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Structuring Life to Support Creativity
Make more space in the life you have for the creative work you want to do.
Sandra Tayler raised four children, built a webcomic into a full-time living for her family, and developed a freelance career as a writer and consultant. In the last 25 years she has developed a toolbox full of skills and techniques for thriving creatively while also managing day-to-day life. In this book she shares that toolbox with you.
Whether you're a novice or an expert, a hobbyist or a career-path creative, this book will help you restructure your life to provide more time, space, and energy for the projects you're passionate about.
Topics covered include:
- cultivating confidence
- understanding your priorities
- building a support network
- mental load
- management of physical space
- finding motivation
- facing health challenges
- the give-and-take of grief
- implementing change
Sandra Tayler raised four children, built a webcomic into a full-time living for her family, and developed a freelance career as a writer and consultant. In the last 25 years she has developed a toolbox full of skills and techniques for thriving creatively while also managing day-to-day life. In this book she shares that toolbox with you.
Whether you're a novice or an expert, a hobbyist or a career-path creative, this book will help you restructure your life to provide more time, space, and energy for the projects you're passionate about.
Topics covered include:
- cultivating confidence
- understanding your priorities
- building a support network
- mental load
- management of physical space
- finding motivation
- facing health challenges
- the give-and-take of grief
- implementing change
258 pages, Paperback
Published March 28, 2026
About the author
Sandra Tayler
20 books11 followersSandra spends much of her time as the publication and distribution half of the
Schlock Mercenary
comic business. What time is not gobbled up by business tasks gets spent taking care of the four kids she shares with Howard Tayler. In the spaces between everything else she writes.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 10, 2026
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 few 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.
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.
Displaying 1 of 1 review