Back to my playground

If you ever want to try something interesting--and many of you writers out there may already do this--brainstorm with your children.

There's an archive here--a story start that has stuck in my mind from the time I wrote it, and those are the ones I know are clamouring to be heard, that sometwhere in the back of my mind the conclusion sits, waiting to be told.

Well, sometimes that conclusion just hides away deep and dark back there. Because I have pondered and pondered where the start should go, and nothing has popped up that's been satsifying, and so I printed it out the other day. (Twice. I lost the first printout within an hour. And they let me drive!! ARG!!!) And I chewed and chewed and chewed on ideas till the whole thing was tough and tasteless, like old gum that needed to be tossed.

When my youngest came up and asked what I was doing, I handed it to him and said, "Tell me what should happen next."

"Is this something you wrote?"

"I'm supposed to write what comes next," I said, hedging.

So he read it, and voila. The ending was never hidden in my mind. It was hidden in his! :)

I always thought my kids were good inspiration. Just never knew how good!