W – What’s Wrong? Let me check my list.

Posted on April 27, 2017 by hdh

What if all our wrongs were being recorded?

There is a folktale that talks about the carrying of our troubles and our blessings on our shoulders (https://goo.gl/N9rMJI). The gist of the story is that we carry these things with us throughout our lives. They hopefully balance each other out. In that same vein, what if all the wrongs that we have ever done were being recorded and we had to carry those with us?

I’ll define “Wrong” as things that you have done wrong to yourself or others, not incorrect answers that you’ve put on tests. In some cases, you may regret those things that you did wrong. Depending on the type of person you are, in some cases, you might not. I don’t wish to judge where your wrongs come from and I’m not one to use religion as the Godly keeper of this information. You are the one responsible for holding your own wrongs.

We all have things or done things that we feel were justly or unjustly a wrong. Some may be as simple as not helping someone who seeks assistance or being impolite to someone because we’re having a bad day.

 

 

In a moral sense, there are some things that are just plain wrong, whether it be global wrongs such as genocide or racism, or local ones like scamming someone out of money or deliberately lying to or about someone in order to gain a position or material goods.

On the other side of our carry-on baggage, we need to record all of the Rights we do: when we do help others, say good, positive things, improve ourselves through hard work (not at the expense of others).

Whichever way these rights and wrongs get recorded, we need to keep them with us as a reminder of the things we’ve done and who we are. It is hoped that the Rights outnumber the Wrongs and that the Rights are greater in their emphasis on our lives. Not all wrongs are equal. Each right and wrong should be weighted as to its severity. The more Rights we’ve done should counterbalance and even overbalance the Wrongs. The Wrongs that we carry, should, though a burden, help us learn how to be better people and help in the creation of some of our Rights. That’s why we record them.

With all that said, there are some wrongs that cannot be counterbalanced and should be recognized by all. Some of those, they are not even recognized by the individuals committing them (mass murders, intentional destruction of our homes and planet, willful destruction of people’s lives for personal benefit, etc.). My hope in those instances is that those Wrongs do become realized for what they are by us and by the ones carrying them before it’s too late and that the people carrying them hold themselves accountable for the consequences of their actions.  

What if we could see all of the other peoples’ Right/Wrong carry-ons? Would that affect how we interact with them?

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2017, Writing | Tagged , | 2 Comments

V – Time for an update – Welcome to Version 3.0.

Posted on April 26, 2017 by hdh

What if we are only Version 2.0?

I’m a computer user. My personal preference is Apple. I started with an Apple //e running Apple DOS 3.3 (Operating System) which finally upgraded to ProDOS before I moved on to Macintosh computers. There I started with System 6 which progressively moved on to its present version System 10. Each of the different Version of 10 had a different name (cats: Tiger, Panther, Snow Leopard, etc. and now mountain ranges (Mavericks, Yosemite, El Capitan, and on and on). As minor bugs were fixed, you would note that the version number, though the same (10.1, 10.2,…10.12), would add a second decimal increment (I’m presently using MacOS 10.12.4) When a major upgrade was made it was given a new designation number and was named as a totally new OS.

With PCs, it was similar, except for some reason they choose to skip the number 9 completely and though they incrementally fixed bugs in upgrades, they didn’t always visibly show you those numbers (Windows 10 is still Windows 10, though Windows 8.1 was an upgrade from 8.0) of theInternet started with Web 1.0 Tools, then 2.0, then 3.0 and so on. Here is an interesting Ted Talk from 2009 that addresses changes in the Web tool’s versions’ timeline: https://youtu.be/OM6XIICm_qo

Keeping all this in mind, What if humans were categorized and organized in the same fashion.

                                                       

 

Consider the prehistoric time of existence as Version 1.0 of the human race. The next major change would be the one that we are in now, Version 2.0, moving from an agrarian society to an industrial society to a technology-based one. We’ve advanced with all our minor fixes and issues to where we are now – Version 2.20.17.

We’ve been version 2.0 for a long time and may be getting close to that major upgrade to Version 3.0. What do you suppose that society will look like? There are 2 scenarios, that I see. There is either a major apocalypse, in which case those that survive, if any, will probably have to fall back to Version 1.0 or we will push forward with another new phase that goes beyond the technology in the direction where we seem to be heading. I’m going to speculate on the second of these.

