Category: books

books, child, children, writing

Inspired: Free your writing and write for children

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

I’m outlining the draft of my first novel that I’ll write in November during National Novel Writing Month. It’s for a young adult audience and at one point last week I worried that the story was getting too complicated for that age range. Then I saw this quote by Madeleine L’Engle, author of A Wrinkle in Time: “You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if that book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.” Children understand so much that adults have forgotten. Once I really understood this, the story opened back up to all these wonderful possibilities that my adult mind had closed off. Writing’s funny that way. It makes us wonder. It makes us young again.  

adventure, books, determination, dreams

Inspired: Mind the gap between where you are and where you want to be

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

Big dreams inspire and terrify, usually at the same time. I often look at where I want to go from where I am, and all that runs through my mind is, “Well how the hell am I going to get up there?” I search around the base of the vertical mountain and eventually I find a foothold. It’s small, but solid, so there’s my first step. From that slightly elevated view, I find another small place to grip and pull myself one inch higher. This is how the journey of every big dream goes: many small bits of progress taken one at a time. The key is to get started right now and not give up. Concentrate on each small win and the greater journey will take shape in its own way and in its own time. In the words of Dr. Seuss, “Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way.” 

art, books, writer, writing

Inspired: When the reader is ready, the writer will appear

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

I love bookstores though sometimes when wandering through them I catch myself thinking, “What else could I possibly have to say that’s interesting and worthwhile?” A split second later I’m reminded that with 6 billion people in the world, there’s a lot of people doing almost the same thing: doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects, painters, teachers, chefs, scientists, and yes, writers. But not one single person practices his or her craft in exactly the same way. No one exactly like you has ever existed before or will ever exist again. We are each a unique makeup of circumstances, skills, beliefs, experiences, and ways of seeing, hearing, doing, and being. When the reader is ready, the writer will appear. And we never know when that will be. All we can do is get the story down, put it out into the world in as big a way as possible, and the people who need our story will eventually find it.

books, creative process, writing

Inspired: Write from the ending

Christa Avampato

Last night I worked out the ending to the novel that I plan to draft in November as part of National Novel Writing Month. While we live and write nonfiction from the beginning, I’m finding that fiction is best started from the end. I tried to write it from the beginning and I kept getting lost. Now that I know the destination, the path to it is easier (and more fun!) to construct. And this makes me wonder: should I take this novel writing approach to living, too?

books, creativity, dreams, imagination

Inspired: I write down six impossible things before breakfast

Christa Avampato

Today’s impossibilities are tomorrow’s realities. That’s why I’ve been inspired by Alice in Wonderland, my favorite book, to take up a new morning ritual. As soon as I wake up, I write down 6 impossible things before I have breakfast. It gets my creative engine running right off the bat. Give it a try and let me know what you come up with!

My 6 impossible things lists so far:
7/22/14
– The ability to send people messages through dreams
– Trees that grow everything we need – even bicycles
– A composter that could recycle anything and everything – zero trash
– Grass that cuts itself when it gets too long – and we get to decide what’s too long!
– A memory bank where we could house everything we ever learn and believe and experience forever
– A way to truly understand exactly why another person has a certain opinion and everything that lead them to that opinion

7/23/14
– A system that quickly and easily moves water between flood areas and draught areas so everyone has enough water
– Fireproof trees and shrubs
– Shoes that give us energy
– A machine to turn our steps into energy that we can use anyway we want
– Self-monitoring plants that tell us when they need water and food and how much – for those like me who are green-thumb challenged!
– A machine that can take an image in my head and translate it onto any surface

7/24/14
– Compressed food that stays fresh and ships easily and grows if you add water
– A body scanner that we could use to check our vital signs everyday
– A filter that would alert us when we are about to say or write something hurtful before we actually say or write it
– An individual environment control to give us control over the temperature around us
– A way to save and review dreams after we wake up
– An automatic way to remind us of the good things in our lives when we are having a tough time

7/25/14
– A map to the end of a rainbow
– A way to instantly fix anything broken, especially in our bodies
– A way to see how our lives would unfold if we made different choices
– A way to record the world with only our eyes
– An instant language interpreter for every language so we could communicate with anyone, anytime, anywhere, even with animals
– Cars that generate their own energy without needing outside fuel

7/26/14
– Books that come to life
– Vehicles that drive, fly, and swim
– An emotion changer
– A thought releaser
– A brain health monitor we can use at home
– On-command suction hands and feet
– Breathe underwater without equipment

7/27/14
– Connect every town and city by high speed train
– A world where we can take our dogs everywhere
– Clothes that grow with us
– Hair that grows or shortens on-demand
– Instantly repairing skin
– Eyes and ears that never grow old

7/28/14
– Self-decaying tech that you decide when it should decay
– A meter that tells you how many positive and negative thoughts you’ve had in a day
– Something that makes me aware of every time I think something negative about myself so I can stop doing it
– A dog translator – canine to English and English to canine
– Instant basic knowledge of how to play any instrument
– A self-cleaning house

art, books, movie

Inspired: The Monuments Men and Why Art Matters

Christa Avampato
Scene from The Monuments Men
Scene from The Monuments Men

“What hope there is for us lies in our nascent arts, for if we are to be remembered as more than a mass of people who lived and fought wars and died, it is for our arts that we will be remembered. The captains and the kinds depart; the great fortunes wither, leaving no trace; inherited morals dissipate as rapidly as inherited wealth; the multitudes blow away like locusts; the record and barriers go down. The rulers, too, are forgotten unless they have had the forethought to surround themselves with singers and makers, poets and artificers in things of the mind.” ~ Maxwell Anderson, “Whatever Hope We Have” from Michael Eisner’s book Work in Progress

