Day 7: Think small

The guideline says: "One of the worst mistakes most beginning novelists make is thinking big, trying to come up with an end-of-the-world story... Look into your creative soul and search for a little story but one that has real meaning to you. If you create a story that has deep meaning to you, chances are it will have deep meaning for the rest of us."

Good point. One of my problems is thinking too big; thinking about writing an award-wining story. I end up with nothing. Another problem is I always think way too much, too detail. I care about tiny little things that I can't see the whole picture.

So, I guess it will be a story about some very common, average people coping with daily challenges that we all care about.

I just came back from one of my kids' county-level spelling bee competition. Ben represented his whole school. He didn't win, but it was a good experience. In fact, the process he won the champion for the whole elementary school was a thriller. Ben and his sister Yen (I know, I'm so proud of my kids!) were the final two competitors, and they fought head-to-head back and forth at least 5 times until Yen made a mistake. The whole school was holding breath, and burst into cheering for Ben's wining.

That is something to write about.

We all have something to be happy about, something to worry about, something to be sad about. Write those something and people should care about them.

So for this story I'm going to write: the woman in trouble trying to right the wrong, I need to first get into her head and understand her dreams and worries. I should read some stories about women getting pregnant from affairs, and how they deal with it. That will be interesting. Stories based on some true events are always interesting. Well, probably sad too.

93 more days to go.