The Book of Magic
There’s such a thing called the book of magic. It’s known by many names. But let’s talk magic for a bit before we proceed to The Book.
What is magic to you? What makes you magical? Magic is an energy that transcends to one’s skill. So let’s think about that. What’s your skill? What makes you happy? Are words your skill, your magic? Is it your expression? Your brush strokes? Could it be your voice or your movements? Or the dinner you serve?
Whatever it maybe you know what it is. I know mine.
Now let’s talk about The Book.
The Book, as I mentioned before, is known to many as your notebook, sketchbook, songbook, diary, journal, storybook, cookbook, or simply the book. These are the books of magic. This is where all the magic can be found.
As I was embarking on my journey as an artist. I had the most fortunate encounter with a legendary journalist. I met him in Japan where I started my career as an illustrator. We had worked together often and his most precious advice he’d offered me was to keep a notebook with me at all times. This is something I already did but this advice gave my sketchbook a whole new level of importance. He explained to me that all the magnificent ideas our brain comes up with should go into The Book. ‘You’ll forget if you don’t. And that magnificent idea may never come back.’ His words. So, to this day I always have a pen and a book with me to jot my magnificent ideas.
It’s the book of magic. Your ideas at its rawest and purist. I had an interview Wednesday with the lovely writer Katrina McKelvey. In this interview, we were having a conversation about our creative processes and our favourite part of it. Katrina’s favourite part was the first draft of the story. For me, it’s character development, which is the first stage in my creative process. We are at our freest when we’re penning down our ideas for the first time. It has all the emotions, thoughts, imagination, and magic. So catch it while you can. It’s magnificent!