I finally saw the movie The Monuments Men, the story of 7 brave men who recovered 5 million works of priceless art that were stolen by the Nazis during World War II. The movie passionately and astutely raises the questions, “Does art matter, and if so, why? And is it worth dying for?” At one point an answer is clearly articulated:  if we lose our art, then we lose our culture and history; and if we lose that then it’s as if we never existed. As someone who started a career in the arts, had a career in business, and now is determined to combine the two, I couldn’t agree more. Art matters because it holds our essence, the very seed of who are and what we care about. It is us. Creating art is the only thing we can do that lets us connect across the generations, long after we’re gone. It’s the only mark we can truly leave with the world.

books, creativity, imagination, science, vision

Inspired: Our Vision is Imagined and Our Creativity is Ever-Present

Christa Avampato
The Future of the Mind by Dr. Michio Kaku
The Future of the Mind by Dr. Michio Kaku

I’m in the midst of reading Dr. Michio Kaku‘s new book, The Future of the Mind. He explains that our actual vision is largely imagined. Our optic nerve should always create a large dark spot in our field of vision. It doesn’t because our mind actually compensates for it and fills in the details. Our mind guesses what’s there in that space that the eyes can’t actually see. We are imagining every moment of our waking lives. We are using our creativity without even realizing it. That’s how deeply embedded our sense of creativity is in our minds, in our very being. We invent the world around us.

books, grateful, gratitude, loss, love

Inspired: Aren’t We Lucky We Had Today?

Christa Avampato
James Patterson's new book
James Patterson’s new book

Author James Patterson was on CBS This Morning talking about his new book, First Love. It’s inspired by a woman he was with many years ago. She developed an inoperable brain tumor and to keep their spirits up they adopted this shared philosophy: “Aren’t we lucky that you didn’t die today?” It kept them appreciative, hopeful, and present. We’re all lucky we had today, even if it’s been the worst day, because it’s so much better than the alternative of not having this day at all. It reminds me that there are so many people all over the world who have passed on who would have given anything to have today. On the tough days, that idea keeps me going. It keeps me grateful. It keeps me smiling.

books, creativity, fear, science

Beautiful: Don’t Let the Fear of Criticism Stop You the Way It Almost Stopped Darwin

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

“In the long history of humankind those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.” ~ Charles Darwin.

This Christmas I got a subscription to Smithsonian Magazine, the perfect publication for nerds like me with a motley collection of interests. In the first issue I read about giant pandas, the Monument Men, and the last Christmas card sent by President and Mrs. Kennedy. One of the most interesting articles discussed Darwin. Though he published his seminal work, On the Origins of Species, in 1859 at the age of 50, he started developing his theory in the 1830s. He never planned to let it see the light of day while he was alive. It was only at the urging of his friend, Alfred Russel Wallace, that he published the work at all. Why did he hesitate for almost 30 years? He feared criticism. He feared that he was wrong despite so much evidence to the contrary.

Darwin changed the face of modern science in a radical way far beyond anything he ever imagined. Yes, his work was controversial and in some circles today it remains so. The lesson of Darwin is this: everyone who creates anything carries some amount of fear in their hearts. In Darwin’s case, it was extreme. Maybe that’s true for you, too. Don’t be Darwin. Please don’t let fear of criticism, fear of being wrong, stop you from putting your work out into the world. Do your best, release it, and let history be the judge and jury. Being wrong is painful, though not nearly as painful as never letting your ideas have a chance at a life outside of your own mind.

books, grateful, gratitude, inspiration, South Africa

Beautiful: Nelson Mandela, My Hero

Christa Avampato
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela

The summer of 2006 was not my finest hour. There was one light that I kept turning to over and over again during those difficult months – Nelson Mandela’s book Long Walk To Freedom. I bought it as I prepared for a class trip to South Africa with my business school friends the following March and it changed my life. From the moment I started that book, I committed myself to living my life as fully as possible in every single moment. I would never again say that something was impossible. He showed all of us that sheer will and the refusal to give up is enough to accomplish anything. Anything. To this day, that trip to South Africa is my favorite trip of all time. I knew when I left that I’d return there many times over in my life. It’s one of the very few places I’ve considered living if I ever live outside of the U.S. It is a magical country with some of the kindest people I’ve ever met.

When I heard the news of Mr. Mandela’s passing yesterday, I was home writing. My eyes immediately teared up and my heart felt heavy. Tears of gratitude mixed with tears of sadness. His light was so bright that I thought it would go on forever. And in many ways, it will. His light is alive in every person inspired by his actions and words. Against all odds, he shifted the world toward justice, acceptance, and fairness. Through his enlightenment, he enlightened all of us. How lucky we are to have had someone so good with us for so long.