Don't Wait to Create...

Life and living is about immediacy. Its about the power of the present, its now, its the experience in the moment  Edward Young once said, 'Procrastination is the thief of time.' And so it is. When I was a teenager, I felt that a year was an interminably long time  Now its just a succession of 12 months which fly by.  I've learnt to break time down into manageable bite size chunks instead of looking at a year as an eternity.

So, with not a moment to be lost, what can I create today? Creating does not have to be an art form such as painting or writing, or sculpting. Whatever you do that you lose yourself in the doing of it, and where something tangible that you have made is the result - that's creating. It can also be an intangible thing that you create in your mind, in your imagination. That is a very powerful form of creating.

Sometimes I find myself putting off creating... in my case, my next book. Why? Because I look at it as an eternity, that's why. Because it seems to me to be this mammoth task and when I feel overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of it, I have no idea where to start. 
That's when I tell myself that if I can break down 'time' into bite-size chunks, I can do the same with a book.

So, here are my chunks:
1. Start with the story. Write in down in one paragraph.
2. Break the story into four parts - read Larry Brooks Story Engineering for the how to.
3. Write a sentence per scene.

4. Write a paragraph per scene.
5. Expand each paragraph into a full scene.
6. Read through your first draft (Yes, you've done it! You've written a book. Now comes the hard part)
7. Rewrite until you get it right - check story flow, grammar, spelling, etc.
8. Get 3 people to read it and give you feedback (editing).
9. Make the changes that you feel are warranted.
10. Edit again and read through it yourself.
11. Submit for publication or self-publish.

You've done it! You've written your first book ... see it wasn't that bad.