Day 9 of taking myself to Creative Camp.

I’m a creative director who wants to let play, not profit, be my permission slip. So I build a camp instead of a content strategy.

And you’re invited to join me.

Today’s randomly generated prompt is:

Edit.
Books.
Share.

Good thing I got the Share twist because my 8-year-old is already all over today’s camp before it even starts.

The second she hears BOOKS, my co-counselor announces that we’re going to make a 25-plus-page, glossy, full-color book “to sell at the farmers market.” TODAY. 😱😱😱

She’s not thinking about timelines or gatekeepers or going traditional vs. hybrid vs. self-publishing. She’s not thinking about Publisher’s Marketplace announcements or NYT bestseller lists.

She just sees a book and thinks:

“I want to make one.”

And I feel attacked. 😅

She does this sometimes.

A few years ago, I told her I was “trying to publish my book” and she asked why I didn’t just…do it???

You know that thing, EXPLAIN IT LIKE I’M FIVE, well, try explaining publishing to a 5-year-old!!! I launched into this long, rambling explanation about my agent and publishers and going on submission and all the steps between having an idea and holding an actual book in your hands.

And it made absolutely no damn sense.

Then we got home, and she proceeded to make one, two, three, four+ books that night.

Alice doesn’t even know that gatekeepers exist. I’m the one introducing them to her. Which brings me back to today’s dilemma:

How do I YES AND this giant idea while also saying…

Absolutely not.

Because I love the spirit, baby.

But I do not love the idea of making a 25-plus-page book, preparing it for sale, and launching our farmer’s market publishing empire before lunch.

How do I avoid becoming Baby’s First Gatekeeper?!

Rule #1: Use what you have. 

Rule #2: The easier, the better. 

So the YES AND becomes, YES, let’s make a book! AND, let’s find the smallest version we can bring to life today.

1 sheet of paper. 8 tiny pages. No printing press. No distribution plan. No movie rights. (Yet.) Just a little book we can actually finish.

And I’m puuuuumped.

Because I have wanted to make a zine for a while. I keep seeing them everywhere lately. Bridget at the local beauty apothecary made one. I picked up a few at the boardwalk market. And every time I see one, I think,

I want to try that!

Which is exactly what my 8-year-old does. She sees a book, a movie, a play, and wants to make one. Who doesn’t?! See something cool and say, I want to do it myself!

But I have a bad habit of turning I want to try that! into I want to optimize that / perfect / be the best / take it all the way.

Alice just starts.

So today, I start.

I make the lil’ baby zine of my dreams. And then I go through it again and again, adding more details each time, refining what’s already there.

There’s that Edit prompt. 

Not editing the life out of an idea before it begins. Making something first, then seeing what else it wants to become.

My 8-year-old has apparently been trying to teach me this for years.

Why don’t you just…do it?

Make the book.

Create from YAY.

Add more on the next pass.

Let play be the permission slip.

Create like you don’t know the gatekeepers exist yet.

Welcome to camp.