Cultivate a state of mind to help your writing flow with acclaimed writing instructor and Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist Sarah Selecky.
Story Is a State of Mind: Writing and the Art of Creative Curiosity is a book about how to live a life that prioritizes curiosity and flow. It’s a book about meditation, skill and technique, creativity, language, and mindset. It’s a book that teaches you how to be a creative writer.
It’s for novelists, journalists, memoirists, and poets. It’s also for anyone who has ever had a thought about writing. My early readers have told me that it’s not just for writers — it’s for anyone who wants to feel more flow, joy, and connection to their aliveness.
I’ve been writing this book since I started teaching creative writing in 2001. This book is the culmination of more than 25 years of study, research, practice, writing and publishing. The world has changed significantly for writers throughout these years, and through it all, I've returned to this essential truth: A calm mind is a creative mind.
When you practice mindfulness as a creative writer, you can infuse your language with life. You can use your awareness to dissolve your own creative blocks. And you can write more and more skilfully, mastering literary techniques with aplomb.
This book is for creatives of all levels, from those just starting to write their first story to seasoned authors who are working on their tenth novel. It’s adaptive, interactive, and practical.
Each beautifully designed deck contains 50 prompts for when you want to dig deeper. Shuffle to begin, and then choose your own writing adventure: progress through the cards and prompts one by one; shuffle and pick one out randomly; pin a card up on your wall. A pocket-size box means the cards will be at home on a corner of your desk or in a bag, so inspiration is always within reach. These writing prompts are magic seeds: when they’re planted in the right soil, anything can happen.
“Story Is a State of Mind by Sarah Selecky is a brilliant, soulful, transformative guide to the craft of writing. Filled with powerful exercises and practical wisdom, Sarah helps writers explore their creativity, set boundaries (my biggest challenge), and cultivate the discipline needed to finish their work (my second biggest challenge). Having had the privilege of teaching alongside Sarah, I can personally attest to her talent and deep understanding of the writing process. I’m currently working on my eleventh book and struggling to find my groove, so this book comes at just the right time for me! Story Is a State of Mind is an essential companion for anyone serious about their writing journey.”
“Savvy and persuasive, prize-winning fiction writer Sarah Selecky takes readers on a magic journey through the world of writerly craft. Both beginning writers and veterans will find useful tips and insights in her charming book about the art of transforming the blank page into a story.”
“Story Is a State of Mind illuminates the sacred intersection between craft and consciousness. Sarah Selecky guides writers to approach their work with both rigor and reverence, offering practices that engage body, mind, and spirit. This guide shows us how to blend technical skill with intuitive wisdom, turning the act of writing into a transformative practice. An essential companion for anyone seeking to write with magic.”
“Through generous counsel, illuminating exercises, and a big helping of magic, Story is a State of Mind by Sarah Selecky shows us how creativity can be cultivated and sustained for a fertile—and joyful—writing process. It also happens to be terrifically well-written. In warm, humorous prose, Selecky gently reconnects us with creative curiosity, asking a fundamental question: What if you approached your writing as play? Read this book, and I promise you will find the answer.”
“Through generous counsel, illuminating exercises, and a big helping of magic, Story is a State of Mind by Sarah Selecky shows us how creativity can be cultivated and sustained for a fertile—and joyful—writing process. It also happens to be terrifically well-written. In warm, humorous prose, Selecky gently reconnects us with creative curiosity, asking a fundamental question: What if you approached your writing as play? Read this book, and I promise you will find the answer.”
—Emily Urquhart, author of Ordinary Wonder Tales and The Age of Creativity
“A thoughtful, meditative guide to storytelling that will help bring focus to creatives who are feeling lost in our noisy world. Story Is a State of Mind will bring ease to your writing practice and help you answer the creative call.”
“A thoughtful, meditative guide to storytelling that will help bring focus to creatives who are feeling lost in our noisy world. Story Is a State of Mind will bring ease to your writing practice and help you answer the creative call.”
