Book Review: We Need Your Art

I love, love, loved Amie McNee’s We need your art: stop messing around and make something. It is easily the BEST confirmation of my art making process I’ve ever read. I first encountered Amie’s work with her Ted X talk which I shouted about here back in May. So I sorta figured I’d like the book as well. My lovely parents-in-law gave me the book for my birthday and I plowed through most all of it this past week while we were at the beach for Thanksgiving.

Vibe check

Stylistically, I feel like Amie and I match. She’s definitely a “done is better than perfect” girlie which is one of my personal mantras. She has some fantastic strategies for helping you figure out why you might be struggling with finishing. There’s a “Two Week Reset Challenge” to get you back on your feet if you are struggling with getting started or staying committed. Every chapter has a set of journaling questions to help you explore the topic. Things like asking you to look at what might be blocking you or they help you sort out your feelings and thoughts associated with making. As you know Bob, I do love me some journaling, so this part was a great fit for me.

It’s a great read as well as a useful reference for later with the way the chapters are organized. I’ve made a space to keep it on my desk so I can pull it out as needed. If you follow her Instagram, the book will feel familiar with its interspersed handwritten quotes that look just like her posters. The book’s style is casual while the intent and focus is deadly sharp.

In your body

There are so many things I like about this book. One of the big things that I keep thinking about is how she focuses on how art making feels in your body. The good of being in the flow and the often excellent feelings that come from making. But also how to spot our warning signs for being tired and needing to take a break. She talks a lot about how our own process and timeline are holy things and that our schedules and production is uniquely ours. She cautions us on trying to map someone else’s production process onto ours because when we do that we often suffer. And whew! Did I ever need to hear that! There’s a whole chapter on burnout and I dunno maybe I need the whole thing tattooed to my forehead?

I am super extra very skilled at ignoring signs from my meat sack so these reminders of listening to our bodies and not just continuing to plow past the point of burnout were eye opening for me. I often feel like I don’t produce enough considering I don’t work outside my house, so reading these chapters on building a sustainable practice were just what I needed. Particularly as I was assessing what I made in 2025.

This definitely makes me want to reread Feel Something, Make Something by Caitlin Metz. They have a complimentary approach to listening to your body as you are making and being present in your own skin with your feelings and thoughts and then channeling that into your making. *Adds to the 2026 goals list.*

Work in Progress

We need your art was also a great read during a week I was working on a project that has been in process for a while now. The “Into the Unknown” book project has been ongoing since June. This week at the beach was a major milestone.

I filmed the process of putting the book into the ocean and the subsequent destruction of it. Filming was just one piece of the larger project. There’s a whole chapter on patience in the book and coincidentally I was reading it while I was drying out the book. It was two days of the book sitting in the sun and me checking on it every thirty minutes to see if it was dry enough to turn the page. In between I was reading the patience chapter. Sometimes the universe just serves the most perfect thing.

A great way to start planning for the new year

While I was reading it this past week, I was also working on my year end journaling packet. Reading this book dovetailed with that process perfectly. So much so that I’m considering reading it every year as a part of my process.

I wrote so many quotes in my journaling packet and answered a bunch of the questions to go along with my year end. It’s also making me assess how I want to approach next year’s making. I’m considering going back to Make Something Every Day as a way to lighten up and be more playful with my practice.

This book is the top of heap of creative encouragement books! It feels like both the right book at the right time for me as well as the best fit for my style of creativity. I can see me rereading this MANY times to help me remember the path. I wish I had more thumbs to give it.

What about you? Have you read this book or another book on creativity that you love? I’d love to hear about it! Email me or start a conversation by leaving a comment on this post! If you’d like to keep up with what I’m working on, I’d love to have you as a newsletter subscriber. I include blog posts from here, cool things I find online, and pictures of my dogs. Sign up here.