in
the trenches with the rest of us and here's
one beautiful quote that i want to share
(03:17):
the one thing that is true
i am still a writer and sometimes writers fail
no matter how hard we work there are
projects that don't pan out poems stories
even entire books
when the full moon rises over the cemetery
those projects haunt us and torment our sleep
(03:39):
she continues
still here's how i've found
writing sometimes works if you are madly
avoiding one genre your imagination may
suddenly kick in elsewhere i couldn't face
my novel so i fled to short stories for solace
read this one hell read all
(04:00):
these books about creativity with a pen or
a highlighter or a package of sticky notes
because you are going to want to just
underline all over the place or
stick in all the post it notes if you don't
write in your book but
i don't know especially creativity books i
just like
i tear them up man
alright moving on to our second book it's
(04:23):
big magic creative living beyond fear by
elizabeth gilbert
i've read this one a few times and each
time i revisited i underline more parts
eventually i think every bit of text is
going to be underlined
so you're probably familiar with elizabeth
gilbert from eat pray love her memoir that
is told in 108 parts about her year
(04:45):
traveling to italy and india and indonesia
and here she dives into her own creative
process and her beliefs about creativity as
a force in the world
big magic is written in six parts that walk
readers through
the courage enchantment
permission persistence
(05:06):
trust and divinity
associated with living a creative life
and each of these parts is broken into
short digestible sections allowing you to
choose your own adventure and by that i
mean you can read this book in small sips
or you can read it in deep gulps and
honestly you can even just flip through and
(05:27):
see what lesson serendipity leads you to
and you will get something amazing from
this book
book number three is steel like an artist
ten things nobody told you about being
creative by austin cleon
i had been hearing the phrase steal like an
artist for a long time before i actually
read this book
(05:47):
and this one is a quick read and it's fun
cleon lays out ten rules for unlocking your
creativity and then dives into each of them
the basic premise is that nothing is
original so keep your eyes out for the
influences that are all around you and then
put your own spin on them
i don't know about you but
(06:09):
that takes a lot of pressure off of
everything
i don't have to be original
i just have to be me and i can do that
that's a really good feeling generated by
just the first rule in this book there are
nine other rules that cover living a
(06:30):
creative life
page and being a good literary citizen
among other important lessons
so i gotta be honest i am halfway through
this list of books on creativity and
with every book i want to hit stop record
and just go read instead of finishing this
episode and all the other things that i
need to do today
(06:51):
focus lori focus
wow
okay
book number four is the creative act a way
of being by rick rubin
so full disclosure i have not finished
reading this one yet but i've read quite a
bit of it and
wow in case you are not familiar with rick
rubin and i wasn't at first he is a record
(07:13):
producer known for popularizing hip hop
he's also worked in a ton of other genres
and has produced hit albums for such
musicians as the red hot chili peppers elo
cool j aerosmith and johnny cash
ever heard of any of them
so
with that lineup and trust me on the
(07:35):
wikipedia page there were like a whole
bunch of other artists that he's worked with
i'd say it's pretty safe to say that he's
been around a lot of creative geniuses in
his time
and this tome in particular collects 78
short musings on creativity he talks about
art as a portal to the unseen world
he describes a way of being in the world so
(07:58):
that you are porous and able to take in the
raw material out there
i have heard rave reviews of the audiobook
version of this
i have requested it from my library a few
times so that i could listen to it on walks and
just kind of be surrounded in
creativity
(08:19):
while i'm also surrounded in nature and
moving my body getting a little bit of
exercise
and i swear every time the hold comes
through something comes up and i wind up
taking a hiatus from walking
but one of these days i am going to listen
to the audiobook
but you know it also could just be a sign
(08:39):
from the universe that i need to like read
the book
and underline stuff and then maybe go back
through it with the audiobook at some point
anyway we'll see
book number five
is still writing the perils and pleasures
of a creative life by danny shapiro
i read this one a few years ago and
(09:01):
again as soon as i picked it up for this
episode to prep for it i was like
damn i want to reread this
so danish shapiro is a well known memoirist
and this small but mighty book is equal
parts memoir
craft lesson and reflection on the creative
process
and this book is broken into three
(09:22):
beginnings middles and ends and each part
is made up of short meditations on topics
like the blank page luck
writing in the dark
beginning again and so
so many more
and again this is one that you could read
in sips or gulps or straight through or
just randomly and walk away just having
(09:44):
your mind
blown
all right and drum roll over at the final book
