Seven

December 2006 009

I’m making a third birthday cake for Thing2 today.  He had one for his party over the weekend, we took cupcakes in for his class today, and we’ll have our family celebration tonight.  It’s the last cake for the last seventh birthday I’ll ever make for one of my children, and while I don’t want to do this again, I also don’t want it to end.

What I Know

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True story:  until about a few weeks ago, I had never actually written a fictional short story from beginning to end (not including high school assignments).  I’d written a lot of great beginnings with a few twists.  Then I’d get lost in my own twists, not knowing where to go, and into my drawer of journals and half-written novels the story would go.

Part of it was that I didn’t really know how to write a short story.  I’ve read hundreds of them in my lifetime, but this summer I went back and read old favorites and new discoveries, trying to see them from a different perspective.  Then on one of my tag sale stops, I stumbled on a dog-eared copy of a book called “How to Write a Short Story”.

Little of the advice in the book was new, but it did contain one little nugget that I’m still mining.  The gem that caught my attention was a writing prompt that suggested taking 5 objects in the house and writing the histories of each of them.  The exercise (which I’m still using) helped me see where my sweet spot really is.

Once upon time, I thought I would write science fiction or historical fiction or even romance because I devoured books in those genres.  I wanted to write something big that would change lives.  Each time I tried to follow any of my favorite authors down that ambitious road, however, I got lost.  

Then came the blog, and, instead of writing about adventure or heroes’ journeys or history or the glamorous life, I ended writing about my family.  They were close at hand, and my two boys ooze inspiration, even on the days I can’t quite identify the stuff oozing from their backpacks.  Even when my first post on the subject garnered a really positive reaction from our writing mentor, there was always a nagging doubt that this isn’t what I was supposed to be writing (It’s as unelevated a subject as you can find, and the internet abounds with mommy blogs).  

It wasn’t until a cleaning marathon and its resulting discovery in the attic helped me use that ten cent prompt to write my first short story that had a beginning, a middle, and and end that I finally came around to the fact that family is exactly about what I should keep writing.

I’m never sure when I hit the ‘Publish’ button if something I’ve written is terribly good or just terrible.  I was even less sure when I left some of my stories with a friend who is giving me feedback as I print out and finish them.  But I do know that I’m having a good time writing them because I finally got comfortable with the age old advice to write what I know.