5 Books on Creativity That Changed The Way I Think

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Podcast Transcript

Sarai

I'm Sarai.

Haley
And I'm Haley.

Sarai
And this is Seamwork Radio.

Welcome back to Seamwork Radio, where we share practical ideas for building a creative process so you can sew with intention and joy. Haley is out on parental leave with her new baby right now, so I'm going to be flying solo and giving you some really practical tips and tricks. We've also got a whole bunch of interviews lined up with some pretty incredible guests from the world of sewing that you will not want to miss this summer. So stay tuned for that, and we'll welcome Haley back in the fall. Today, we're talking about five books on creativity that have totally transformed the way I think, and even in some cases, really have just changed my whole life. So we're going to cover one book that helped me create rituals that I've been practicing for years, one that helped me understand how to get into a creative mode more easily, and one that's a really practical workbook for building more creative time into your life, so you don't want to miss these.

All right, so let's talk about this a little bit. I've always been just really interested in the concepts behind creativity, where it comes from, how we can feed it, how we can get more of it in our life, and how it really affects the way we think.

And why is that? I personally think that humans are just really meant to be creative. It’s sort of our defining characteristic as human beings, if you think about it. We got to where we are through our ability to problem-solve, to make unexpected connections, to try brand new things, to see how things work. I think that is just something that defines us as human beings. And because we evolved to do that, I think we're happiest when we do it. So just like a horse is meant to run or a cat is meant to hunt, I think humans really need to exercise their creativity in order to be fulfilled. We have to fill that evolutionary purpose, I think, in order to really, really feel good. But there's a lot that gets in the way of that, especially in our modern lives, which can become just so very routinized and overwhelming, I think, at least for me. I think that's one reason that a lot of people turn to things like shopping and social media. I actually think it scratches part of that creative itch by making you feel inspired or giving you ideas or helping you dream of possibilities.

But then it just ends there because you don't actually get to create something out of it with your hands the way we're meant to do. You're just really consuming. And that's how I think about creativity these days. And it's one of the reasons that I think really incorporating skills like sewing into your life can be so powerful. So today, I'm going to share five books that have helped me to think differently about creativity and actually motivated me to make more time for it in my life. So if that's something that you struggle with, or this is just a subject that interests you and you want to learn more about how to be more creative, how to incorporate it more into your life, I think you're really going enjoy some of these books, and there's a nice variety of them. So depending on where you are and what your questions are, what would be helpful for you, I think you'll find something useful in here. All right, so let's get into these books.

So the first one that I would like to mention is called Steal Like an Artist, and it's by Austin Kleon. And I'm sure many of you have heard of Austin Kleon, or you've read this book, or you've seen this book, and I absolutely love this book.

So if you are not familiar with him, I would really recommend checking out his blog and his newsletter. We can link those in the show notes. His newsletter is one of my absolute favorite newsletters, and it has been for years and years. He just finds the most interesting things, writes about the most interesting ideas, connects things in really, really creative ways. But anyway, back to the book. So this is part of a three-book series. This was the first one that he wrote, and then the other two came later. The other are show your work and keep going. But Steal Like an Artist is the first one, and it's all about where good ideas come from and just principles and ways of thinking that will help you break free from whatever's really inhibiting you from creating.

The idea is steal like an artist. You take ideas from others, but do it in a way that expresses your own unique point of view. It's not just about taking things from people, but about remixing ideas into something that's really, really unique for you. I think that's the difference between blind copying and actually really just taking inspiration and using it to express your own lens on the world.

I'm also reading another book called Wanting by Luke Burgess right now. I actually have mixed feelings about the book itself, but he talks about how humans are really imitative creatures that really we've evolved to imitate each other, and that a lot of our actual desires, what we want, is really just a result of seeing what other people want, and then we want the same things. Which is a really interesting concept.

