Midweek Mind Dump

I had a couple random thoughts that were floating around my writer’s mind this week and thought … why hell, I’ll share them with you.  With a nifty/cryptic graphic of a BRAIN.

Anyway … here’s my writing life mind dump:

• “I love the ‘what-ifs’ of storytelling.”  That thought occurred to me this morning as I reflected on an awesome evening with my south metro writers group. They read and provided feedback on another short story I’m trying to polish.  The ideas that came!  What if this character was an older gentleman instead of a young man in his 20s?  What if the main character didn’t have a sister – that damn Mallory is just taking up space in my story!
• My voice recorder app on my phone … I do not condone distracted driving, but there’ve been plenty of occasions where I’ve pulled over on the side of the highway and dictated my thoughts onto my phone.  Sometimes there are gems to be found there.  Sometimes there’s absolute crap. But it’s all good, all part of the “what-ifs.”
• My dad and I are going to be collaborating on a project in the near future. Alas – it is nothing scintillating like an oral history of his high school stories, but it’s important. My dad’s a volunteer fire fighter for my hometown and he’s heading up a committee to explore grant opportunities to help acquire equipment, etc. Dad: “I had all of this information jotted down, but it’s everywhere – on the back of envelopes.  Now I can’t make sense of my notes.” As I looked around my desk at the stacks of Post-It notes, the story ideas that are jotted on the back of shopping lists (that were originally oil change receipts), I realized that the nut truly doesn’t fall far from the tree.

That’s all from me.  Have faith, dear readers … the weekend will be here soon!