This is an excerpt from an eBook I’m writing at present, that you’ll be able to download for FREE pretty soon.
(And I’m just going to say that it’s taking a LOT of restraint to be this low-key about it. I’m loving this eBook so hard right now. It’s just pouring out of me, essentially writing itself, and I’m having that ‘writing in flow’ feeling that we all chase like a drug pretty much whenever I write. Sweet, huh? It also means that you’ll get hold of it sooner, which I like a lot too.)
To read a bit about what a plan can do for you…. read on!
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First up, let me tell you just one thing. (It’s an important one, so listen up!) Ready? Here it is:
Planning will not kill your creativity.
Planning will enhance your creative side, giving it room and a space to flourish.
Most ‘creative types’ eschew planning, citing their flighty, bohemian, creative spirit that will most certainly be crushed by the draconian limits of a plan.
It’s ok. I get it. I really, really do.
I used to think the same thing. That creativity was a powerful enough force that even with no plan – no container – it would just magically manifest that thing that I was thinking of doing/creating/writing.
I’d just follow my creative urges, and suddenly one day wake up having written a book, or painted the house, without really noticing, or doing anything consciously.
How did that go for me? Not as terrifically, cosmically well as I’d hoped, obviously.
I reached my mid-30s and hadn’t yet written even One.Single.Word of that book (or several) that I wanted to write.
I reached my mid-30s and hadn’t travelled to the places I’d wanted to travel to.
Add to those a whole lot of other dreams that somehow didn’t manifest themselves into my life.
I reached my mid-30s and felt like I had nothing to show for it.
Turns out, that if I’d planned for these things, they’d have happened. I know this sounds simple, but it eludes a lot of people – intelligent people – all the time. We get busy with the everyday stuff we all have; getting up, going to work, family, friends, other needs that pull at us, and then there’s always another episode of that show to watch, and then we’re tired and go to bed, to get up and do it all again tomorrow.
To get back to my story: I’d confused ‘following my bliss’ and ‘letting it happen’ with ‘having a plan that includes my dreams and taking action regularly to get them to happen.’
The big Ah-ha! moment happened for me when I began to work in an online capacity. Suddenly I had to think about exactly what I wanted to say to people, how I wanted to say it, in which medium to say it, and what it was going to look like. In order to look all creative, and effortless, and quirky and, dare I say it, stick with my own brand, I needed a plan. When I tried it without one, I skipped from one project to another, never really finishing anything at all, and only had a bit of half-hearted scrappy work to show for it.
I fixed it by working with some sympathetic, creative people who took me by the hand and led me through some super-not-scary ways of planning these things. They made me realise that planning wasn’t some sort of killjoy thing that dried creativity to a husk. Working with them made me realise that planning created the path for creativity to follow.
If creativity was the molten bronze, then planning was the form that I then got to pour it into.
If I’d poured my molten bronze out just anywhere, I’d have ended up with a puddle-shaped bit of bronze once it had cooled. With a form – or mold – I could end up with a sculpture that looked the way I wanted it to. It gave my creativity form, and function, and better still, I could change the plan at will, to better reflect changes in my thinking as I went along and learned things.
And that’s the other bit about planning: It works best when it’s flexible, reviewed often, and grows as you do.
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Hope you enjoyed that! It’s just a taster – the rest of the planning topics I’m covering in the eBook are: What is Planning?; Your Most Treasured Reader (what this is, how it helps); Types of Plan and how to use them; What to include; and Getting the Most from Your Plan. Essentially, it’s the total plan your book, own that thing, and make it work for you eBook.
If you’d like to sign up to receive the heads up that the ebook is on the downloads page for you to grab, the signup box is just over there on the right. You know what to do. —>
Comments? Does the thought of planning have you huddled under the blanket? Or have you embraced planning as the way to get your writing done?
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