The book, I feel like I'm not totally crazy about it, but I think the ideas behind it are really interesting. I think what's important is using that desire to imitate in order to also innovate not just copy. I think that's something that Steal Like an Artist really gets into and really does a beautiful job of showing through different dimensions. It encourages you to really come up with your own view of the world, to get ideas from unexpected places, and then to, like I said, remix them in your own way. It's also a very short book, very short, small book, easy to read, easy to flip through, easy to reference and go back to over and over again. It's got a lot of illustrations in it that Austin Kleon does and incorporates into his book.

So it's a really fun way to process these ideas and return to them again and again. So that's the first book that I wanted to share.

The next one is The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. And this book was really just such a life-changer for me. I absolutely love this book. So one of the ideas in this book that has really stuck with me is that Julia says that we're like radios, and we need to set aside time to both receive and to broadcast our creativity. So she has some really specific practices that you can implement to do that. So she has ways where you can receive input. So one of these ways is she calls it an artist date. That's scheduling time to just feed your creativity in a new way and to do that every week, which I think is a really cool idea. Then we also need time to broadcast out and not just to create finished work, but to get all of our ideas out of our bodies, out of our brains, and onto paper. She has some rituals for that, like morning pages, which is really just a free writing session that you do first thing in the morning.

And that's something that I have done for years off and on. I'm not super religious about it, but when I do it, it is just so helpful and really helps me to process not just how I'm feeling, but what's coming up for me, like what's in my subconscious, what is something that maybe I haven't really been thinking about, but it's there in the back of my mind? And just get that out. And that can really spark a lot of new ideas for me. So if you want some really practical steps to feeling more creative, I think you're going to love The Artist's Way. So if you haven't read The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, definitely pick that one up.

So the next one I want to talk about is a book that is a little bit different because it is specifically about one way of expressing yourself, but I think it applies to a lot of different ways. So that is Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. And the reason it's different is because this is a book about drawing, specifically drawing pictures, but it's so much more than that. And it's one of those books that, even though it's on this specific subject, it's really changed the way, I think, in a lot of ways. So let me tell you a little bit about it.

Betty Edwards says that the reason adults have so much trouble drawing is because our brains really get in the way. Instead of drawing what our eye actually sees, We try to draw how it's supposed to look in our brains. Our left brain has this really great ability to think abstractly. But because of that, when someone tells us to draw a face, for example, we draw a symbol of what a nose or an eye looks like instead of what we see in front of us. We're really good at coming up with very quick symbols for things and not actually seeing the full reality that's in front of us, which is something that takes more right brain thinking. Sometimes you really have to shut off certain parts of your brain. Even if those parts of your brain are generally very helpful in life, you have to shut them off in order to see clearly and really see what's in front of you.

I think this is such an interesting idea. I think it's something that as I've learned more and more about how the brain works and how the two hemispheres of the brain work, especially, I I have just been really fascinated by this concept and how much time we spend living in this left side of our brain, which really does not take in the full range of human experience. I just think this is absolutely fascinating. So over time, I've developed a few ways that I can do that. I can shut off those parts of my brain a little bit and get more into that right side thinking. And sometimes that's with physical activity. That's something that really grounds me and makes me feel present. Sometimes it's meditation, sometimes it's journaling. These things might be different for you, but I think having some processes you can go through that help you to shift your thinking a little bit is super, super helpful. And this also But like I said, it just really got me to learn more about the two hemispheres of the brain, and that's really just transformed the way I think about life in a lot of ways.

And if that's something you're interested in as well, one of the best books I've ever read was Iain McGilchrist’s masterpiece, The Master and His Emissary, which is really about the way the left and the right brain work, and also about how that's affected society as a whole, and how it's a vicious cycle of people relying so much on their left brain and creating a world around them that really emphasizes the left brain instead of the right. So that's another really great book. It's not specifically about creativity, but I do recommend drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. If you're interested in drawing, it's great. If you haven't drawn in years, it's also great. It takes you through some really simple drawing exercises that will really help you to see what's in front of your face a lot more easily. So I absolutely love that book. It's just one of my favorites.