Some of the things that we are doing today in Version 2.20.17 are actually Beta versions of 3.0. Our overdependence on technology will continue to increase.Technological products will get smaller and smaller. I wouldn’t be surprised if DNA technology will be heavily incorporated in version 3.0.

With the increase in technology, you will see a change in the physical appearance of humans. They will either be more fit since there will be more time to exercise and play, or they will increase in obesity and be less fit, due to spending more time in virtual environments and games, etc., and not getting exercise. If you read my blog on Games impacting real life (see http://www.hdhstory.net/Storyblog/?p=802) you’ll see that research has already shown changes in the brain of many of those gamers some of which actually improve some of their skills. This new brain development is another direction 3.0 can take us, provided we show some restraint.

Politically, I would hope that version 3.0 would bring some stabilization to the world, with people realizing that we all must work together. This realization may come about due to a major disaster prompted by the failed attempt to stick with Version 2.0. Any of you still using Windows Vista? Wasn’t Windows 7 a needed improvement (after a fashion)?

Version 3.0 will require everything to be done faster. Education will not be based on remembering knowledge, but on different ways to retrieve it. How many cashiers today, can give you the correct change without using their registers to tell them what to give you? My guess is more education will be done out of school, either virtually or through online learning.

As with any new Version, there will be many bugs and flaws that will need to be addressed in future versions. What happens when the power goes out? (see http://www.hdhstory.net/Storyblog/?p=778) How long will people live as impacted by food supply and places to live? How will people make a living? How will social skills be addressed, with less face to face contact? How will we adapt to planetary changes to the Earth? What about Outer Space?

All these will be worked on by the designers and Beta Testers of version 3.0. So what’s your vision of “Life as we know it,” version 3.0?

What if you could be a beta tester for it? Would you volunteer?

 

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2017, Writing | Tagged , | Leave a comment

U – Just press “Undo”

Posted on April 25, 2017 by hdh

What if life had an “undo” button? 

I wrote in my last blog about time travel (http://www.hdhstory.net/Storyblog/?p=896). I mentioned that I wouldn’t be interested in going back into my own timeline, except to verify some things that I did or complete things that I didn’t have a chance to finish. The time travel scenario, involved me going back into the past as an observer, not in place of myself.

There was a movie that came out in 2013 called, “aboutTime.” In that movie, the main character has a genetic disposition that once he reaches the age of 21 he can travel back in time in his own timeline. Unlike my time travel scenario, he replaces himself and can change actions that have occurred. Once the change is made he can return to himself in the present timeline, where changes have taken place based on what he did in the past.

Think of your computer. Most programs that you use have an “Undo” command   which allows you to go back one step and erase any mistake that you’ve made. You then get a fresh start and can create the correct version of what you were producing or leave the error deleted without replacing it. So what if we had similar capabilities?  Call it our “Life Undo (LU)” command. With my LU command, there is no going back to the present. You erase the error but must continue on from that point forward.

How many times have you said something to someone and regretted saying it as soon as the words were out of your mouth?

The first time I was invited for supper at my newly married sister’s house, I managed to break some of their crystal glasses, which they have never let me forget. The LU would have been perfect then.

I missed a college friend’s wedding when the car’s transmission broke down on the way there. I did manage to make it to the reception, but the LU would have come in handy.

Think of getting the chance to tell a person you care for, “Goodbye” before they die. Having a Life Undo button would be very helpful, at least for me. I wasn’t there for either of my parents’ deaths.

I’m sure there are those that would use the “undo” option to do negative things. Imagine being able to tell someone off that you work with or don’t like and then pressing the LU. It does have some appeal, but it is not how I would want to use it.

Mistakes are part of the learning process. Some mistakes that I’ve made I wouldn’t want to undo. It’s those mistakes as well as my good qualities that let people see who I really am. So choosing the time to use LU is not a trivial decision.

When would you like to use an LU?

And What if you could use an LU on someone else’s errors?

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2017, Personal Stories, Writing | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

T – Who’s got the Time?

Posted on April 24, 2017 by hdh

What if we could travel through time?