—Carly Watters, literary agent and co-host of The Sh*t No One Tells You About Writing podcast
“The accumulated inspiration and practical wisdom in this book, so essential to writers, is as wide-ranging and comprehensive as it is accessible; in fact, what Sarah Selecky offers here is nothing short of remarkable. As a true companion and ally, her two decades of intimate writing, listening and teaching can be found on every page. Given that there is nothing else quite like it, the only thing left to say is read it and write!”
“The accumulated inspiration and practical wisdom in this book, so essential to writers, is as wide-ranging and comprehensive as it is accessible; in fact, what Sarah Selecky offers here is nothing short of remarkable. As a true companion and ally, her two decades of intimate writing, listening and teaching can be found on every page. Given that there is nothing else quite like it, the only thing left to say is read it and write!”
—Peter Levitt, author of Fingerpainting on the Moon: Writing and Creativity as a Path to Freedom, and Yin Mountain: The Immortal Poetry of Three Daoist Women
“This generous exploration of the creative process inspires you to create the beautiful empty space in which you can breathe and write. Sarah Selecky’s practices are deceptively simple—and they apply to many art forms beyond writing. She teaches that the most important instrument an artist possesses is curiosity. To wonder, explore, and discover that which you didn’t even know you knew!”
“This generous exploration of the creative process inspires you to create the beautiful empty space in which you can breathe and write. Sarah Selecky’s practices are deceptively simple—and they apply to many art forms beyond writing. She teaches that the most important instrument an artist possesses is curiosity. To wonder, explore, and discover that which you didn’t even know you knew!”
—Stephen Nachmanovitch, author of The Art of Is and Free Play
The book follows the lineage of many Zen teachers, like the legendary Natalie Goldberg, who incorporate deep mindfulness into their writing and teaching practices. Story Is a State of Mind offers writers generous encouragement, gentle coaching, and an urge to pay close attention to the changing world around us. I love how clear and conversational the book feels…like having a long, deep chat with an old friend.
49th Shelf
Trevor Corkum
“If story is a state of mind, in Selecky’s world it’s a human mind in a human body that makes all the difference. If, among other things, you’re looking to strengthen and explore that connection, this might be the book for you...The night I started reading Story is a State of Mind, I had a dream that led to a poem.
The Sea Board Review
Lisa Timpf
For writers and readers of all sorts, Story is a State of Mind is a book to come back to, again and again.
The Miramichi Reader
Catherine Marcotte
Whether readers seek balance in their writing or want to reflect on their influences, Selecky provides an insightful, accessible, and enjoyable guide.
Literary Review of Canada
Susan Huebert
CBC’s The Next Chapter
Antonio Michael Downing interviewing Robert J. Wiersema
The book follows the lineage of many Zen teachers, like the legendary Ntalie Goldberg, who incorporate deep mindfulness into their writing and teaching practices. Story Is a State of Mind offers writers generous encouragement, gentle coaching, and an urge to pay close attention to the changing world around us. I love how clear and conversational the book feels…like having a long, deep chat with an old friend.
Trevor Corkum
49th Shelf
The human desire to belong is at the heart of Sarah Selecky’s radiant, shimmering novel. In the person of Lilian Quick, Selecky has created an irresistible heroine. And in her reflection and observations, she has once again proven that she is a writer perfectly attuned to the music of the present moment.
Barbara Gowdy
Author of Little Sister
Selecky pokes fun at the culture of online empowerment that attracts women in particular—that strange mix of spirituality, philosophy and self-help with a healthy dash of capitalism—without mocking or dismissing it. She communicates that what might look like a pyramid scheme to some can feel deeply genuine to those looking for meaningful connection ... Selecky’s work is smart and subtle.
Toronto Star
Sadiya Ansari
Audio read by Lisa Flanagan, an award-winning audiobook narrator, voice actor, director, improviser, and classical soprano based in New York City. Lisa has received multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards and Voice Arts Awards.
“Narrator Lisa Flanagan will have listeners laughing at this ironic coming together of two very different estranged women…Flanagan helps listeners differentiate the two women and their idiosyncrasies…This fun story told by a confident narrator will help make any jog, drive, or wait enjoyable.”
