Stoking the Creative Fires: 9 Ways to Rekindle Passion and Imagination

by Phil Cousineau

The award-winning author and filmmaker shares 9 strategies for getting past creative burn-out and rekindling your imagination.

Contrary to popular belief, creativity isn’t just about muses and mentors. It’s a process that requires focus, determination, and practice. Creative blocks are just a part of that process. In Stoking the Creative Fires, Phil Cousineau offers creative people of all disciplines the tools for getting past creative blocks and rekindling passion.

Stoking the Creative Fires also shares a multitude of stories, ideas, and exercises that will inspire readers to live passionately and creatively, whether building a business, an art project, or a life. Drawn from historical and contemporary figures, artists, and from his own experience, Cousineau presents creative techniques, quotes, and handpicked images to help explore and define your creative discipline and vision.

Genres: Writing, Psychology, Art, Nonfiction, Reference

218 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2008

About the author

Phil Cousineau is a writer, teacher, editor, independent scholar, documentary filmmaker, travel leader, and storyteller. The author of more than 30 nonfiction books, Cousineau has more than 15 documentary screenwriting credits to his name, including the 1991 Academy Award-nominated Forever Activists. His life-long fascination with art, literature, and the history of culture has taken him on many journeys around the world; one of his bestselling books is The Art of Pilgrimage, inspired by his many years of meaningful travels.

Born in an army hospital in Columbia, South Carolina, Cousineau grew up in Detroit, and has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 30 years. American mythologist Joseph Campbell was a mentor and major influence; Cousineau wrote the documentary film and companion book about Campbell's life, "The Hero's Journey." The “omnipresent influence of myth in modern life” is a thread that runs through all of his work. He lectures frequently on a wide range of topics--from mythology, film, and writing, to sports, creativity, travel, art, and beauty. Currently he is the host of the much-praised “inner travel” television series, Global Spirit, on Link TV and PBS, and is finishing a book on beauty.

Reviews

[David Leroy · Rating 5 out of 5]

As both an artist, and writer, this book was a lucky find for me. The author does a great job at providing concrete solutions for keeping the creative engine running. It is well thought out, and to the point. It goes a long way to demystifying the creative mind, which I believe we all have, and providing a clear road path. That is hard to do, because so much of what I have read in the past with regards to creativity lacks that practical side to it. Well done, and I plan on buying the book for other friends who struggle with the same tensions in life which the author treats so well in this small book.

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I may be biased, as I personally know this author, but honestly there's no better book to help you get through a challenging creative project. It's chock-o-block full of motivating, stimulating and exciting passages. Makes you feel that there's nothing better in life than being a passionate and creative person. Go buy a dozen copies and give them to all your struggling artist friends, your mom, and your hairdresser too.

[tomlinton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won't say much
except to tell you
it got me out of a creative slump
It's staying on my Kindle
and will become part of my reference library
I would have bought more of the books it references
if they had only been available on the Kindle

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book was very inspiring and it had a lot of great quotes and anecdotes about creativity. It’s no more than a 3 out of 5 for me because it reminds me of a commonplace book — mostly a collection of admittedly inspiring and interesting quotes and images.

[Neil White · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this, had some very practical exercises to renew creativity. Really enjoyed some of the parables in the book. It feels a little unpolished but a helpful book on the creative process.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cousineau, a prolific author with an encyclopedic knowledge of other writers and artists, puts forth a roadmap to help guide you on your creative journey. A large portion of the book deals with the establishing the value of art in our lives. “At the core of this book is the passionate conviction that, if you long to live a life of purpose and meaning, you must have a creative vision.” Once you agree that the pursuit is worthy, you will be eager to know more about the nine steps towards igniting your imagination that will take you to your “real work." He suggests that the creative work that you care about deeply is the work that you were meant to do. A friend of Joseph Campbell, and author of The Hero’s Journey, Cousineau is grounded in the mythic implications of story. I used this model for the journey of my protagonist in my historic novel, Wai-nani, High Chiefess of Hawaii, in hopes of achieving a universal connection with readers. I am pleased that Cousineau is picking up where Campbell left off with the message that art is not just a pastime. It has been an essential expression of cultures though out history. What is more important is that art gives deeper meaning to the lives of individuals who dare to take the creative journey.
www.lindaballouauthor.com

[Connie]

I read this book as part of a group discussion about creativity. I found Cousineau's work to be good, although I can't say this book was particularly inspiring to me. Cousineau attempts to identify nine stages of the creative process: reverie, making time, seeking guidance, making a creative space, focus, getting past burn-out, doing the work, reviewing and revising, and sharing the final product. Listed out like this, the stages make sense and as logical. Cousineau includes a variety of "exercises," which are good to think on, but I didn't actually perform any of them. However, the book is easy to read and has a lot of good quotes and anecdotes about the creative process of various well-known people in a variety of creative fields.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a complete and utter surprise. I bought this as just a bit of research into developing some student sessions on developing a passion for something - part of the MYP personal project. There were so many of these types of books and I only bought this one because it mentioned joseph Campbell on the back cover (Singapore seals up books like this in shrinkwrap for some reason)

This was so unbelievably readable and rewarding. If you are in any way interested in the impact of mythology on our lives, then you will appreciate this book. It turns out to be quite practical in a beautiful sort of way. you need to read this for yourself. I can't do it justice.

Trust me.

[Carole · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little too personal growthish for my taste overall, but I found a couple of chapters particularly relevant to my life, especially as related to "my work" in the world.