Ch. 5: Exercise 1 “It’s just an idea”
I often have random ideas about a story that I could write. It happens all the time, and I always love sharing them with my boyfriend. This is partly because he makes me feel like even the smallest idea is ready for me to submit for publishing. This particular time I was sitting outside of his house, waiting on him to walk out the front door. I began looking down at his yard, and I thought to myself that the overgrown grass and weeds would be a lovely place for bugs to live. My boyfriend Brandon walked out of his house and got into the car I had been waiting patiently in just as I was noticing a large grasshopper that had landed on a wrinkled blue tarp in the yard. My mind instantly began racing and coming up with plot lines for a potential story. “What are you thinking about now, space cadet?”, he said. This was his nickname for me when I was noticeably zoned out, distanced from immediate reality. I snapped out of my blank stare, and looked at him with excitement. “I think this overgrown grass would be an amazing story!”, I replied. He looked puzzled, chuckling a little before responding with, “Uhh… How so?”. He watched me take a deep breath, which was always the calm before the storm. I opened my mouth, and the next five minutes as we drove down the road was a blur of rambling. “Well, I’m thinking about how all of the bugs that live in your overgrown yard could be characters in a story. There could be a group of old veterans that have survived many of the past mowings”, I took another breath, my mind still reeling with ideas. “Those mowings could be like a natural disaster for them, or maybe a metaphorical war on the bugs! There could be the group of old veterans, some new born beetles that had been preparing for the next mowing since birth, and maybe the bees and wasps could be superior to the “stationary” bugs that make homes in the yard and don’t get to just fly away from what they’ve built in the ground, and…”, the list of ideas went on for a while with Brandon putting his two cents in here and there. Finally, I had tired myself out with talking about my ideas, and resigned to sitting quietly in my seat, with my phone in my hand. My mind was still racing with potential scenes, and character developments, so I began typing them out on a blank note on my phone. I was so preoccupied that I barely heard him say, “That sounds amazing, dear. This could be a great book!”. I turned the dial up on the radio, and put my phone back into my pocket. “It’s just an idea”, I said calmly.
My wonderful and amazing girlfriend has started a writing blog!
Give her a follow! She’s working on a few stories that I’m really excited to see and you should be there to read it.
Also she writes amazing poetry.
And is hella cute.
