Nature of Beginnings

I've chatted a lot about beginnings on my blog. I've done the nuts and bolts of them. Go back to this link and read my five part series on Beginnings.

I had someone put a bee in my bonnet this week about taking to time to figure out what kind of learner you are. This website has a good test to help you discover the way you learn. I was actually very surprised by what this test revealed. I am a naturalistic learner. No wonder I spent most of my years in school baffled and wondering why I couldn't figure this out this school thing. I remember only one teacher in all my years of school that ever took me outside. I can remember every moment of that class. Interpersonal learning is at the bottom of my list. Logical is right above that. Most of school was that and I had a hard time connecting.

Throw me into the natural world, and I will see what few see and find what few find. There is not a moment of my life that I don't feel this vast universe: from atoms, to ants, to weather, to planets, to stars and then the galaxies. I feel connections everywhere. I am so curious. The way I learn weaves it way into the way I write. So I thought I'd spend some time explaining how the beginnings in nature feed the beginnings of books for me. I know how plants grow.

They start with some good old plant sex, cross pollination. An idea is not enough to fuel a book. It's got to get mixed up with an equally provocative and compatible idea. So go after the stuff that interests you. Keep at it, and I guarantee some cross pollination is going to happen and that is going to lead to....(no, not a book yet)...a seed! A seed has the blue print to make a plant in it, but a seed is not a plant. A germinated idea is not a book either. An idea has to be watered. Like a plant needs lots of sunlight, needs good soil, needs room to grow, books -- they need time and they needs lots of nutrients: critique, plotting, character studies, etc. This growing a book is hard work, and you're going to have to tend it or the thing will die.

One thing that really makes me laugh, is when people are stressing over the beginning of a book without writing to the end. It's like having a little tiny sprout and wondering if those leaves are the best ones. I mean those leaves are going to fall off and new stuff is going to take their place. I think if you begin with a true seed of a book idea, and you continue to feed that book through the seasons. Yes, winters will come and then springs again. You will someday have an awesome book.

I'm going to continue next week with more about nature and beginnings. Hope to see ya here.


This week's doodle: What if a kid met a dinosaur?



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So here it is the quote of quotes on beginnings:

There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning. ~ Louis L'Amour