gentle writing advice how to be a writer
without destroying yourself by chuck windeg
so you might recognize chuck windeg's name
he writes sci fi and urban fantasy and is
known for his blog terrible minds where he
(10:07):
talks about writing and
life he has also written a number of craft
books like damn fine story
and this book aims to do exactly what the title
dispense gentle writing advice
because so much writing advice out there is hard
you know like
(10:28):
write like a motherfucker or kill your
darlings or sit down at your typewriter
open your veins and bleed so one of the
things that i love is that wendig opens
this book by fully admitting that he's
given out harsh writing advice in the past
but he realizes that a gentler approach is
a beautiful thing
(10:49):
and you know i mean the world is going
through a lot of shit right now and artists
are typically very sensitive to that
turmoil
so
why this book asks should being a writer be
an ordeal
this book seeks to find a middle ground by
also issuing the toxic positivity found in
(11:12):
other books out there
but through it all the book shows that
while writing isn't easy i mean
it's not all sunshine and rainbows
but
it doesn't have to be painful either to be
a writer
one of the things that i love about
wendig's writing books and i've read
damn fine's story as well
(11:33):
is that he adds
all of the best footnotes i swear they
lighten the mood they impart additional or
background information and they make you
feel like you're having a conversation with
another
person i know often
the footnotes are
boring no way man they are the footnotes
(11:55):
are where it's at
i think authors are starting to use
footnotes a lot more creatively and go on
these tangents and asides that are
interesting and informative and
entertaining but that don't necessarily fit
the
main
narrative of the text so i've just gone
(12:16):
through six books to spark your creativity
but now it's bonus time i wanted to mention
a bonus book for you
you ready for it
it's your favorite book
seriously whatever your favorite book is
let that also spark your creativity
and if you want a bonus bonus idea
(12:37):
grab one of those notebooks that you've
bought that are so pretty that you're
saving them for a special purpose and start
capturing your favorite quotes from books
from movies songs overheard conversations even
make it multimedia by ripping images out of
magazines and taping or gluing them in or
(12:59):
if you're old school like me and you still
have a printer print off copies of your
favorite paintings or other visual art
basically whatever you see or hear out in
the world that makes you go
hmm
put it in the notebook and over time you
will have a book that sparks your exact
unique creativity
(13:20):
plus it's a fun thing to look back on and
see how your inspiration and influences
have changed over time
or not even if you don't change over time
and really just kind of
like double down on things that's
interesting too that tells a story
i love reading these books where successful
(13:42):
authors invite us into their process and
reveal that they've been there in the
struggle and the muck and our writing from
the other side
and yeah you could say that it's easy for
these writers to talk because they've been
successful and that's true and we can't
control the level of success that we will
(14:03):
reach as artists all we can control is what
we produce and what we put out there
but i i think most of us create because we
feel compelled to create and that's where
these people started too
that's why i keep turning to these books
not for some blueprint although i have
totally gone through spells of looking for
(14:25):
one and it doesn't exist
to hear from people who are doing what i
want to be doing
creating
i hope these reading recommendations have
sparked your curiosity and help you write
some new shit
if you liked this episode please give us a
(14:45):
like and a follow and help us spread the
word about our podcast by texting the link
to a few creative friends
you can also find us at the poetrylab com
podcast
that's all for now i'll see you soon at the
poetry lab
(00:00):
if you're anything like me poets sometimes
when you just don't have the energy or
bandwidth or wherewithal or
whatever to be creative yourself it's nice
to surround yourself with creativity in
other ways
in fact hearing others talk about the
creative process or their writing life can
actually lead you out of a creative dry spell
(00:21):
there are many ways to jumpstart your
creativity
in fact danielle recorded a wonderful
episode for the podcast called five
practices to ignite your creativity and you
should totally listen to it after you
listen to this episode
but as a writer i often turn to books to
solve my problems
so here are some books that have helped me
(00:44):
see the light at the end of the tunnel or
fed my creative soul when the well was
running dry are you ready poet let's go
welcome to the poetry lab podcast
the poetry lab started 11 years ago to help
(01:05):
dedicated self taught and formally trained
riders find a place in their community to
write read
learn
and collaborate
we help writers tap into their craft with
radical self composing passion unlike
anything you've ever seen in a creative
writing classroom before if you're a
creative person trying to establish a
(01:27):
writing practice in the real world
this podcast is designed to help you carve
out the time the courage and an inspiration
