“Maisel, well known in self-help and cre­ativ­ity aids cir­cles, brings to this resource for writ­ers, actors, visual artists, and musicians–as well as your aver­age Joe or Jane–a life­time of expe­ri­ence. The author of Fear­less Cre­at­ing (1995) and Affir­ma­tions for Artists (1996), this advi­sor to rock­ers and screen­writ­ers orga­nizes his lat­est title into 12 skill areas. Early chap­ters deal with “Becom­ing a Self-Coach” and “Mak­ing Mean­ing.” Later ones focus on gen­er­at­ing energy (even in the midst of day-to-day demands), cen­ter­ing, man­ag­ing anx­i­ety, per­fect­ing cre­ativ­ity plan­ning, and main­tain­ing a cre­ative life. These “skill lessons” help would-be artists sti­fle neg­a­tive thoughts and develop and use sched­ul­ing skills for start­ing and com­plet­ing cre­ative projects. Each les­son fea­tures as exam­ples artists of diverse dis­ci­plines, such as a dancer, singer, poet, and painter, and pro­vides exer­cises designed by the author to help read­ers incor­po­rate his meth­ods into every­day real­ity. To suc­ceed in the arts, com­mit­ment must lead to effec­tive, con­crete action. Maisel shows the way to both.” – Book­list

“I’ve read almost a dozen books by Eric Maisel about writ­ing, the arts, and the psy­chol­ogy of cre­ativ­ity, and though it seems impos­si­ble, each new book is bet­ter than the last. Maisel’s lat­est, COACHING THE ARTIST WITHIN, is no excep­tion. Draw­ing on his expe­ri­ence as a psy­chother­a­pist, author, and cre­ativ­ity coach, Maisel has devel­oped a book that cre­ative peo­ple from all realms can use.

“From the first exam­ples in the Intro­duc­tion through the twelve chap­ters of advice and infor­ma­tion, any­one prac­tic­ing an art will find solid help and inspi­ra­tion. Chap­ters on self-coaching, cre­at­ing while in the mid­dle of things, deal­ing with anx­i­ety, achiev­ing bal­ance and cen­tered­ness, and main­tain­ing a cre­ative life are par­tic­u­larly excel­lent. Maisel also pro­vides the reader with 22 exer­cises, all of which pro­vide food for thought and could eas­ily jump­start authors or artists who are blocked or at a cross­roads with their work.

“Inspir­ing, chal­leng­ing, and enter­tain­ing, the book is com­pul­sively easy to read and jam-packed full of the kind of teach­ing and coach­ing that every cre­ative per­son needs. I can’t rec­om­mend it highly enough. Maisel includes an Appen­dix for any­one inter­ested in becom­ing a Cre­ativ­ity Coach. At the end he also lists a Resource sec­tion of all of his own writ­ings that sup­port the teach­ings within this book. Taken all together, this vol­ume is a won­der­ful addi­tion to the library of any­one inter­ested in fur­ther­ing their cre­ativ­ity” –Lori L. Lake, reviewer for The Inde­pen­dent Gay Writer and Mid­west Book Review

“Eric Maisel’s newest is a gem. I read it all at one sit­ting — I couldn’t put it down. I don’t con­sider myself ‘blocked’ as a writer, but I learned how to be even more open cre­atively through his tech­niques and sto­ries. It was so encour­ag­ing to find out how many other peo­ple shy away from their own poten­tial, and that by acknowl­edg­ing what we are doing we can over­come our own blind spots. Maisel teaches us to coach our­selves through the blocks to greater suc­cess.” – Jan B. King, founder and edi­to­r­ial direc­tor, eWomenPublishingNetwork

“Have you ever been stuck in a time when you couldn’t cre­ate any­thing? Or when what you were doing just wasn’t what you felt you were capa­ble of? It hap­pens to every­one who is a cre­ative, from artist to musi­cian. Artists who are suf­fer­ing from that dreaded white paper fear, can find the answers to the ques­tions of how to get past cre­ative blocks in this very infor­ma­tive and enter­tain­ing book.

“I had more than one ‘aha’ moment while read­ing this book. I came face to face with my biggest cre­ativ­ity grem­lins and found the tools to work through them and erad­i­cate them. I still strug­gle with my biggest one though. I just have a hard time get­ting the flow going and keep­ing it going. But now, with the kind words of the author in my head, I don’t beat myself up nearly as badly when I haven’t accom­plished my daily, weekly or monthly goals. In the end, this book teaches us to be more self-aware and along the way, we also learn how to be our own men­tors and artis­tic best friends.” – W. Lyon Mar­tin author/illustrator An Ordi­nary Girl, A Mag­i­cal Child