Make your book a STAR

At this week's FACCS K-12 educator's conference, I am presenting "Turn your teaching experiences into a book". Here's one idea from this presentation that applies to all authors, the STAR approach.

S = Start with your best idea

T = Tailor it with an outline

A = Accentuate the highlights

R = Research, Research, Research

The best place to begin is "start with your best idea". Writers are notorious for juggling more ideas than time. I  admit that it only takes a phrase, a casual comment overheard or an odd billboard to set my mind crafting a story or how-to piece. The crisis for creative writers is not what to when but when to focus on one concept and complete that work.

This reminds me of a old Lovin' Spoonful song about making choices; "Say yes to one and leave the others behind; its not always easy, its not always kind, but I guess you have to make up your mind."
If you sort all the options, then you can choose and start with the best idea. Keep the others for future books.

Think of it like baby names, so many wonderful options but eventually the parents have to put a name on the birth certificate. You are not abandoning those other amazing ideas, merely asking them to wait their turn.

Come back for second part - - - the "T"