I did it. It was scary at first, but I finally dove in.
Since last Friday I’ve been tossing weird “What if…” ideas around in my head. Nothing developed from them.
So, I cheated. Just a little.
On my laptop I keep EVERYTHING I write or try to write. I have a folder for each year. Inside those folders are sub-folders for manuscripts, publisher, shards (leftover scraps of phrases, sentences, paragraphs) and quotes, thoughts and ideas that I never developed. I also have a folder for poetry and children’s poetry – mostly containing incomplete works.
I usually start a writing session by warming up on poetry. I may try to create some new poem, or work on a poem that has been on my hard drive for years. Either way, working on poetry gets my writing muscles ready.
Like I said, I cheated. Just a little.
So, I scanned through my junk, thoughts, and ideas folders. I found a few things I had saved from years back. One was a brief conversation I had with my grandson about nine or ten years ago. (I know—I told you I keep everything!)
That little 50 words of conversation birthed the “new” idea I’ve been working on.
I tried framing that idea into poetry. The result is a trilogy of poems that I think have promise for some children’s magazine. I HOPE so! I’ll keep polishing them.
My second attempt was to recreate that conversation as a fiction story for a children’s magazine. That idea definitely needs a great deal of work. But I began that work in spite of my trepidation.
I dove in. I dog-paddled my way around the pool.
Since last Friday I’ve committed to a writing schedule that I think will work for me. I’m committed to one hour of “writing” each morning and one hour each evening.
It’s a start, right?
I have to admit the water feels great. Refreshing.
So, how did YOUR new idea work out last weekend?
