THREE STORY IDEAS JUST FOR YOU

WELCOME TO MY IMAGINATION

Welcome to my imagination.  I have three story ideas just for you.  Ah, but there's a catch!  You knew there would be, didn't you?  You will select your own story idea.  My goal is to put you in surroundings you relate to and understand.  No writer's block here.  Let's get started.

STORY IDEA ONE

You were a child once.  Pick a childhood memory, then write about that memory.  Write your thoughts, impressions, and actions.  Choose two or three memories to write about, if you like.  Select the best one to be your story, later.  Also, you may combine the memories into one story.  It will be your choice.   After you write your thoughts, impressions, and actions, you have a rough draft.  You have a beginning, a middle, and an end.  What you do next is link the three parts with creative ideas, true or untrue, turning it into a story that fits everything together.  Think of your creative ideas as creative glue to hold the story together.  Once done, rewrite the story so your story becomes interesting to readers.  Don't be surprised, if in polishing your story over and over, your childhood memory turns into a completely different tale from your original idea.  Stories, like people, have lives.  They grow, they change, they become unrecognizable.  Once humble and immature, they mature into storyhood..  (If you are a child reading this, pick a memory from a year or two ago.  Good luck!)



STORY IDEA TWO

You have learned many things in your life.  Pick something you learned, then tell what it was and how you learned it.  Explaining something you have learned on the job, in the classroom, or through trial and error, can be a challenge.  You may relive the struggle in the process of getting this idea on paper.  Feel free to include your frustrations and emotions, from then and now.  Be kind to yourself.  This idea may take longer to write.  You may have to put it down when finished, then return to it a few days later.  A great thing to do, once your emotions and frustrations subside, is find the humor in the situation.  Example:  If you hammered nails with the handle of the hammer, until the light went on in your head, telling you the "metal head" really works better for hammering nails; you might want to interject this bit of humor into your tale.  (Was I listening to the hammering sound of Heavy Metal music when I came up with this thought?  No, I wasn't, but I like the idea.  Thank you!)  Repeat the process of idea one; polish, rewrite, polish, rewrite, and create!

STORY IDEA THREE

You got it over with, whatever it was.  Pick a time in your life you had to do something you couldn't get out of.  All of us get stuck in situations we have little or no control over.  Write about this.  Maybe you had to fix dinner for an army of people and you're an eat-out person.  You know what it was!  Write it down from start to finish.  Complain and growl where you complained and growled then, even if only on the inside.  Include anything that was humorous at the time or humorous in retrospect.  You can exaggerate, but keep events within reality.  Same as others, polish, rewrite, polish, rewrite, and best of luck in getting it over with!

ASSIGNMENT COMPLETE

There!  You have three story ideas.  Best of luck to you.  Get those creative juices flowing.  If the exercise leads to other, better ideas, the exercise will have done its job.  Every day of life is a gift of hidden gems, waiting to be discovered.  You need to dig to find the "acres of diamonds" hidden in your life.  Dave Nightingale, famous for Lead The Field and other motivational works, coined the phrase in italics.  In writing or life, focus on awareness, so your own diamonds in life appear to you.