to keep writing your new shit
are you ready poet
let's get into it
(01:49):
welcome to your listeners to another
episode of the poetry lab podcast
lori here again and today i am sharing some
of my favorite books to help jumpstart your
creativity
these are books that
when i read them they just make me feel
like i can do the damn thing and create
they are inspiring and thought provoking
(02:10):
and they help me feel less alone
plus in my opinion creativity is just a fun
topic to read about
so let's get those creative juices flowing
and also a quick note i am sharing these in
alphabetical order by author's last name
they are not ranked in any order whatsoever
and interestingly enough the alphabet
allows me to kick off this list with a book
(02:32):
by a poet
first up i want to talk about kim adenitios
bukowski in a sundrass confessions from a
writing life
it is a memoir in essays that provides a
humorous take on life as a writer
she talks about giving readings that are
very sparsely attended she talks about
(02:54):
hooking up writing conferences and she
talks about where she finds inspiration and
she even talks about the process of being a
writer and how she organizes her life
around her writing
initio is a sister poet in arms a writer in
the trenches with the rest of us and here's
one beautiful quote that i want to share
(03:17):
the one thing that is true
i am still a writer and sometimes writers fail
no matter how hard we work there are
projects that don't pan out poems stories
even entire books
when the full moon rises over the cemetery
those projects haunt us and torment our sleep
(03:39):
she continues
still here's how i've found
writing sometimes works if you are madly
avoiding one genre your imagination may
suddenly kick in elsewhere i couldn't face
my novel so i fled to short stories for solace
read this one hell read all
(04:00):
these books about creativity with a pen or
a highlighter or a package of sticky notes
because you are going to want to just
underline all over the place or
stick in all the post it notes if you don't
write in your book but
i don't know especially creativity books i
just like
i tear them up man
alright moving on to our second book it's
(04:23):
big magic creative living beyond fear by
elizabeth gilbert
i've read this one a few times and each
time i revisited i underline more parts
eventually i think every bit of text is
going to be underlined
so you're probably familiar with elizabeth
gilbert from eat pray love her memoir that
is told in 108 parts about her year
(04:45):
traveling to italy and india and indonesia
and here she dives into her own creative
process and her beliefs about creativity as
a force in the world
big magic is written in six parts that walk
readers through
the courage enchantment
permission persistence
(05:06):
trust and divinity
associated with living a creative life
and each of these parts is broken into
short digestible sections allowing you to
choose your own adventure and by that i
mean you can read this book in small sips
or you can read it in deep gulps and
honestly you can even just flip through and
(05:27):
see what lesson serendipity leads you to
and you will get something amazing from
this book
book number three is steel like an artist
ten things nobody told you about being
creative by austin cleon
i had been hearing the phrase steal like an
artist for a long time before i actually
read this book
(05:47):
and this one is a quick read and it's fun
cleon lays out ten rules for unlocking your
creativity and then dives into each of them
the basic premise is that nothing is
original so keep your eyes out for the
influences that are all around you and then
put your own spin on them
i don't know about you but
(06:09):
that takes a lot of pressure off of
everything
i don't have to be original
i just have to be me and i can do that
that's a really good feeling generated by
just the first rule in this book there are
nine other rules that cover living a
(06:30):
creative life
page and being a good literary citizen
among other important lessons
so i gotta be honest i am halfway through
this list of books on creativity and
with every book i want to hit stop record
and just go read instead of finishing this
episode and all the other things that i
need to do today
(06:51):
focus lori focus
wow
okay
book number four is the creative act a way
of being by rick rubin
so full disclosure i have not finished
reading this one yet but i've read quite a
bit of it and
wow in case you are not familiar with rick
rubin and i wasn't at first he is a record
(07:13):
producer known for popularizing hip hop
he's also worked in a ton of other genres
and has produced hit albums for such
musicians as the red hot chili peppers elo
cool j aerosmith and johnny cash
ever heard of any of them
so
with that lineup and trust me on the
(07:35):
wikipedia page there were like a whole
bunch of other artists that he's worked with
i'd say it's pretty safe to say that he's
been around a lot of creative geniuses in
his time
and this tome in particular collects 78
short musings on creativity he talks about
art as a portal to the unseen world
he describes a way of being in the world so
(07:58):
that you are porous and able to take in the
raw material out there
i have heard rave reviews of the audiobook
version of this
i have requested it from my library a few
times so that i could listen to it on walks and
just kind of be surrounded in
creativity
