Photo by Cathryn Lavery via Unsplash Of all the craft books I’ve read in my life, perhaps none have stuck with me quite as clearly as the assertion, at the beginning of Mary Oliver’s A Poetry Handbook , that, rather than waiting for inspiration to strike, an aspiring writer must sit down regularly for an appointment with the muse. If you do this, Oliver suggests, inspiration will follow: “if you are reliably there, it begins to show itself—soon it begins to arrive when you do.” And if not, “if you are only there sometimes and are frequently late or inattentive,” the inspiration you’re seeking “will appear fleetingly, or it will not appear at all.” Even twenty years past the introduction to poetry class in which I first read Oliver’s book, I don’t think this is necessarily bad advice. I don’t write every day, as some scolds insist you must to be a real writer, whatever that means, but I do write regularly, and I’ve got a notebook and a pen stashed in every purse, my gym bag, and my glove compartment, so I can catch inspiration whenever it does strike. (My newsletter, Write More, Be Less Careful , is full of tips for scratching out time to write in the midst of a busy life.) But what happens when you sit down to write and inspiration doesn’t follow? What do you do when you’ve dutifully held up your side of the bargain and that creative spark remains elusive? Below, I’ve rounded up a collection of books that will spark your creativity and make you want to write. They mostly aren’t craft books in the conventional sense—they’re less about learning about line breaks or point of view and more about how to seize on unlikely sources of inspiration and crack open your brain to make space for creative work. Take a break from the news We publish your favorite authors—even the ones you haven’t read yet. Get new fiction, essays, and poetry delivered to your inbox. Submit YOUR INBOX IS LIT Enjoy strange, diverting work from The Commuter on Mondays, […]
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Kiersten White is the #1 New York Times bestselling, Bram Stoker Award-winning, and critically acclaimed author of many books for
Kelsey Rae Dimberg is the author of Girl in the Rearview Mirror. She received an MFA from the University of
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