The concept of time travel has always fascinated me. Some of my favorite TV shows have all involved time travel, such as

Doctor Who,  DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, 

The Time Tunnel,     Journey Man,

and this year’s Timeless  to mention a few.    

And then there are the books I’ve read from Audrey Niffenegger’s,

The Time Traveler’s Wife,  to lots of books by one of my favorite authors,

Connie Willis        

 

As I suggested, I am fascinated by time travel. What if it was possible? Where would you want to go? First, you would have to decide, past or future. Then global historical/future or personal historical/future.

There are so many choices it is hard to know where to start. 

From a personal point of view, I’m much more interested in going back into my parents

‘Harold, I told you to take out the trash!’

and ancestors past than my own, though I wouldn’t mind periodically going back to my own past so that I could get the real story on some of the things that I thought I did when I was younger and also be able to jump back to a short time span ago in order to catch up on some things I didn’t have time to do.

 

The difficulty I would have with longer jump backs in my heritage is that other than my parents, all my ancestors only spoke german, making language a difficulty. But I’ll assume that if time travel were a reality, understanding other languages might not be an issue. I really don’t have much interest in seeing my future. I’d rather live those days as they come, though I would be interested in my descendants’ future. It would be fun to know what part of me gets passed on.

From a historical point of view, I like the concept of Connie Willis’s books of “Time Historians” I would like to go back in time and see historical events as they happened. In my youth, I used to put myself into different fictional stories and it was my influence that influenced the main characters to do what was written in the book. (see http://www.hdhstory.net/Storyblog/?p=37)

I’m not sure if I went back in time to a historical event that I would want to influence events. There are too many issues with parallel timelines and what would happen if a certain event didn’t occur or occurred differently.  And I certainly would not want to be lost in time where I end my life in the past rather than in my own future timeline.

But it would so cool to be able to study history by being at the moments when these historical things took place. We’d have to come up with a new term for the records you kept from those events. Instead of being primary sources from people that were at the events, you could call them “timeary” sources from a Time Historian witnessing, writing or recording of the events.

Until then I’ll just have to remain attached to my present time machine that really works. Unfortunately, it doesn’t go very fast and only goes into the future (one second at a time).

‘It’s a time machine, but it only goes forward in time. There, you see? I’ve just arrived here from two seconds ago.’

Now What if we could stop time? There’s something to think about. You’ll have to hold that thought; I’ll get back to you.

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2017, Writing | 4 Comments

S – Sleep no more or less

Posted on April 22, 2017 by hdh

What if sleep was needed for only a short period of time?

Did you ever think about the sleep cycle babies have? They wake up constantly throughout the night, demanding to be fed, or just wanting to be held. We pray for the days when they can sleep through the night. Well, what if sleeping through the night, that we are so accustomed to, was not the norm? And in fact it was discovered that we didn’t need 8-10 hours a night; 3 to 4 hours were all that were needed. How would our lives change?I’m going to focus more on the adult part of life rather than the growing up as a child part of life. I’m also going to make the assumption that these 3 to 4 hours of sleep will be all we need to replenish our cells and bodies, so you’ll have to change your present frame of mind.

What would you be doing with all that extra time? Would you be binge watching more TV? How about play versus work? Would you take it easy and do more relaxing activities or become more of a workaholic?

What happens to our mind and bodies when we relax more? There is less stress. However, with increased relaxation, might come less exercise. Do we now gain more weight, especially since now we have more hours of wakefulness and probably eat more? Does that mean having 4 meals a day instead of 3, or just more snacks throughout the day?

And those workaholics out there…

Would the demands of your job increase? Would the 40-hour week increase, since now you’ll have more time and can build in more breaks so that you don’t have to overwork?

And though your body does replenish itself, would working longer hours have an affect on your body? With all of the increased expectations, would you age faster?

There are lots of things to consider if you had to sleep less. It’s said that we spend ? of our life sleeping. There is a lot of body replenishing, imaginative thought (dreams) and improvements to our well being, during that long time of our lives, that we might be losing. Now think of how much more we could accomplish with a longer wake time. But at what costs? Would it be worth it? Eight hours a night seems just about right for me.

Now, what if you were a kid with all that extra time You could go to school for a longer part of the day, which would include more recesses and even more learning? And your teachers could actually complete, in one year, what they are required to teach.  Wouldn’t that be exciting?

