Where Do Story Ideas Come From?

 

Hope you had a great 4th of July.  It's hot in Los Angeles, but it might be even more uncomfortable where you are from what I hear on the weather reports.  By the way, I have a Battle of the Bands post currently up so if you're into music I hope you'll join us and vote on your favorite recording.  

And now, on to...

The Insecure Writer's Support Group

Join us on the first Wednesday of each month in Alex J. Cavanaugh's Insecure Writer's Support Group--a forum of writers who gather to talk about writing and the writer's life. For a complete list of participants visit Alex's Blog. 
     The co-hosts for the July 5 posting of the IWSG are PJ Colando, Kim Lajevardi, Gwen Gardner, Pat Garcia, and Natalie Aguirre.

July 5 question - 99% of my story ideas come from dreams. Where do yours predominantly come from?

        Dreams have always been a major part of my storytelling mind.  When I was a child I would often imagine continuations of my dreams or conjure stories inspired by my dreams.  Starting in my high school years I began keeping a dream journal where I would record remembered details of what I had dreamed upon awakening and often embellish my memory with more descriptive details of what I imagined that I had seen and experienced.  I faithfully recorded my dreams well into my college years and since then I have now and then written down my dreams as potential story ideas. 

         Other story inspirations have come from news stories that intrigued me, anecdotes heard from other people, or my own personal experiences. However dreams have been a tremendous influence on my imagination life.  In fact, my fascination with dreams led me to publish a blog about dreams at A Faraway View.   The posts  are still available if you're interested in reading my thoughts about dreams though it's been several years since I published anything on that site.  Still the information might have relevance to those who are interested.

         Have you ever kept a dream journal?   Do you find that real life stories are more interesting to write about than dreams or fantasies?  Do you have any currently dormant blogs waiting for readers to discover? 

Don't Worry ( #BOTB Results )

Anxiety weighs down the heart,  but a kind word cheers it up.    

Proverbs 12:25 New International Version (NIV)

Pondering the Colorado River in Austin Texas

Pandemic Days

        There's so much for people to worry about these days that it's difficult to know where to start.  Maybe it's best to start by not worrying.  Jesus said not to worry (Matthew 6:25-34) and if you don't take any stock in what Jesus had to say then just use common sense.  How are you going to make things better by worrying? 

          If you find yourself consumed by worry then maybe you need to take some action to take your mind off of that worry.  After all, worry is essentially an act of selfishness if no action is taken to find ways to remedy that which is worrying you.  Worry is wasted effort which culminates in no positive result.  If all you do is worry then you aren't working towards personal wellness and your worry can become more contagious than the worst disease.

         Would you rather be spreading the negative energy of worry or the positive energy of hope, concern for others, and the mindset that things will get better? 

        Sometimes children know best.  Here's a story that my daughter Ada Z shared recently about my dear granddaughter, Grace, who is seven years old:

My daughter, Grace, had a dream the other night. She said,
“We were sitting around the campfire as a family and God came down to sit with us. He started singing a song about the world. Then he ate a marshmallow. Everything is going to be ok”

I asked her how she knew that it was God. She said, “It was definitely God”.

The smile that she had on her face and the twinkle in her eye gave me so much hope and it has truly gotten me through the last few days.

         Thank you for that sweet story, Ada, and bless the wisdom of my granddaughter, Gracie.  She put into words with elegant simplicity the advice I've been trying to live by over the past decade or so.  Eat marshmallows and sing happy songs.  Everything will turn out just fine--or at least the way it's supposed to work out.

Battle of the Bands Results

My Martyr Battle

         My most recent Battle saw "Joan of Arc" by Jennifer Warnes go up against "The Martyr" by prog rock group Wally.  As some of you might have guessed, my favorite was the song by Wally.   However either of the albums that these songs came from are big favorites of mine.  The voting ran close at the beginning of the race, but then Wally broke out ahead to capture the win.

   Final Vote Tally

Jennifer Warnes     5 votes

Wally                       9 votes

Next Battle on Wednesday April 1st

        This is going to be a big day in blogging since this will also be the start of Blogging from A to Z April Challenge for 2020.   So far nearly 300 blogs are signed up to the official list, but many more will be participating through social media sites like Facebook.  If you're basically locked down for the current pandemic then why not join us in A to Z.  This seems like the year to do it.

       And wait!  There's more!   April 1st will also be the posting date for Insecure Writer's Support Group.  So it's gonna be a whopper of a blogging day.  I've pulled all these together in one post in previous years so I guess I can do it again.

        Please be well.  And don't be afraid.

The Creature in the Recycling Bin

Contest announcement on Monday 10/3!
   Check it out!


Is anyone planning to go to the BlogWorld Expo in Los Angeles on November 3-5?

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The Creature in the Recycling Bin

          I threw some aluminum cans into an empty black plastic recycling bin in my back yard.  Before I dropped the bag of cans into the bin I noticed that the bottom of the can was filled with a few inches of water.  After dropping the bag into the bin, I turned away to walk a few feet when I heard what sounded like a muffled explosion and a whoosh.   I turned and saw that the recycle bin was gone.

           I knew immediately what had happened since this had happened on a few previous occasions.  I went into the house to the upstairs master bedroom to look out upon the front yard.  I saw the recycle can lid among the shrubs and knew that the can was somewhere in the yard.   I went downstairs to look for the can.

          As I walked about the yard I wondered what it was that had been causing this to happen.  With a shudder I concluded that the most logical explanation was that there was some sort of creature in the bin, that angered or startled by my actions of discarding the refuse, reacted in such a way as to cause the can to fly over the house and into the front yard.  I briefly thought about how someone could have been seriously injured if they had been hit by the bin.

         I reflected upon all of the previous times that this had happened.   I noticed that my mother's 1992 Lincoln Town Car was parked at an angle near where the trashcans are normally placed on trash pick up day.  I knew that the car had died in that spot and apparently George had not yet been able to move it or get it running.  I then realized that I was in the front yard of my mother's house in Tennessee, whereas I had previously been inside the house where I live and in the back yard of my house in California.  It all seemed perfectly normal to me.

        It was all a dream--part of a few seconds or milliseconds of sleep in the moments before waking.  And yet I had a memory of a complete history of previous events as though I had actually lived through them all.   Had these memories come from a protracted dream that had been occurring all through the night?   Were they layers of dream memories from dreams that were occurring in rapid succession and perhaps even simultaneously?  Was the dream experience related to what we call deja vu?

        Do you ever have dreams that include dream memory and an awareness of a complex history?--  Things that you instinctively know to be fact and true within the context of the dream but are illogical and even nonsensical in real life?   Where do you think dream memory comes from?


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