Big Dreams

Dear Friend,

Sometimes I find it hard to dream big. Have you ever sat down and listed out what you want to do, need to do? I do it all the time. Today I went through my lists of every story idea, draft, outline, and forgotten attempt of stories, some going back to elementary school in the late 1990s.

There are a lot! All titles are split into short and long final (anticipated) versions. Just now I started grouping them into similar format. It’s like putting together a puzzle - look at the pieces long enough and I can start to see how everything fits together.

This is where the dreaming big comes in. I see all the stories and can’t wait to work on them. But can I? Should I? There are a number of short stories I could release as a children’s anthology - but I want them to be picture books. Do I do the anthology first or wait?

What about the stories that could easily be stand alone books but also could fit into one of the literary worlds I’ve created?

To dream big is to do it all, and yet I see the hugeness of my list and doubt that I can.

Start small, they say. So I am. Let’s get one short story published this year.

But next year, what might it look like to aim for one per month? Or if I took a few months and did the kids anthology? That could be almost fifteen stories in one.

Too many choices.

Dreaming big is scary.

But what is the worst that could happen? No one buys the book.

So why not dream big?

There is a lot of work to turn a dream into reality.

Are dreams worth it?

Heather

(Originally written August 2, 2021)