It Ain’t Over ‘til Somebody Sings

I recently read an article about Cindi Lauper —

You know, the girl who just wanted to have fun in the ‘80s?

Trust me, even the XYs wanted to have fun in the ‘80s…

It was the pre-Nirvana-angst age, after all.

Anyway, back in the day, Cindi rocketed to the top of the universal charts and sold over 50 million albums.

However, within the decade her career began to sputter and she came down in a fiery fame crash that demolished nearly everything in her life —

Her relationships, her health, her sanity.

Sad ending, right?

Not so fast.

She picked herself up.

She picked all the crash debris out of her teased-up pink hair.

And then she picked up her pen.

She wrote the score for a musical called Kinky Boots.

Well, apparently those Boots were made for walking…

all the way to Broadway.

And last Sunday night Kinky Boots took home 6 Tony Awards!

Including one for Cindi Lauper’s Best Musical Score.

So you see, there are no sad endings.

And yes, if you've got a particular bend, you could argue that there are no happy ones either…

It all depends

on where you end

the story.

PROMPT: Where do you end your stories? Just for kicks, give your character a phoenix moment today. What are the ashes he or she rises from? And what exactly is that victory’s flavor the second time around?

I’m thinking roasted marshmallows, but maybe that’s just me.

On Tuesday…

On Tuesday, when it hails and snows,

The feeling on me grows and grows

That hardly anybody knows

If those are these or these are those.

~ Winnie-the-Pooh

Here’s a delicious find that I uncovered in the Hundred Acre Wood this week—

A 1929 recording of A.A. Milne reading a chapter “In Which Pooh and Piglet Go Hunting and Nearly Catch a Woozle.”

Check it out here.

Ah, there is something about an author’s own voice reading his or her own work.

It’s just the right sort of something that starts a writing day right.

PROMPT: Do a quick search for the voice of one of your favorite authors. Listen, then write whatever comes to mind. Or perhaps you’d rather be a bit Pooh-ish and spend the day enjoying a smackerel of the impossible —

“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.”

~ Winnie-the-Pooh

Well, I know what I’m going to do…

Tut, tut, it looks like rain.

Take It Outside

Look deep into nature, 

and then you will understand everything better.

~Albert Einstein

I spent a glorious weekend outside with my hands in the dirt and my head in the clouds.

And while I’m not sure if I actually understand anything better, I certainly feel good!

Of course I do.

Scientists have found that time spent in nature cuts anxiety and makes us happier.

They also say it also makes us more creative, so it’s the perfect activity for artistic types.

But you don’t need scientists to tell you all this.

You just need to get out there where the tweets are real…

and find out for yourself.

PROMPT: Take that writing notebook of yours (the real kind — you know, made of that white stuff called paper), and get outside today. Listen to the birds, the earwigs, the trees... Trust me, they have stories to tell.

Not Quite Heaven

There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside of you.

~ Maya Angelou

About 10 years ago, I had a dream that I died.

But, alas, I did not go to Heaven.

However, I didn't head south to the hot place either.

Instead, I was led to a tiny wooden desk. It held an old black typewriter and a stack of white paper about two feet high.

“Have a seat,” I was told by some dude in white.

And as I did, hundreds of folks suddenly appeared in a line behind me.

As I looked them over, I realized that I knew them all.

They were all characters — my characters…

From countless stories I had started and abandoned over the years.

My white-wearing dude friend said, “They've been waiting a long time...

And you've got to finish their stories before we let you in.”

Ugh.

Luckily, I woke up before the first clickety-clack hit the page.

But I have to say that the guilt I experienced in that last moment of the dream stuck with me for quite some time.

These days I still don’t finish every story I start, but I do write more than I did back when my loafing fueled that dream.

So, I’m hoping when my real expiration date comes along…

That line is a whole lot shorter.

PROMPT: Avoid writer purgatory by working on one of your stories today… especially if you have a character who’s been bugging you a lot lately.  Trust me, their kind get rather out-of-line while in the line, so keep ‘em out of it while you still can.

Time Travel

Lately, most of my fiction assignments have been of the historical, not hysterical, variety.

In the past three months, I have fought in the War of 1812 and the War Between the States. I've also participated in the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889, only to have my hopes blown away in the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Somewhere in there I searched for Klondike gold and labored as a wee lad in a textile mill. Then after surviving the Great Depression, I did without sugar and butter on the home front during WWII.

Unlike the stuffy old history classes you may have suffered or slept through in high school, today learning history is loads of fun…

And a great jump-starter for great stories.

Thanks to many fabulous folks in cyber world, access to firsthand accounts of times gone by is just a click away.

For example, would you like to travel along with Lewis and Clark in their grand expedition?  Check it out here. But I’ll warn you, it’s not for the squeamish… They dined on dog, you know.

Feel the need to read some Civil War letters? Look here.

Perhaps you want to find out what it was like to be a soldier in WWII. Well, this is a great place to start.

Looking for Klondike gold? Dress warmly and go here.

And while you may not strike it rich —

story gold is guaranteed!

PROMPT: Spend some quality time with a person from another time today by snooping around in their diaries or reading their old love letters. Come on — you know you want to.