I've been writing all my life. I think my first attempt at a full story was somewhere around the fourth grade. I tried writing my own screenplay of an "I Dream of Jeannie" episode. I even talked my neighborhood friends into acting it out. It was ridiculous and wonderful all at the same time.
Stories swim in my head all the time. On my drive to work. On my drive home from work. During work. Walking the dogs. Weeding the gardens. Vacuuming the house. Folding the laundry. Scooping horse poop. Cleaning the chicken coop.
I think up animal stories, magical stories, children's stories, and grown-up stories.
So many stories! Many of them make it to a yellow legal pad. I have yellow legal pads everywhere. I have my favorite kind of mechanical pencil everywhere too (Pentel Twist-Erase III Mechanical Pencil, 0.5 mm).
Some of them then make it to the laptop in an infant stage. A rare few get to come to life through the printer. Then they sit on my desk for a time. And finally, they land in the drawer. I have a lot of stories in the drawer. Sparkslingers was there for 15 years. Nokota Voices waited patiently for 10.
Right now, I have 5 "Sister Chicks" stories. My chickens supply endless material all day long. I have 2 "Nester the Donkey" stories too. My nieces love these. I dabble with artwork, but that is definitely not my forte. I have a story I call Dream Whisperers among others that may flesh out one day, but I'm not sure. There will definitely be a second Nokota Voices and Cloud City book before that one even thinks of seeing the light of day.
For now, I am aiming all my efforts toward my first attempt at a creative non-fiction book called Frank and the Ponies. A Memoir of Frank Kuntz as written by Julie Christen. This story will not make it to the drawer at all. It's just too important to me. I am so excited for people to hear Frank's story. This will definitely be one for your to-read list. It's scheduled to come out in November, so stay tuned!
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Julie, I'm re-livingold stories and aprtsof ones from my file cabinet so I can understand what you're going through. Nice to find those old bits. Good luck with your non-fiction story. It can be hard to switch voices from fiction to non-fiction
ReplyDeleteI could never let go of a good story in my mind... I had to write it, and rewrite it, and rewrite it, until I loved it enough to submit it. As for the "story ideas" I noted over the years, after a few years, I often found them obsolete, and went into the "round file." Thanks for sharing your process.
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