100 Day Creative Challenge 77: Continuous Creation
Our lives are continuous creations. We evolve and change as time goes by. If aren’t changing, we’re not growing.
Where there’s no progress,
there’s no growth.
If there’s no growth,
there’s no life.
Environments void of change
are eventually void of life.
Andy Stanley
When I finished university I thought my education was complete. When I was about two weeks into my teaching career I realised I knew nothing.
Teaching taught me that learning is a continuous process. We never stop learning.
A pivotal moment came when the Education Inspector came to visit my classroom and he told me, ‘You’re not teaching.’
‘What am I doing?’ What sort of question was that? I had been teaching for a year and a half at that point and was insulted by his comment.
‘You’re giving activities, not teaching.’
The next few years of teaching were a journey of discovery into the world of how to teach, not what to teach.
In 2005 I took up writing full-time and wrote two books in fairly quick succession. I found the process fairly painless and enjoyed the experience.
In 2009 I wrote the first draft of my first YA novel, Perfect Mercy in a relatively short time. I took it to an editor for appraisal and spent six hours listening to her pull my novel apart. ‘It’s good, but it’s not great,’ Annie told me.
The next two years I began a journey of finding out how to Show, Not Tell in my writing. In the meantime I submitted the book to an agent, publisher and another editor. It was still, ‘Good, but not great.’ A little better, but not great.
It was released at the end of 2012 and the follow-up released in 2014. Love, Justice was much better, but still not there. (In my own assessment)
Last year I went to a Master Class with Margie Lawson, teacher extraordinaire who guides you to New York Times worthy heights of writing. For the first time, I understood what it is to Show, Not Tell.
I finished Book 3 and I’m in the middle of writing Book 4. I’m also writing another novel.
I’m still learning.
I still struggle with it, but each day my writing is getting better.
Both my teaching and writing careers were opportunities to learn and grow. Life is about learning and growing. Life is change, life is growth, life is a continuous creation.
Remember that you’re nothing but a beginner – even if you’ve been working on your craft for fifty years. We are all just beginner here, and we shall all die beginners. So let it go. Elizabeth Gilbert,
