At the interesting creativity site cecilvortex.com there is an interview with master clown Jeff Raz about his approaches to creativity. I found one part of what he said particularly interesting, maybe because I meet so many people who tell me they have a "great idea for a novel" or a "great idea for a screenplay" but they're not sure how to go forward:
"90% of my students tell me at some point or another, 'I have all these great ideas. I just don't know quite how to do them.' I say, great, you and everybody else has great ideas. That's not what makes an artist or what makes art. What makes art is doing the damn thing. The craft part of art is what gets it done.
"We all have wonderful inspirations. Everybody dreams--your dreams are thoese brilliant Fellini movies, but you aren't Fellini because you haven't made it into a movie. So if you want to be Fellini, start making the damn movies. Figure out how to use the camera. Get your shot. Then you'll start to find the artistic challenges within that. And if you can keep your craft going and have your art flow into that, then you can become an artist, if anyone cares to watch it."
When are you starting to turn your great idea into a great something real? Today would be good. :-)