Daydream, then follow through.

Great job again, everyone! It was such fun reading about all those imaginary books swimming around in people's brains. I hope that many of us will find our ways to writing those books, one paragraph at a time, our travelogues and memoirs and romances and mysteries and book of photographs and poems and recipes and histories. Thanks for playing along! It was interesting to me how many people expressed that this one was difficult for them, or that they were going to opt out -- because I know the idea of writing a book can put a big roadblock down in one's imagination. It's too big, too looming, it blots out the sun. Some people have no desire to write a book at all. But for others, I think just the notion of it freezes the brain, and I want to put forth this exercise in visualization as a way of learning about what you really love about books and stories, or also illustrations or paintings or other kinds of artwork, so that you can figure out what you'd like to be working towards in your own creative life.

For me, I need to keep myself focused on what I love the most in books, and remind myself of what kind of story I want to tell. I do it with paintings too. I imagine showing my portfolio at a conference and picture what, in the best of all possible worlds, would be in that portfolio. What would I draw and paint? And once I know that, I try to accomplish it.

Daydream, then follow through.

Try this some time to keep yourself centered on your own creative path. Thanks again for another great week!