THE LEAFLET OF FRESH THINKING

Giuseppe Arcimboldo [Public domain],
via Wikimedia Commons

Do you like my last post?

I got into soooo much trouble for writing I intended to be "present in the here-and-now" while simultaneously making us late for an appointment that had been on the calendar for months. I left the post abandoned as a reminder that family comes first. Ouch!

Things are less hectic now.

So... on the subject of writing, I've had an idea.

I received a leaflet through the door. Funnily enough, it wasn’t about writing. Strangely enough, by the time I finished reading it…it was.

I’ve noticed that getting published is a bit of a difficult trick to pull off. I must look for a recipe ;) 

The basic storylines and plots have always been around, lately, I’ve spent many happy hours considering how my approach could be new, original or fresh. 

I blame The Leaflet.

WHAT WAS THE LEAFLET?

It was from a company offering to deliver seasonal organic vegetable boxes to my home. It was very pretty: maroon at the header with stripes of various shades of green almost to the final third. The image at the bottom was golden nugget of inspiration. Not a golden nugget of the cereal or chicken variety, this picture was a plain brown cardboard box. You’re a writer. I know you’re with me.

In the image of the cardboard box were the usual suspects of healthy eating: potatoes, mushrooms, cabbage, carrots, broccoli, leeks, onions and a juicy red pepper. The basic, the short and chewy, the tough at the core, the lean and red, the fluffy one, the many layered, the tear jerker and the zing? ;) Isn’t that just the essence of character and plotting? :D

Even though everyone is importing the exotic vegetables and spooning in the spice, there are only a certain number of basic elements in fiction. It’s your treatment of them, the combinations you try, that brings something fresh to your story.

I'm writing.

Like all writers, I set my story somewhere I’ve -- helpfully -- described. 

As the setting I’m creating is bounded by historical accuracy, I’ve been trying to expand my brain – and I'd love to find a way to expand my desk – so I can glance through the resources that keep me on the right track. 

Until recently, I’ve never explained what it is about the everyday experience my MC finds wonderful.  Right now, I can’t see him admiring the blood-bright drops of berries in the hedgerows, or the midnight velvet of the sloe, but he can delight in the crispy frosted verge slightly before he runs to mark footprints all through it.

How could I make my story unique?

My WIP is MG so MG, me on the right track.unded by ns to mark footprints through it.te.  I picked the familiar theme of friendship but I contrasted it with a bitter rivalry. I looked at a situation familiar to many children: siblings who share a parent. Brother from another mother! In my wip, one has no idea this is biologically true while for his sibling the fact that there is another son has been acidic.  

I have mirrored, but reflected, this situation in the friendship that develops between two other characters.

I wasn’t heading for healthy, seasonal, ethical and delicious but, now I come to think of it, it isn’t a bad place to start.

I’D NEVER WRITE WITHOUT ONION ;) WHICH VEGETABLE DO YOU THINK IS ESSENTIAL IN YOUR WRITING?