Books of 2026: STRUCTURING LIFE TO SUPPORT CREATIVITY by Sandra Tayler.
Sandra Tayler has guest-taught a writing class I take on two (2) separate occasions, and both times she made me tear up--her takes are always so insightful and affirming and brain-rewiring in the best possible way. So! When she announced that she was putting together a Resource Book for Creative People (via Kickstarter), I immediately jumped all over that, and a writer buddy and I have spent the past couple months working through it two chapters at a time.
Great news: This book is also so insightful and affirming and brain-rewiring in the best possible way!! It opens with broadening the definition of "creativity" to include "any time you expend mental energy or physical labor to re-shape the world around you," and to clarify that daily tasks have a creative cost (which means things as mundane as grocery shopping and doing dishes count against the creative energy you have to spend on the projects you probably had in mind as Creative™ when you picked up this book). Once those costs/realities of life are established, Tayler starts offering ideas, solutions, and activities to help you figure out your priorities and goals and what changes you can make to make more space in life for your creative projects.
It's organized very modularly and designed for you to skip around based on what you need--all the chapters stand well on their own, but they cross-reference each other in case you want more of something and you're working out of order. The section titles are "Creativity and Dreams," "Finding Center," "Managing Relationships," "Energy," "Productivity," "Making Changes," and "Special Cases to Consider" (the last of which covers things like access needs and caregiving and health challenges and grief--this is a hugely inclusive volume), and each section has at least two chapters that drill down into specific topics. At the end of each chapter are several activities "to help you find the best ways to apply [the presented] concepts to your life," which are all very reflective and will come for your throat (affectionate).
Chapter 18 ("Cultivating Confidence") hit me hardest, personally, but I took good notes all the way through! This book is both hugely practical and incredibly gentle. If you want support in restructuring your life to make more space for your creative projects, absolutely check this out.
(If you prefer not to Big River your books, you can also find it in her store, linked here!)