The Creative Sandbox Way: Your Path to a Full-Color Life

Want to live a full-color life? Need a boost in your momentum and confidence? Life is too short to not express the innate creativity inside of you and The Creative Sandbox Way is your path to living a more creative life than you ever thought possible.

Filled with paradigm-shifting lessons and stories, journal questions, thought-provoking creative prompts and coloring pages, The Creative Sandbox Way will help you take the fear out of creating and bring back the joy.

An excellent antidote for creative burnout, as well as a primer for anyone just getting started with creative pursuits, whatever your form of creative expression and expertise this playbook for creative living will help you learn to be comfortable with and embrace your own, authentic creativity, while offering a compassionate approach to dealing with your demons.

You’ll learn:

• Melissa’s 10 fool-proof Guideposts that have helped thousands get joyfully creating.
• 5 reasons why creative play is good for you, AND for the world (it’s neuroscience, baby!)
• Why “I’m not creative” is always a lie, and how to bust it.
• How to turn creative blocks into friends.

In short, The Creative Sandbox Way is a new approach to your creativity that will transform how you relate to it forever. Whether you’re stalled by perfectionism, impostor complex, or any other form of resistance, this book will help you move forward, learn to play again, create more work, and infuse your life with more happiness as a result.

ENDORSEMENTS

“It's one part field guide, one part creative practice—and I loved it. The Creative Sandbox Way is an adventure packaged as a book.”

-CHRIS GUILLEBEAU, NYT best-selling author of The Happiness of Pursuit and The $100 Startup

“If you think you're not talented enough, witty enough, or practiced enough to play in the creative arena, think again. At Melissa's Dinwiddie's playground everyone is welcome to test things out and get messy. The Creative Sandbox Way offers a joy-filled path for all of us to recover what she calls a truly life-changing practice: our creativity.”

-JEFFREY DAVIS, author of The Journey from the Center to the Page and Coat Thief

“You will love her spirit and her many useful suggestions!”

-JENNIFER LOUDEN, author of The Woman’s Comfort Book and The Life Organizer, founder of The Oasis

“This is a path more of us desire and need to follow. It’s time. And Melissa is the right guide.”

-PATTI DIGH, best-selling author of Life is a Verb, Creative is a Verb, and 6 other books

“The Creative Sandbox Way belongs on the bookshelf next to Annie Lamott’s Bird by Bird. I love it that this book is so encouraging; even in your darkest moody places, you will not be able to escape the encouragement. My favorite guidepost: “Just start anywhere.” My favorite quote: “The path of imperfection is the path of joy.” All through the book I found “keepers” to help me on my creative path. And I love Dinwiddie’s drawings. Buy three copies: one for the bedside, one for your desk, one for the bathroom.”

-DAVID ROCHE, inspirational humorist and author of The Church of 80% Sincerity

“Melissa gently and enthusiastically guides you along your creative path, no matter what your particular path is. You can't help but get pulled in to play in this sandbox.”

-DAVID BLATNER, author and co-publisher, CreativePro.com

“Engage with Melissa in her Creative Sandbox and allow her to whimsically reconnect you to the creativity present to children. Have fun, be surprised, and PLAY!”

-MARY ANNE RADMACHER, author of “Courage Doesn’t Always Roar”

Artist, author, and speaker, Melissa Dinwiddie helps people take the fear out of their creativity and bring back the joy. She’s on mission to change the conversation around creative expression and play, because not only does creating make you feel more alive — it’s how you change the world!

Melissa is Chief Instigator of a creative consultancy that helps individuals engage in creative practices so they can thrive, and helps teams and organizations cultivate creativity, innovation, and employee engagement, so they can improve business performance.

Before starting her consultancy, Melissa built a successful business as a freelance artist. She also has years of experience performing as a jazz singer and songwriter, a background that that she now weaves into her speaking gigs at corporations, conferences, colleges, and high schools.

In addition to her corporate work, Melissa does one-on-one mentoring; hosts creativity retreats; and runs an online community for women creatives, called the Creative Sandbox. She shares her writings, artwork, and music on her blog, Living A Creative Life (http://melissadinwiddie.com, recently awarded a Top 20 Doodle Blog on the planet), where you can also find her podcast, Live Creative Now!

A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, where she still lives, and a fourth generation Californian, Melissa graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UC Berkeley with a Bachelor’s degree in Social Science, and holds a Master’s degree of Social Science in Cultural Studies from the University of Birmingham in England.

Melissa lives with her husband and fluffy Siberian cat.