For Further Reading

Many writing guides, studies in creativity, and sourcebooks for gener-ating ideas are available. The following are especially useful.

WRITING GUIDES

Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter, What If? Writing Exercises for Fic-tion Writers; HarperCollins, 1990.

An exercise-oriented writing guide that introduces aspiring fiction writers to the techniques of characterization, scene construction, pacing, plotting, building suspense, tapping intomemory, and so on.

Peter Elbow, Writing without Teachers. Oxford University Press, 1973.An influential self-instruction guide to the use of freewriting and other invention strategies as a means to generating content.

Peter Elbow, Writing with Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writ-ing Process. Oxford University Press, 1981.

Suggestions for using content-generating strategies for a wide va-riety of writing tasks.

Jack Heffron, The Writer’s Idea Book: How to Develop Great Ideas for Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Screenplays; Writer’s Digest Books, 2000.

A primer on generating ideas, with prompts designed to stimulate creative thinking.

2 3

Where Do You Get Your IDeas? For Further reaDInG

Jeanne H. Simpson, The Elements of Invention. Macmillan, 1990.A concise guide to a wide range of pre-drafting techniques.

Ronald B. Tobias, 20 Master Plots and How to Build Them. Writer’s Digest Books, 1993.

Archetypal plots (quest, adventure, transformation) on which to develop original story situations.

Fred White, The Daily Writer: 366 Meditations to Cultivate a Produc-tive Writing Life. Writer’s Digest Books, 2008.

Nuggets of wisdom on thirty-one different writing-related topics, for every day of the year, each with one or more writing exercises.

Fred White, The Daily Reader: 366 Selections of Great Prose and Po-etry to Inspire a Productive and Meaningful Writing Life. Writer’s Di-gest Books, 2009

Short prose selections from classic and popular works of literature for every day of the year, each with one or more writing exercises.

Karen S. Wiesner, First Draft in 30 Days: A Novel Writer’s System for Building a Complete and Cohesive Manuscript. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 2005.

A detailed step-by-step guide from brainstorming, outlining, and researching to drafting; complete with work sheets.

Monica Wood, The Pocket Muse: Ideas and Inspirations for Writing; Writer’s Digest Books, 2000.

An idea-generating book that uses striking photographs and imagi-native prompts to get your writing mind going.

Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation; Riverhead, 2010.

Johnson examines inventiveness in the context of industry and technology; but there are parallels to be drawn between techno-logical and artistic inventiveness.

Ralph Keyes, The Courage to Write: How Writers Transcend Fear. Holt, 1995.

A guide to working through the anxieties and fears that all writ-ers face to some degree.

Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. Pantheon, 1994.

An expressive, common sense, and entertaining guide to the basics of writing and the writing life.

Simon O. Lesser, Fiction and the Unconscious. Vintage Books, 1962.An in-depth analysis of the aesthetics of fiction from a psychologi-cal perspective.

Gabrielle Lusser Rico, Writing the Natural Way. Tarcher, 1983.Introduces techniques of “clustering” to generate ideas for essays, poems, stories.

Donald Maass, Writing the Breakout Novel: Insider Advice for Taking Your Fiction to the Next Level. Writer’s Digest Books, 2005.

A literary agent discusses strategies for making your novel reach the widest possible audience.

Martin Roth, The Fiction Writer’s Silent Partner, Writer’s Digest Books, 1991.

A smorgasbord of raw ideas organized by categories such as char-acter background, horror and the occult, the love story, marriage and the family, comedy, sports, espionage, medicine.

4 5

Where Do You Get Your IDeas? For Further reaDInG

Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Cul-ture. Beacon, 1955.

The importance of play in language, art, myth, and in civilization in general.

Arthur Koestler, The Act of Creation. Macmillan, 1964.An exhaustive analysis of creativity from a psychological perspec-tive.

Jonah Lehrer, Imagine: How Creativity Works. Boston: Houghton Mif-flin Harcourt, 2012.

The author finds commonalities in creative thinking among people as diverse as neuroscientists, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, musi-cians, and artists of all kinds.

Eric Maisel, Creativity for Life. New World Library, 2007.One of several books by a noted psychotherapist on how to tap into one’s creative potential.

SUGGESTED SOURCEBOOKS FOR IDEAS

The Brothers Grimm, The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales. New York: Pantheon Books, 1944; 1972.