(08:19):
while i'm also surrounded in nature and
moving my body getting a little bit of
exercise
and i swear every time the hold comes
through something comes up and i wind up
taking a hiatus from walking
but one of these days i am going to listen
to the audiobook
but you know it also could just be a sign
(08:39):
from the universe that i need to like read
the book
and underline stuff and then maybe go back
through it with the audiobook at some point
anyway we'll see
book number five
is still writing the perils and pleasures
of a creative life by danny shapiro
i read this one a few years ago and
(09:01):
again as soon as i picked it up for this
episode to prep for it i was like
damn i want to reread this
so danish shapiro is a well known memoirist
and this small but mighty book is equal
parts memoir
craft lesson and reflection on the creative
process
and this book is broken into three
(09:22):
beginnings middles and ends and each part
is made up of short meditations on topics
like the blank page luck
writing in the dark
beginning again and so
so many more
and again this is one that you could read
in sips or gulps or straight through or
just randomly and walk away just having
(09:44):
your mind
blown
all right and drum roll over at the final book
gentle writing advice how to be a writer
without destroying yourself by chuck windeg
so you might recognize chuck windeg's name
he writes sci fi and urban fantasy and is
known for his blog terrible minds where he
(10:07):
talks about writing and
life he has also written a number of craft
books like damn fine story
and this book aims to do exactly what the title
dispense gentle writing advice
because so much writing advice out there is hard
you know like
(10:28):
write like a motherfucker or kill your
darlings or sit down at your typewriter
open your veins and bleed so one of the
things that i love is that wendig opens
this book by fully admitting that he's
given out harsh writing advice in the past
but he realizes that a gentler approach is
a beautiful thing
(10:49):
and you know i mean the world is going
through a lot of shit right now and artists
are typically very sensitive to that
turmoil
so
why this book asks should being a writer be
an ordeal
this book seeks to find a middle ground by
also issuing the toxic positivity found in
(11:12):
other books out there
but through it all the book shows that
while writing isn't easy i mean
it's not all sunshine and rainbows
but
it doesn't have to be painful either to be
a writer
one of the things that i love about
wendig's writing books and i've read
damn fine's story as well
(11:33):
is that he adds
all of the best footnotes i swear they
lighten the mood they impart additional or
background information and they make you
feel like you're having a conversation with
another
person i know often
the footnotes are
boring no way man they are the footnotes
(11:55):
are where it's at
i think authors are starting to use
footnotes a lot more creatively and go on
these tangents and asides that are
interesting and informative and
entertaining but that don't necessarily fit
the
main
narrative of the text so i've just gone
(12:16):
through six books to spark your creativity
but now it's bonus time i wanted to mention
a bonus book for you
you ready for it
it's your favorite book
seriously whatever your favorite book is
let that also spark your creativity
and if you want a bonus bonus idea
(12:37):
grab one of those notebooks that you've
bought that are so pretty that you're
saving them for a special purpose and start
capturing your favorite quotes from books
from movies songs overheard conversations even
make it multimedia by ripping images out of
magazines and taping or gluing them in or
(12:59):
if you're old school like me and you still
have a printer print off copies of your
favorite paintings or other visual art
basically whatever you see or hear out in
the world that makes you go
hmm
put it in the notebook and over time you
will have a book that sparks your exact
unique creativity
(13:20):
plus it's a fun thing to look back on and
see how your inspiration and influences
have changed over time
or not even if you don't change over time
and really just kind of
like double down on things that's
interesting too that tells a story
i love reading these books where successful
(13:42):
authors invite us into their process and
reveal that they've been there in the
struggle and the muck and our writing from
the other side
and yeah you could say that it's easy for
these writers to talk because they've been
successful and that's true and we can't
control the level of success that we will
(14:03):
reach as artists all we can control is what
we produce and what we put out there
but i i think most of us create because we
feel compelled to create and that's where
these people started too
that's why i keep turning to these books
not for some blueprint although i have
totally gone through spells of looking for
(14:25):
one and it doesn't exist
to hear from people who are doing what i
want to be doing
creating
i hope these reading recommendations have
sparked your curiosity and help you write
some new shit
if you liked this episode please give us a
(14:45):
like and a follow and help us spread the
word about our podcast by texting the link
to a few creative friends
you can also find us at the poetrylab com
podcast
that's all for now i'll see you soon at the
poetry lab
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