Enchanting Creativity: How Fairy Tales, Dreams, Rituals and Journaling Can Awaken Your Creative Self

Creativity coach Scardamalia (Tarot for the Fiction Writer) draws on fairy tales to provide guidance on enhancing creativity in this uneven volume. She uses the story of Sleeping Beauty as a metaphor for creativity, with Sleeping Beauty representing the dreamy, abstract aspects of the creative process and the prince standing in for the practical work of bringing ideas to life. Their kiss points to the need for intimacy between the artist and their muse, the author contends, suggesting readers refresh their imaginations by consulting a tarot deck. Other attempts to connect creative wisdom to fairy tales prove more tenuous, such as when the author posits that the phrase “once upon a time” indicates the importance of giving one’s muse a “signal to settle down” and prepare to work. Many of the recommendations urge tapping one’s dreams for inspiration, and to that end Scardamalia details how to keep a dream journal by remaining still as one awakes to better mentally preserve the dream and then writing down what one remembers of it before starting the day. The advice sometimes feels burdened by forced connections to the fairy tale theme, but artists who trend toward the fanciful will find the offbeat suggestions fun and idiosyncratic. This has its charms, even if it doesn’t quite enchant. (Aug.)