Waiting for the Spark: A Collection of Almost-Stories
aka “an examination of character via her notes”
I use the Google Keep app for jotting down all sorts of notes from shopping lists to reminders to website passwords to reps/sets in my various gym routines. Most of my notes, though, are story ideas — random observations or thoughts I save so I can revisit them and turn them into actual stories later.
There’s a note titled “Ghent”, for example, which was helpful in writing my story about Belgian waffles.
And then there’s this one, a thought that occurred to me one night while scrolling through Facebook. This turned into my story about death and social media.
In addition to these notes that inspired stories, I have a whole bunch of notes just lingering, remaining un-storified. They may not ever be stories — many are not substantial enough to be independent stories — but I think they contain some interesting ideas. They have potential anyway, which is why I save them to begin with.
It occurred to me that even if these can’t be independent stories, maybe they tell a story collectively. They certainly must say something about me. About who I am. About how I observe. So maybe these almost-stories are really a story of self.
Actually, now that I’m looking these over again, I think there are a few here that could be real stories. “When people used to hold up lighters at concerts instead of cell phones” could be a really great story. But I don’t think I’m the right person to write it. This one is up for grabs. Someone please tell this story!
“The ambition of youth” is all mine. Don’t take it. It’s a new idea. One I’m still tossing around in my brain. I’d like to figure out how to write it in a way that doesn’t sound like I’m whining.
The blue note. That’s a story to be continued. I’ll tell it one day.
The rest, though, probably not real stories ever. So here they are. From my Keep to your face: an examination of character via her notes.
It feels like a waste to throw away so many partially formed ideas. What’s a person supposed to do with these almost-stories? How does one even go from idea to story to begin with?
I’m sure there are some tried and true writer techniques for this — developing a story from an idea. Like maybe you do some free association, spinning off branches from a concept until you find something that has legs. Maybe you set a timer and write whatever you can muster for 30 minutes and then see if there’s anything good in there.
I don’t know, there must be other proper writing techniques, but I don’t usually find those things to be helpful. Maybe I’m a wild card of a writer, but I don’t always like following the rules. For me, I need a good idea to happen in conjunction with motivation and some kind of mysterious inspiration — a spark, if you will. It’s this spark that leads to something like flow where the story practically writes itself. I can’t always reach this flow state, but when I do, it’s magical.
All I know is an idea alone certainly does not make a story. But it’s fun to jot down these little notes anyway. To save them and look back on them every once in a while. Maybe one day, the spark will strike.
