Creative Compass

Built around five universal stages to the creative process, The Creative Compass is a guidebook for anyone trying to successfully craft and disseminate a story. These stages capture the writer’s experience and the realities of the writing trade as they direct readers along a clear path from inspiration to publication. The Creative Compass is also a unique collaboration between two writers who happen to be father and daughter, bestselling personal growth author Dan Millman and his journalist daughter Sierra Prasada, drawing on their combined experience in fiction, nonfiction, journalism, theater, and film adaptation. The five stages serve as a map for the writer’s path, and also as a constructive metaphor for life. Awareness of these stages equips writers to navigate challenges and take advantage of opportunities they might not have previously recognized, on and off the page. The Dream stage begins the process in which a singular or “sticky” idea emerges and calls the writer on a quest. The Draft stage comprises multiple layers of writing that form the first draft. The Develop stage begins an arduous process of cutting and shaping, so that each paragraph and sentence anchors a continuous series of resonant ideas and necessary exposition — the golden thread of a story that will transport readers. The Refine stage involves readers and editors, who reduce the text down to an essence in which every word counts and the inevitable (the right word) replaces the arbitrary (the almost right word). The Share stage covers a proliferating variety of approaches to publication, depending on the author’s aims, the universality of the work, and other specific factors. The separate but related sections that make up each stage stand on their own as they build upon one another. Each stage transitions to the next with a dialogue between the authors, presenting different views on what works and highlighting one of the book’s major themes: Many points of view converge to form our communal writer’s path. Dan Millman and Sierra Prasada’s collaboration represents the culmination of a two-decade conversation about writing, process, craft, and life. Dan and Sierra write with the conviction that what they share can deepen the reader’s writing practice and strengthen the rich symbiosis between writing and life. Publisher: NEW WORLD LIBRARY PAPERBACK ISBN: 9781932073652 Dimensions: 20.00 and 14.00 cm