All right, the next one I wanted to talk about is a book called Make Time for Creativity by Brandon Stosuy. Stosuy is S-T-O-S-U-Y. And again, we'll put links to all of these in the show notes. But this is a really fun one. So this one describes itself as a self-guide. So it's more of a workbook, and it takes you through a bunch of different dimensions of creativity with lots of interesting quotes and ideas to get you thinking. And it's also full of prompts. So there are all these questions for you to fill out with room to write your own answers right there in the book. So it's really useful if you enjoy journaling and you want to really construct a creative practice of any kind for yourself.

So this one is just really, really practical. And I think it's nice because it really digs into the things that might be stopping you from making time for yourself, making time for your creative hobbies, for your creative practice. Maybe it's for your creative work. But I absolutely enjoy coming back to this book over and over again whenever I'm starting to feel that crush of not having time for the things that really matter to me. So highly recommend that book as well.

And then the last thing, the last book that I really wanted to recommend to you is something that's new to me. I just picked this up pretty recently, and it's called Do Interesting by Russell Davies. So this is another very short book, and it's also very practical and very actionable. So that's something that I really like about a lot of these books. And it's really about doing more interesting things. But to me, it's really a book about being creative.

So it's divided into three parts: noticing, collecting, and sharing. In each part, there are ideas and exercises that you can do that will help you to, for example, notice more, to collect what you notice, and then to share it in interesting ways with the world. It has a lot of exercises you can do for each of those. I just really love how simple, how practical it is, how there are all these creative, cool little things that you can do just in your day-to-day life that don't necessarily take very much time. That'll help you to notice life around you a lot more and in some new and different ways. Really, I think that's a lot of what creativity is, is just noticing more and making connections where you wouldn't have otherwise made connections. I think this book will give you a ton of new ideas for new side projects and hobbies, maybe, but it'll also help you to see the world a little differently and to do things just for the sake of self-expression and exploration, not necessarily because there's some big grand goal involved in it.

I think that's something that's really easy to overlook, are those little exercises that we can do that just help us to be more creative, to see more of what's around us, and really feed the rest of our creativity and the other things that we do more regularly. So that's another really great one.

I'll summarize all these for you. I mentioned five books today. So I'll start at the top here. The first one was Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon. And then if you like that book, I also recommend Show Your Work and Keep Going, which are the second and third books in this series. And again, also highly recommend Austin Kleon's newsletter.

The second one was The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. Absolutely a classic, one of my favorite books. I I love this book.

Number three, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards, which taught me a lot about how the brain works and where creativity comes from.

Make Time for Creativity by Brandon Stosuy. So this one is really more of a workbook about making time in your life for creativity.

And then finally, Do Interesting by Russell Davies, which is a book largely about noticing things, collecting the things you've noticed, and then finding ways to share what you've noticed. It's a little bit of a different perspective on creativity, but very, very practical with lots of cool exercises in it.

Those are the five books that if you haven't read them yet, I highly recommend. I think they've all been really instrumental for me and really helpful for me. And even just looking at them makes me feel like being more creative. It makes me want to get out there and do something different, to put down my phone and just enjoy my creativity and do something, like I said, just for the sake of exploration, the sake of seeing life in a different way. So I find that really, really inspiring.

I also wanted to mention, if you're not signed up yet, you can get our free weekly Snippets newsletter, which also has lots of creative ideas. We send out a short list of actionable creative ideas that you can use in your sewing each week. We send out five ideas and how to do them every week. I just love this new version of Snippets. It's such a joy to write, and it'll really help you to spend more time sewing and less time scrolling. We've got over 200,000 subscribers to Snippets. You can get it for free at getsnippets.com.

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I'm Sarai, and that wraps us up for this week, and this is Seamwork Radio.

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