Here we are, already past Thanksgiving! The weather is quickly cooling down, holidays are coming.
We’re going into the time of year when we slow down a bit and think about family and reflect on life.
That’s basically what creatives do … reflect on life. Children’s book creators are no different.
Exercising the gifts we've been given is a fun and weighty responsibility!
All readers are influenced by their favorite authors, but it’s especially meaningful when you have the privilege of writing to readers who may embrace your influence at such an early age and then carry that influence with them for a lifetime.
Regardless of the medium, that’s the best reward any creative can hope for … to leave positive and lasting effects on their audience.
As creatives, we want to create fabulous and lasting work that will forever amaze and astound the world. We want to make our mark and leave a legacy …
Stop thinking so small!
Instead, focus more on the process than the outcome. Get the process right, and the outcome will take care of itself. Pour yourself into what you do. Challenge and stretch yourself to learn and hone your craft and every time you do it, do it better than you did the last time.
It's nice if you can end up with something that will amaze the world ... but even better is to end up with something that will change the world ... and it can happen one individual at a time.
Better than amazing the world are the effects and influence you have on individuals in your audience. The effects and influence that you will probably never know about. Profound effects that change lives. Effects that even the person may not realize, but they know and act on thoughts that got planted in their hearts and changed and stayed with them forever. And affected the way that they influenced someone else.
And that is what creativity is all about ... serving and influencing our world, one individual at a time.