What to Read When You’re Stuck
Sometimes you just need a push to get going again.
I found this list of suggested reading list of works to check out if you need a reminder that all creative work is stymied from time to time. It’s useful not just for the recommendations but for the little nuggets it pulled out of them as advertisement for their fit in the list.
What to Read When You’re Out of Ideas
These books dispense practical advice on managing one’s ambitions—or describe the dread of writer’s block with precision and humor.
Chelsea Leu
I especially loved this one from the blurb on Lynda Barry’s What It Is.
The core of the arts is play, Barry argues: something children undertake with great seriousness until they learn to be aware of what others think, which can choke off creativity. But the key, when you’re blocked, isn’t simply to think harder. It’s to relinquish control, “to be able to stand not knowing long enough to let something alive take shape,” Barry writes.