Walking on Alligators: A Book of Meditations for Writers
ForWalking on AlligatorsSusan Shaughnessy culled quotations from  nearly 200 writers and other creative people--Ethan Canin, Art Spiegelman, Robin  Williams, and Camille Paglia among them--that can help jumpstart the creative process.  Each quotation leads to a short meditation on its subject, which in turn leads to a kind of  vow the reader can internalize and act upon: "Today, I'll look over the key setbacks  of my life. Are some ready to contribute comic color to my writing?";  "Today, I'll take a look at the high road. I will write a little better and a little  differently. I will stretch." These tender morsels are best taken like vitamins: one a  day. They will encourage, inspire, amuse, and provoke, but mostly they will make you  start writing. After all, warns Shaughnessy in the introduction, "The writing you  don't do today is lost forever."