"What Do You Do With an Idea?" by Kobi Yamada and The Creatrilogy (The Dot, Ish, and Sky Color) by Peter H. Reynolds come to mind, but I'm not sure if these are quite what you're looking for. Still, they deal with creativity, so might be woth looking into!
I've read the
What do you do with an Idea? as well as the
Creatriology, both really interesting. Not really what I'm looking for since those protagonists are already creative - I'm kinda looking for a protagonist who's conflict is lack of creativity.
I don't have suggestions
, only a question. Does your story hinge on something being lost or changed (stakes) if the conflict (lack of creativity) doesn't get resolved?
Not particularly, however that might be a fundamental problem of the story. For mine, the conflict is lack of creativity and the stakes is simply not being able to fun creativity.
Similar example: a person sees the joys of music but doesn't know how to play an instrument. That person wants to learn and would feel left out if he or she didn't learn to play. The story would be about that person feeling left out and eventually being able to play.
You may want to take a look at: ISH by Peter Reynolds, LOUISE LOVES ART by Kelly Light, and CRAFTY CHLOE by Kelly DiPucchio.
Or maybe THE PLOT CHICKENS, which is about some chickens trying to write a good story.
Hmm, I will have to check out
Louise Loves Art. I've just looked at the book trailer and it seems pretty interesting.
Same with
Crafty Chloe. Only just looked at Amazon previews so far.
btw, I love the title
The Plot Chickens (...
plot thickens, lol) Don't know anything about it yet.
Oh, and also HOUNDSLEY AND CATINA (an early reader) by James Howe.
Only looked at Amazon previews but seems cool too.
Also BATTLE BUNNY by Jon Scieszka and Mac Barnett is pretty brilliant.
Not quite the kinda of book I'm looking for but - yes - great idea for a book.
RALPH TELLS A STORY by Abby Hanlon is about a boy who's trying to write a story, but he thinks nothing ever happens to him, so he doesn't have anything to write about. Not sure if that's what you're looking for, but thought it might be worth a mention.
I've read that one, thanks for the (re-)suggestion.
Dan Santat's Beekle is a bit different, how imaginary friends wait to be picked. I'm not sure if it's exactly what you're looking for, but it's a different take on the theme.
Sounds great from the youtube trailer.
-
Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I hope to check these books out sometime

I find that most of these creativity/imagination stories deal with a classroom setting. The conflicts usually revolve around a child competing a project and either they don't know what to do
or what they do isn't perceived to be good enough... I'm kinda wondering if there's any creativity/imagination story that is, in itself, for the sake of creativity/imagination and that's where the conflict arises?