Getting started is as easy as having a conversation

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Using your talents and turning it into something can seem super overwhelming, not knowing how to take your idea, or your talent and make a book for instance.

It’s easy to get the tools you need these days but it’s still work, it’s hard work, and that can hold you back.

But, it’s work that can be doing something you love, something you or your family want to do.

I want to give you some steps here that might help make it a little easier.

First of all, don’t do it by yourself.

Make it fun, involve your family… running an idea by them. Turn it into a creative family project.

The reason is, it will help you move forward and feel like you can accomplish what you want to do.

When I started my first book project, I would do it in my spare time. But since it was just me, no one knew exactly what I was doing or how I did it, I don’t even know if they knew that I was doing it.

But when I had my kids start writing ideas with me, everyone was rooting for the outcome of the project and they would even ask when can we finish this or what do we do next?

I didn’t know how to use software.

The other thing was when I started out, I didn’t know how to use any software and spent the next few years figuring it all out myself. But these days a lot more people have a basic knowledge of how software interfaces work.

The learning curve has been altered significantly. Not only for adults but kids as well. Kids don’t even know what a world without the internet was like. What they know how to do just by default from interacting with games on a phone is amazing to me.

My 4 year old nephew knows his way around his mom’s android phone more than she does. I’ve seen him download a new game and almost immediately he knows everything about it.

If you think about it, as you and your kids work on projects like these, sometimes the kids themselves can help you understand things faster, things that they know, because for them technology has always been there.

Start with a conversation to get inspired.

Another thing you can do is just sit down – before writing, before drawing anything – think about 5 ideas you might want to do for a book.

Anything goes here. Talk about what type of book it should be, a series, short stories, a how to book, a bedtime book, are there recurring characters, are they a group of friends?

What about this? Are there games that your kids play that you could make an instruction book for or could you make a story out of that game?

You can talk about it at dinner or family time. It’s all just about getting excited and thinking about the possibilities. And at the end everyone can see how many ideas you have when it’s time to get started.