Everyday Creative: 30 Ways to Wake Up Your Inner Artist

Rating:
Summary: Superb Tool for Expanding, Exploring, Opening Channels!
Review: Some time ago, I purchased a set of 48 playing-card-sized cards painted by Susan Seddon Boulet. I've kept them by my computer and occasionally dip into the deck, pull one out, and see if the colorful painting in some way inspires me in my writing. Now, with his new "A Little Every Day Decks," creativity coach, writer, and psychologist Eric Maisel has given me an exciting new deck and a simple, easy-to-use program to spur creativity and inspiration. Each card contains a truth about creativity: "Grow creative by astonishing yourself" or "Grow creative by opening to serendipity," for instance. The point of focus on each card is book-ended by ideas about the truth and then an exercise that can be done to enhance or change one's experience and accessing of creativity.

In an introductory section, Maisel tells us, "You can read through the thirty cards in your deck, pick out the one that feels particularly resonant, and try the simple exercise the card suggests. You can use the cards as a thirty-day program, taking in one message a day....You can shuffle the cards, cut the deck and let a random (is it really random?) message speak directly to you." All of these are good ideas, and once you've gone through the deck, I have a hunch it will pay off to go through it again. And again.

I've been examining and pondering the meanings of the cards for a couple weeks now and have settled upon using one each day at random before I begin my writing. In just a little over two weeks, I find that each morning I am anticipating reading the next card. Often the idea contained within stays with me all day, firing me on to carry out my appointed tasks. The cards are not just for writers or artists but for anyone seeking to expand, explore, or open up channels of creativity. Highly recommended. ~Lori L. Lake, author of lesbian fiction and freelance reviewer for Midwest Book Review, Golden Crown Literary Society's "The Crown," The Independent Gay Writer, and Just About Write.com.