This week's chat is with the absolutely brilliant Amie McNee, author of the brand new book We Need Your Art: Stop Fucking Around And Make Something – which, by the way, is hands down one of the best books on creativity I've ever read. Seriously, I put it down halfway through just to go make some art, which is exactly what you want from a creativity book, isn't it?Amie is first and foremost a storyteller and fiction writer, but over the past decade she's also developed this beautiful side career championing artists and documenting what it actually means to do the brave thing of making art and putting it out into the world.We dive deep into so many juicy topics in this conversation. We talk about why creativity is literally your birthright (not something you need to earn or prove you deserve), the relationship between art-making and healing, and why perfectionism is the absolute worst trait an artist can have.Amie shares her beautifully unromantic approach to creative practice, we nerd out about the brain chemistry of creativity and what art does to our nervous systems, and she shares all the goss about her experience with traditional publishing versus self-publishing.But perhaps most importantly, we talk about why making art – in any form – is genuinely revolutionary when the world wants you scrolling on your phone instead. Why artists sit at the very centre of making this world a better place, and why we absolutely must be delusional and unrealistic in our creative ambitions.✍ Read the full show notes here: https://zuzushausofcats.com/journal/ep8-amie-mcnee💌 Never miss an episode - sign up here: ⁠https://zuzushausofcats.com/keepintouch🎶 Music by the incredible Caspar Riis: ⁠https://soundcloud.com/caspar-riis⁠. Used with permission.

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