The Best Books to Start a Writing Habit This Year
If writing a book is a goal of yours, whether you’re an old hand at writing or new to the idea of jotting down a few lines each day, there is nothing that will replace the actual practise of writing every day. The best way to it, is to set a fixed time at a fixed spot and sit down every day for a fixed duration of time. The challenge then becomes, when faced with a blank sheet of paper or a blank screen – what do you write?
This is where books with prompts are a brilliant start to a new writing habit. Each one of these books contain prompts with space for you to jot down thoughts, ideas, reflections, anything that comes to mind and if you prefer to type, obviously you could just as easily use the computer to ‘fill in’ the prompts.
To start a writing habit is one of the best ways to becoming a quick, fluent thoughtful writer, blogger and thinker. And while there are a multitude of benefits to the practise of writing everyday, none is as fun as flipping back through the filled pages and re-reading all that you have written.
The 10 Best Books to Start a Writing Habit This Year
Here are just some of the best books with prompts that we’ve seen about. If you need help writing, or want to get into the spin of things use these books to create building blocks for your next book or simply as a distraction when you feel like switching to something else.
The Imaginary World of…
by Keri Smith
‘What kind of world would you like to inhabit?’ Here, Keri Smith begins with a list. Writing down everything the reader is drawn to, from things they love or collect to things that fascinate and excite, including objects, colours, sounds, textures, memories, places and people, the list serves as the building block for the creation of a new world. This world is based entirely on who the reader is as an individual, and as such is completely unique.
Prompted to think about landscape, place names, maps, currency and more Keri Smith encourages everyone to push their imaginations to the limit.
How to be an explorer of the World: Portable Life Museum
by Keri Smith
Artists and scientists analyze the world around them in surprisingly similar ways, by observing, collecting, documenting, analyzing, and comparing. In this captivating guided journal, readers are encouraged to explore their world as both artists and scientists.
Anti Journal: Create Outrageously
by David Sinden and Nikalas Catlow
Anti Journal is no ordinary journal, it’s an anarchic, therapeutic route to personal and artistic discovery packed with partially illustrated pages to complete in imaginative unconventional ways. For all ages, bedroom journalers, total novices or professional artists, Anti Journal is sheer creative bliss and the catalyst for discovering your own twist: create, pattern, draw, paint, disguise, stain, collage, construct, colour, stitch, sketch, write, tape, document and discover talents you never knew you had.
Create beyond the norm: use paint, pens, pencils, chalk, but how about old clothes, fruit peel, cellphones, emotions, highlighters, digital media, physical actions, junk, photography and nature too? Anti Journal knows no boundaries or rules. It’s the personal tool for expression and will stir your imagination out of even the deepest slumber. No matter where you go, just carry your handy-sized Anti Journal in your bag and live a more creative life. It’s therapeutic, joyous and expressive – its journaling outside of the box.
Create This Book
by Moriah Elizabeth
Create This Book is the ultimate outlet for creativity. Includes 242 pages of unique and inspiring prompts to get you in the creative zone! Whether you are trying to get past an artist’s block, wanting to become more creative, or just looking to have some fun, you will love this interactive journal!
One Page at a Time: A Daily Creative Companion
by Adam J. Kurtz
Every day is a chance to create something new for yourself. Put down your phone and pick up a pencil. Give yourself some space. The Internet will still be there. Start with one page at a time, and you’ll be surprised at just how much you can create.
Each of the 365 prompts in 1 Page at a Time will encourage you to draw, write, list, reflect, and share. It’s a journal, scrapbook & anything else. This book is your new best friend. It’s whatever you say it is. Slowly fill the book and by the time it’s done, you’ll have a perfect keepsake of the year you made it through.
The Pointless Book: Started by Alfie Deyes, Finished By You
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YouTuber Alfie Deyes extends all the fun of the PointlessBlog to his first interactive activity book. Fully illustrated and packed with a host of games, activities, and pranks, the book will encourage you to connect the dots and bake a cake in a mug; people watch and turn a page with your ear; draw a finger selfie; and play the ultimate basketball challenge. The book is a “thank you” to old followers and a “welcome” to new ones in a delightfully wacky activity book format. It also includes an exclusive Pointless Book app that chronicles Alfie completing the same challenges and includes never-before-seen content!
There is also a Second Pointless Book, Continued by Alfie Deyes, Finished by You.
Tear Up This Book! (American Girl Library)
by Keri Smith
Great to keep the little ones occupied, discover dozens of fun ways girls can be creative while in the car, on a plane, on a bus–and when it rains! Every page offers fresh, new ways for girls to explore creativity, including; how to doodle the latest in fashion designs, a pack of craft projects to try and fun ways to escape on long, summer days.
Start Where You Are: Journal for Self-Exploration
by
Start Where You Are is an interactive journal designed to help readers nurture their creativity, mindfulness, and self-motivation. It helps readers navigate the confusion and chaos of daily life with a simple reminder: that by taking the time to know ourselves and what those dreams are, we can appreciate the world around us and achieve our dreams.
Featuring vibrant hand-lettering and images that have attracted a large following for her stationery and textile line in boutiques across the country, Meera Lee Patel’s uplifting book presents supportive prompts and exercises along with inspirational quotes to encourage reflection through writing, drawing, chart-making, and more.
All About Me: The Story of Your Life
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Philipp Keel’s timeless journal All About Me is an amazing tool for self-reflection and the perfect gift for you and your loved ones. All About Me spotlights everything your loved ones would be interested to know about you but never thought–or dared–to ask. Such as: Name a friend you should not have kissed. Describe a moment when you achieved absolute happiness. Recall a compliment that made you blush. Write about your most beautiful and your most horrifying memory of your parents.
642 Tiny Things to Write About
by
The next installment in the bestselling series presents 642 writing prompts in an irresistible new format. Delightful and thought-provoking, this book is perfect for stumped writers, journalers, or any creative type needing a tiny flash of inspiration.
A Young Writers edition is also available.
BONUS: Wreck This Journal (Black) Expanded Edition
by Keri Smith
An international best seller with over 7 million copies sold, Wreck This Journal Expanded Edition is a leading diary. For anyone who’s ever had trouble starting, keeping, or finishing a journal or sketchbook comes this expanded edition of Wreck This Journal, a subversive illustrated book that challenges readers to muster up their best mistake- and mess-making abilities to fill the pages of the book—or destroy them.
Through a series of creative and quirky prompts, acclaimed guerilla artist Keri Smith encourages journalers to engage in destructive acts—poking holes through pages, adding photos and defacing them, painting pages with coffee, coloring outside the lines, and more—in order to experience the true creative process. With Smith’s unique sensibility, readers are introduced to a new way of art- and journal-making, discovering novel ways to escape the fear of the blank page and fully engage in the creative process.