All of the fairy tales written by the Brothers Grimm in their un-abridged form.

Thomas Bullfinch, Bulfinch’s Mythology: The Age of Fable. Garden City: Doubleday, 1968.

A compendium of the great nineteenth-century classicist’s retell-ings of the ancient Greek and Roman myths.

STUDIES OF CREATIVITY AND COGNITION

Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses. Random House, 1990.

A poet-naturalist’s remarkable insights into the contributions our five senses make to the way we interact with the world and with other people

James. L. Adams, Conceptual Blockbusting: A Pleasurable Guide to Better Problem Solving Norton, 1976.

Creative problem-solving techniques directed at professionals in business and industry.

Jerome Bruner, On Knowing: Essays for the Left Hand. Harvard, 1979.Essays on the psychology of creativity in the various arts.

Naomi Epel, Writers Dreaming. Carol Southern Books/Crown, 1993.Twenty-six novelists, essayists, and poets talk about the role dreams play in their creative lives. Among the writers interviewed: Isabel Allende, Maya Angelou, Clive Barker, Sue Grafton, Stephen King, Elmore Leonard, Anne Rice, Art Spiegelman, William Sty-ron, Amy Tan.

Sigmund Freud, On Creativity and the Unconscious. Harper & Row, 1958.

Several papers on the creativity underlying works of art, litera-ture; also studies of the role of the unconscious in love and religion.

William J.J. Gordon. Synectics: The Development of Creative Capacity. Harper & Row, 1961.

An examination of the elements of creative thinking in the context of business and industry.

6 7

Where Do You Get Your IDeas? For Further reaDInG

Andy Selsberg, Dear Old Love: Anonymous Notes to Former Crushes, Sweethearts, Husbands, Wives, & Ones That Got Away. Workman, 2009.

This compilation of anonymous letters sent to the author is a gold mine of ideas for writers of romances. See also Frank Warren, be-low.

Philip Smith, ed. 100 Best Loved Poems. Dover Thrift Editions, 1995.Some of the greatest poems ever written are included here.

Studs Terkel, Working. Pantheon Books, 1972; Avon paperback re-print, 1975.

An extensive compendium of testimonials by American laborers of all kinds.

Frank Warren, Post Secret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives. Morrow, 2005.

A compilation of secrets sent anonymously to the author. The Washington Post wrote, “Standing in the midst of all this naked shame, guilt, anger, and yes, hope, you’re suddenly not so alone.” This book and the spinoff books that Warren subsequently pub-lished are virtual treasure troves of ideas for writers. See also Andy Selsberg, above.

The World Almanac and Book of Facts. World Almanac Books.An annual publication filled with up-to-date facts about the econ-omy, business, science, and technology, sports, world history, ge-ography, social issues, and consumer information.

Zimmerman, J.E. Dictionary of Classical Mythology. Harper & Row, 1964; Bantam paperback edition, 1965.

An ideal dictionary for quick referencing; two thousand-plus myth-related names and places, each including a pronunciation key and sources.

Josefa Heifetz Byrne, Mrs. Byrne’s Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure, and Preposterous Words. Citadel, 1976.

Very few words included in this dictionary will be recognizable; as a result, they are ideal prompts for story ideas.

J.E. Cirlot, A Dictionary of Symbols; trans. Jack Sage. Philosophical Library, 1962.

More of an encyclopedia of archetypal symbols through the ages than a mere dictionary.

E.D. Hirsch, Jr., et al., The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know. Houghton Mifflin, 1988.

This compendium of essential knowledge is divided into twenty-three sections, including the Bible, mythology, literature, fine arts, history, business/economics, and the major branches of science.

Lucia Impelluso, Myths: Tales of the Greek and Roman Gods. Abrams, 2008.

Concise retellings of the greatest myths from the ancient world, each illustrated in color by a famous work of art. See also Appen-dix C for additional reference works on ancient myths.

Garrison Keillor, ed., Good Poems. Penguin, 2003.The poet and humorist includes masterful poems in categories such as Poems of Thanks, The Good Life, Animals, and Trips.

Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty, ed. and trans., Hindu Myths: A Sourcebook Translated from the Sanskrit. Penguin Books, 1975.

The original texts from the Vedas and other sources; with com-mentary.

William Roetzheim, ed. The Giant Book of Poetry. Level 4 Press, 2006.Hundreds of poems through the ages, with commentary.