I'm a lazy person and I usually wait for inspiration to be handed to me. I am very bad at motivating myself, even if it's something that I want to do.
Last week I saw a few very inspiring people talk and I have managed to hold onto that motivation and get some stuff written on my book. I thought I'd share some of what I wrote down while listening to them and if it inspires you too, so much the better.
I heard Karen Scott talking about how she started Tots to Teens, a free magazine for parents and kids. She said "If you're going to have a dream, it might as well be a big one."
Her message was essentially to ignore the daunting thing, and just forge ahead. Face the challenges as they come up but don't paralyse yourself worrying about them.
Eyrlys Hunter is a New Zealand children's book author and she gave lots of practical writing advice. Some of her pearls of wisdom;
Begin with something true to you, then go out into what this means to the world.
To begin writing you could try creating a character, a real child. What do they want? Who are their friends and enemies? What are they afraid of? What is their favourite place?
Then write a short story, put your character into a situation and show their reactions. Illustrate the character with words.
RUE: Resist the Urge to Explain.
"Character determines incident, incident illustrates character." ~ Henry James.
Don Long is an editor and publisher of multi-cultural, multi-lingual children's books. He said "It is possible to change society if you speak in a persistant and consistent way."
...last month I saw Bernard Beckett speak. He writes exceptionally good NZ teen novels. He emphasised the need to start a story about something that fascinates you; finding an idea kernel and then extrapolating out.
Passion. It all comes down to doing what you're passionate about and making it happen however you can.
Oh, and finally I wanted to link to Neil Gaiman's advice for authors....and now I have.
PoF: girly pirate
CO: I figured out the storyline of my novel at lunchtime! Yay me!