Creative Development

Do Your Readers Care What Happens To Your Characters? No matter what type of fiction you write, it's the characters that draw readers in. In fact, if the reader doesn't care about the characters, the most gripping plot won't carry the day. So how do you get readers to care? Character diagrams, checklists, and charts can only take you so far. You need to know your characters--and love (or hate) them--just as you do real people, which means learning about your characters from the inside out. In Creating Compelling Characters From The Inside Out you'll explore your characters' loves, lives, ...

Are you experiencing creative burnout? Using the effective strategies for creative endurance developed by creative director of Fast Company and accomplished marathon runner Mike Schnaidt, you can remain imaginative and inventive through any tough situation, throughout your life and career. Featuring inspiring stories from designers, astronauts, illustrators, ultramarathoners, chefs, photographers, and an Olympic Gold medalist, Creative Endurance provides a unique combination of practical advice, alongside inspiring examples to help you overcome creative obstacles and thrive.

In Flip Thinking, Berthold Gunster, the founder of the Dutch omdenken—or flip thinking—philosophy, presents fifteen strategies to transform your thinking away from limitations and negativities and towards possibilities and opportunities. From disrupting (turn all the rules upside down) to flaunting (play up what you want to hide) and from importing (get the enemy on board) to amplifying (do more of what works), Gunster's strategies and stories will have you approaching even the most challenging problems—from an annoying neighbor to an angry colleague to an unhappy partner—in a whole new way.

Since its first publication, The Artist's Way has inspired the genius of Elizabeth Gilbert, Tim Ferriss, Reese Witherspoon, Kerry Washington and millions of readers to embark on a creative journey and find a deeper connection to process and purpose.

David Lynch’s Catching the Big Fish provides a rare window into the internationally acclaimed filmmaker’s methods as an artist, his personal working style, and the immense creative benefits he has experienced from the practice of meditation.

Still in his early 30s, Chris is on the verge of completing a tour of every country on earth – he’s already visited more than 175 nations - and yet he’s never held a “real job” or earned a regular paycheck. Rather, he has a special genius for turning ideas into income, and he uses what he earns both to support his life of adventure and to give back. In The $100 Startup, he tells you how to lead of life of adventure, meaning and purpose - and earn a good living.

Even if you don't think of yourself as creative, you'd probably be surprised by how many creative tools you use every day. You solve problems, design, write, invent, or, in other words, create. But the pressure we feel to continually create value with our minds can cause tremendous stress and eventually neutralize our ability to be effective in our roles long term. Daily Creative is a daily book for busy professionals, creative and otherwise, designed to help you gain focus for your day and advance toward your goals.

In Book Yourself Solid for Creatives, bestselling author Michael Port and Joana Galvao deliver a game-changing and super-specific playbook for creative professionals seeking to fill their pipeline with dozens or hundreds of qualified leads and convert them into paying clients. The authors explain how to achieve your business goals, pack your calendar with high-value clients, and increase your top- and bottom-lines.

From Saul Colt, the smartest man in the world and the actual brains behind some of the most unforgettable, conversation-starting campaigns of the last two decades, comes The Only Creative Process That Matters. This isn’t another “how to go viral” BS handbook. It’s a raw, laugh-out-loud, wildly actionable roadmap to building unforgettable marketing using two deceptively simple frameworks: WoMBAT (What Might Be All The…) and Laugh/Think/Cry.

When Melissa Moore was 13 years old, her father said to her, "I know how to kill someone and get away with it". At the time she chalked it up to his love of detective novels, but it didn't change the fact that her father had always been someone who made her anxious. Two years later, in 1995, Melissa's father was arrested for the murder of eight women over a period of five years - he was the serial killer known nationally as the Happy Face Killer.

In this life-changing book, celebrated author and entrepreneur Jay Samit, who's worked with such visionaries as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Reid Hoffman, and hundreds of successful entrepreneurs, shares the key understandings and step-by-step process for becoming rich and never needing another job again. To prove the power of his Twelve Truths, Samit also details the journey of how he mentored a broke millennial with these principles and empowered him to go from being on welfare to becoming a self-made millionaire in one year.

Drawing on the experience and insights of CEOs across several industries, as well as lessons from neuroscience, computer science, psychology, and philosophy, BCG's Martin Reeves and Jack Fuller provide a fascinating look into the mechanics of imagination and lay out a six-step process for creating ideas and bringing them to life. The Imagination Machine is the guide you need to demystify and operationalize this powerful human capacity, to inject new life into your company, and to head into unknown territory with the right tools by your side.

No matter how much you and your husband or boyfriend love each other, sometimes what you say (or don’t say) and how you say it can get in the way. This book will show you what could be problematic with your conversations that you aren’t even aware of and offer helpful tips and strategies to break old patterns and change the dynamics of how you communicate and connect as a couple.

“How are you feeling today?” We may think of emotions as universal responses, felt inside. Using decades-long, cutting-edge research, acclaimed psychologist Batja Mesquita asks us to reconsider emotions through the lens of what they do in our relationships, both one-on-one and within larger social networks.

There are few creative acts more mysterious and magical than writing a song. But what if the goal wasn't so mysterious and was actually achievable for anyone who wants to experience more magic and creativity in their life? That's something that anyone will be inspired to do after listening to Jeff Tweedy's How to Write One Song. Why one song? The idea of becoming a capital-S songwriter can seem daunting, but approached as a focused, self-contained event, the mystery and fear subsides, and songwriting becomes an exciting pursuit.

"Creativity is the unique and defining trait of our species, and its ultimate goal, self-understanding", begins Edward O. Wilson's sweeping examination of the humanities and its relationship to the sciences. By studying fields as diverse as paleontology, evolutionary biology, and neuroscience, Wilson demonstrates that human creativity began not 10,000 years ago, as we have long assumed, but over 100,000 years ago in the Paleolithic Age.

KC Davis, the renowned therapist who specializes in difficult relationships, asks and answers these questions. Just as she helps you design a functional home in How to Keep House While Drowning, here she applies the same bold but gentle approach to relationships so that they function, too. She helps you navigate decisions in every type of relationship, whether romantic or platonic. Recognizing that it isn’t always realistic to cut loose the people who rattle you, she explores how to protect yourself in those situations.

You were born with a unique gift, which is like a seed in your heart waiting patiently to bloom. When you discover, nurture, and share your unique gift with the world, you become magnetic to all the resources needed to create your heart’s dream life. Your unique path to wealth was chosen by your Soul before you were born, but it’s not predestined that you’ll walk it. Your intuition is always available to help guide you down your path, but you must have the self-love to listen to and follow it.

Has your mind ever been filled with such negative thoughts that you even worry about what will happen in the following minutes? People do not know that this type of behavior is generated by overthinking, which can generate many more consequences, such as anxiety and depression. In this book, learn how to master your mind to build mental toughness to focus on the present. We will teach you everything you need to know so as not to compromise your mental health and, on the contrary, improve it and have a much better emotional well-being.

Our attention has never been as overwhelmed as it is today. Many of us recognize that our brains struggle to multitask. Despite this, we feel compelled to do so anyway while we fill each moment of our lives to the brim with mindless distraction. Hyperfocus provides profound insights into how you can best take charge of your attention to achieve a greater sense of purpose and productivity throughout the day.