Book Review: The Muse Is In

Book: The Muse Is In: An Owner's Manual to Your Creativity by Jill Badonsky, 2013 by Running Press, 238 pages.

Purchase: Amazon | The Book Depository

Synopsis from Goodreads:
Following her perennial-seller The Awe-Manac: A Daily Dose of Wonder, Jill Badonsky returns with a fun new book that will help her readers get their creativity working like a well-oiled machine. As a creativity-coaching pioneer, Jill knows that many people feel distracted, blocked, and overwhelmed.

The Muse Is In: An Owner’s Manual to Your Creativity outlines how to power up one’s genius, take it for a test drive, troubleshoot problems along the way, and offers tips for proper care and maintenance. With her dazzling illustrations and quirky humor, Jill Badonsky delivers the operating instructions for helping her fans spark their creative passion.

Special Note: Come back tomorrow for an interview with Jill and for a chance to win this amazing book!

My Thoughts:
I have to say that I'm biased toward Jill's books. My own road to writing and exploring my creativity took a huge leap a few years ago when I participated in a course based on her first book, The Nine Modern Day Muses. Reading that book and taking that course changed so many things for me.

So, I was crazy excited and honoured to participate in the blog tour for Jill's new book, The Muse Is In, and I have to say, I was not disappointed. I eagerly opened the package when it arrived in the mail, savouring the feel of the book - I love it's size and weight of it, the clear way it's presented, the peppering of brilliant quotes throughout, and all of the great artwork. Yes, not only is this a book about creativity, it is copiously illustrated.

The Muse Is In is an owner's manual for your creativity, and is full of baby steps and advice designed to help with common creative problems like procrastination, fear, perfectionism, and not enough time. There are also steps for finding your passion, focus, and courage. She covers so many topics that I can't list them all here. The second half of the book is the maintenance section and has a day by day guide of creativity prompts. And she presents all of this in a light hearted, funny way.

Already, my copy is dog eared and pasted with sticky notes, marking places I want to go back to when I have more time or highlighting places where I found something particularly helpful for me. That is the kind of book this is - one that is hard to read cover to cover because you want to stop and get creative or flip around to the section that covers the topic that helps you out the most.  It is a book that begs to be fondled and flipped through over and over again.

And that is why making this book into an owner's manual is absolutely genius. It is a book you keep on your desk, flip through for inspiration, say to yourself: what did she say about getting started again? Or, I'm feeling overwhelmed, what was Jill's advice on that?

Then there is the maintenance section for a quick daily prompt that can get the juices flowing when you are feeling stuck, to try something new, or as a part of a daily creative routine.

I can't recommend this book enough. Really, everyone is creative, whether you write, paint, do pottery, reiki, or solve mathematical problems. If you are feeling stagnated, you will be able to use the gentle approaches that Jill suggests. She has a way of breaking down big concepts into baby steps that anyone can do.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review. This in no way impacted my review.