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It’s not only for you and your kids but your grandkids … and beyond.
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- Do you know what the hardest part of writing a book is?
- SPARK | “How can I make more time in the day to write with my son?”
- Don’t have much conversation with your kids? Here you go.
- That partner of yours. Yeah, the kid. We still have roles to play. They’re important.
- Spark | Time Capsule: this is one of those moments I want to remember.
- Spark Campfire | Step out of your comfort zone to uncover your true message
- Everyone is born a genius
- Here’s what I’m giving my nieces for Christmas
- Embers
- Sparklers
- The 1/4″ drill bit, Bali, cocktails on the beach, love, pride, and Spark
- Is your goal to have fun or win an award?
- I recorded an 11-second video 4 years ago that’s the foundation of my next book.
- Don’t wait 12 years. Please.
- Fire
- It’s not only for you and your kids but your grandkids … and beyond.
- Is there anything possibly worse than not starting the project?
- Oops. That’s what I forgot: a story.
- The One Recipe Cookbook (and how to finish a project together with your kids)
- Best books for doing activities with your kids, creating family memories, and building relationships between parents and children
- Spark: It’s about creating something from nothing. Let’s create a subtitle, shall we?
- People like us do things like this
- Why Spark? Why me? Why you? Why now?
- What if I’d like to be one of the people like you who do things like that?
- Permission to … change my book title?
- Write a book with your kids? 43 elements for success. 42 are optional.
- It seems like backwards math, but by creating, we are actually “getting” more than we are “giving.”
- The Widow and the Orphan
- Spark Love: About that 1 mandatory element of the 43…
- Recipe for Love
- Kids need to crash their bikes to learn how to ride.
- Spark at “#1 New Release in Parent Participation in Education”
- Spark has hit #1 in Parenting in Free Books
- Spark Campfire
- When you document it, it becomes more real
- It takes as long as the time allotted
- I don’t want to navigate negativity.
- What’s the one little spark going to be that sets off the creativity in you (or your child)?
- Spark Campfire February 2019
- Find someone who believes he is alone and convince him that he is not.
- Well, wait a minute. That wasn’t so hard.
- Someone out there could use the help from the you of today
- I just got off the phone with my niece (and why that’s important).
- How to structure your non-fiction
- Spark Campfire | I wish I knew my nephew
- Spark Campfire | Why are you the person to write this book?
- Spark Campfire | Can we write a book and be less in front of a screen?
- Spark Campfire | How we define success
- Spark Campfire | So, you say you don’t have a book idea?
- Spark Campfire | Think about your audiobook before you thought you needed to
- Spark Campfire | Time Capsule
- Spark Campfire | Sweat Hut
- Spark | How do you answer the question, “What are you working on?”
- Spark: Ch. 3: Message in a Bottle
- The risk of remaining tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom
- Spark Campfire | Who can say what you want to say better than you can?
- Imagine yourself as a published author.
- Writing & Publishing: Why do we go to the gym? Wait, I don’t go to the gym. Exactly.
- Write Your Worst Book Ever
- This is what co-creating a book looks like
- Don’t do what you want to do but they want to do
- “Drama” audiobook is DONE!
- SPARK |Tell me your fears
- 7 Questions for Spark
- Spark Campfire | Did I mention we’re going to get it done?
- Spark | Thanks for your gift of sharing yourself through this book.
- “I get to be the fun mom.”
- “Our story has to be told.”
- SPARK authors Meg and Matthew Leal are #1 on Amazon!
- “Oh, next year will be better.”
It’s for others. Others you might not even yet know.
This is an excerpt from the book “Spark: How to write a book with your kids and why you should.“
Although this project is very much for you, your child, and your family, perhaps even a larger element is who it’s for that you can’t even imagine yet.
Have you ever been in line at the supermarket where there are a few people ahead of you but lots of people behind you and you just want to get home? You remember your wife really wanted some of that red pepper hummus she likes so much. But you forgot. The line is long. You don’t want to get out of it. It’s raining out. You’re tired. Home is calling. Then brilliance strikes and you ask the person behind you if he’ll hold your spot, you sprint to the deli section and get not one, but two tubs of the hummus, run back into line and all is not only well with your world, all is well with the world.
You weren’t thinking of yourself. You were thinking of her. This is like that.
But then times ten.
If you’re struggling with any aspect of the project and you think there might be a danger of not starting, or worse, not finishing, imagine the following scene in your mind.
A young girl sits alone in a large, plush chair in a living room with a view of a small lake and forest. It’s peaceful. It’s the future. From the small table next to her, she picks up the book you wrote before she was born. She examines it in her hands and looks over the binding, the image on the front, and turns it over to the back cover.
She knows it came from her great-grandmother, but she didn’t know you–only heard of you over family dinners. She did know you did something with your daughter, her grandmother, a long, long time ago and it’s in her hands.
She’s finally old enough to read it–and understand at least parts of it. But she does realize the importance of it. It’s history, it’s family, it’s a family heirloom. Her father always talks about the Chinese chest in the living room, but her mother holds this book as her most cherished memory from the stories told to her from her own mother and from you before that.
For the first time, she feels old enough to open it up herself. She opens up the first pages and reads each one carefully. She comes to the dedication and wonders how no one ever told her this. It’s dedicated to her.
You’re now doing one of two things:
- Your hand is over your heart, a tear is in your eye, and you’re whispering to yourself, “Oh dear, that’s me.”
- It sounds nice and all, but you can’t think about a creative project, the great-granddaughter sounds sweet, you’re really kinda busy at the moment, but you know your spouse is probably the type who would be doing #1 right now. (HINT: give this book to that person)
Or actually, there’s another option to what you’re thinking:
- That will never happen because I won’t create a project together with my kids.
I’m trying to walk the fine line between a veiled threat and just a plain old regular threat.
There are few things we regret doing later in our lives. More often than not, we regret what we did not do.
![It's not only for you and your kids but your grandkids ... and beyond.](https://passthesourcream.com/wp-content/uploads/ptsc-1544a-time-capsule.png)
It’s not only for you and your kids but your grandkids … and beyond. [Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash]
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