—AudioFile
I loved this book ... The essays deal with igniting your own curiosity, and using tricks and skills to stop your nerves and ‘monkey mind’ and keep writing. Sarah talks about self-doubt, when to show your work to others, and what to do if you get stuck.
Alexis Kielen
Good Reads
There are some books that come to us just when we need them.Then, others don’t. I could have used this book 5 years ago, but alas. At least I have it now. It made some great points and had a few lessons I will keep with me forever.
Emily Andrews
Good Reads
It’s changed my writing into rituals of creativity ... Definitely a book I will return to as I continue to refine my craft.
Luna Trujillo
Good Reads
AS SEEN IN
AS SEEN IN
This remarkable, hard-to-categorize novel is written with the same keen insight into female friendships and the same passionate attention to sensory details that got Selecky's previous book shortlisted for the Giller Prize. In Radiant Shimmering Light, however, the relationships unfold in the context of a women-centred self-help MLM (multi-level marketing) enterprise called Ascendency, headed up by a magnetic, mysterious and monomaniacal leader named Eleven. Sounds like satire? There's a definite edge of squirmy comedy in watching the earnest seekers fall down the Ascendency rabbit-hole and wind up selling products like 'Conscious Chocolates' at their sharing circles. Yet this story also has huge heart, and I came away from it with eyes newly open to the shimmer of enchantment in the world around us.
Sarah Henstra
Author of the Governor General Award winning, The Red Word
Tinged with magic ... An otherworldly feeling pervades the novel, from the transformative experiences the characters undergo to the author’s whimsical use of nature.
Quill & Quire
Tara Henley
If you need a belly laugh, add Radiant Shimmering Light to the top of your reading list. This hilarious satirical novel is about a single 40-year-old woman trying to build her brand as an animal aura portrait artist (lol) and her newly internet-famous cousin who supposedly has all the answers. Prepare for a lot of giggling and a lot of cringing.
Hello Giggles
Elizabeth Entenman
Selecky masterfully mimics the marketing-speak of “gurus” like Eleven: an endless cycle of metaphor and hyperbole, pet names for her followers (“petals,” “darlings”) and a cultish adaptation of language for her own purposes ... Although the cousins’ back story is solidly written, Selecky excels when she focuses on the world of self-promotion. The novel halts frequently to make room for its characters’ exhaustive social media posts ... Alongside these delicious satirical moments, Selecky includes occasional respite from the jargon, particularly when Lilian’s friend Juliette is on the page ... The novel, at its core, examines the nature of genuine friendship, freed from the need to build a brand.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
An Insta-famous motivational guru recruits her cousin to a creepy training program.
Cosmopolitan
Best December Ever
[A] delicious send-up of the online self-care movement that aligns itself with social media and self-promotion. The book is extremely funny and extremely sad, all at the same time ... I was enamored with Radiant Shimmering Light from the very first pages.
The Cyberlibrarian
Miriam Downey
In Radiant Shimmering Light, her brilliant, hilarious, perceptive debut novel, Sarah Selecky examines the enmeshing of “self-care” with flagrant self-promotion and knee-jerk consumerism.
Star Tribune
Jackie Thomas Kennedy
In the satirical novel Radiant Shimmering Light, author Sarah Selecky holds up a mirror to society’s obsession with creating fantasy lives that don’t accurately reflect their reality.
Orange County Register
Danielle Bauter
Radiant Shimmering Light is timely, easy to dive into, and has “summer read” all over it. But this is also a literary work that drills deep into character; it’s about as good as it gets for a discerning reader. […] Watch this one: if there’s any justice, Radiant Shimmering Light is going to be everywhere on the fall awards lists.
49th Shelf
David Worsley
“Selecky has written a satirical and contemporary novel about the enlightenment and life-branding industries…An intriguing novel which will elicit a wide range of responses from readers. I can’t think of a more perfect novel for a book club.”
— Readings Australia
Sarah Selecky • PO Box 6271, Picton, ON, Canada, K0K2T0 • support@sarahselecky.com
I am grateful to live and create on the ancestral and living land of the Wendat, Anishnaabeg, and Haudenosaunee Peoples, close to Kanien’keha:ka (Mohawk) territory.
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