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2017, Writing | Tagged , | 4 Comments

R – Rants and Reckless Drivers

Posted on April 21, 2017 by hdh

What if Reckless drivers had immediate consequences?

You’re driving down a two-lane road and you notice that the car behind you is about a foot from your rear bumper. You’re going the speed limit. If you can, you pull over to let the driver behind you pass. They speed by you 10 or more miles per hour faster than you’re doing. If you don’t pull to the side they manage to bob and weave around you at that high speed and continue to do so to any other driver that doesn’t accede to their full-throttled speed desire. Sometimes a driver in the lane to your right chooses to cut in front of you, with inches to spare, to do some bobbing and weaving of their own.

You are approaching a stop sign and watch the cars in front of you just glide through the stop sign, sometimes slowing down and sometimes not. And as we all know when the traffic light turns orange, it means we should speed up.

How many drivers do you pass, when you’re out on the road, that are on their phones? I’ve also seen drivers in their cars putting on make-up, shaving, and brushing their teeth; and not all doing these things when their cars are stopped.

Every one of these actions is reckless and dangerous. Most of the time there are no police around to stop and ticket any of these individuals. There are no consequences. But what if there were immediate consequences?

In my head, I always see my car loaded with photon torpedos, like in Star Trek, and when someone cuts me off or travels close to the speed of light, I have the ability to fire upon them.

My wife would like a maglev device that activates immediately when those cars speed by, raising them above all of the traffic at the exact spot that they are, holding them in the air for the appropriate amount of time before letting them down to continue their journey.

Imagine, instead of those traffic “gotcha” cameras that record you when you run a stop sign or red light, there would be paintball guns that automatically fired at your car as you pass them. Everyone seeing your car covered with assorted paintball splotches would know exactly what you were doing.

Texting or calling on your phones, without a handsfree device, would automatically disconnect your calls, or provide some sort of electrical jolt to the hand holding the phone or better yet, immediately slow your car down.

It’s very frustrating and scary at times when driving and you watch all of these drivers risking your life. I wish there was something that could be done on a global scale, other than letting my imagination run wild, which even though at times reduces my anger and road rage, but also distracts me.

I don’t claim to be perfectly innocent. There are times when I’m traveling faster than the speed limit allows, but never to extent that it is more than 5-7 miles over the speed limit. And having been on the receiving end of a running a stop sign ticket and not making a full stop at a right on red for a long enough period of time fine, I’ve learned not to do that.

There are real laws out there that give consequences to reckless drivers. In some cases, it is a fine, in some cases jail, and yet in others revocation of driving privileges. There are just not enough people to enforce it. Until we find ways to increase the way we catch these drivers and hold them accountable, the roads will remain places of anxiety and danger.

What if we could develop something like Star Trek’s transporter system, where we could beam ourselves where we want to be and not drive at all? Considering how crowded some of the roads are, I would be a little concerned about complications of beaming through all the rush hour people and getting to where I want to be in one (totally me) piece.

 

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2017, Writing | Tagged , | 10 Comments

Q – Can you put that in the form of a question?

Posted on April 20, 2017 by hdh

What if you could only speak using questions?

Is it true that you can have a conversation only using questions?

Is that possible?

What if you asked someone?

Who would know the answer?

What if you asked a linguist?

What makes a linguist know anything about questions?

Isn’t the linguist the one who studies speaking patterns?

Does a linguist work with sounds or actual words?

How would words or sounds address questions?

Would it be better to focus on ideas?

Do you think by asking questions only, one could get an idea across?

What would the idea be?

Can you express an idea only using questions?

When is the best time to use questions in a writing piece?

What if you used one in the beginning of a story to attract the reader?

What about the middle of a story to keep the reader thinking?

Kid to mom: ‘Will I ever run out of questions?’

What about right at the end to set up a sequel to your story?

Would you want the reader to think of possible scenarios following the story even if you don’t plan to write a sequel?

Wouldn’t that just frustrate the reader, knowing there is no resolution?

Would they think the resolution was meant to be unknown?

Or would you think the author is just milking it to make more money?

Do authors write just to make money?

Why shouldn’t a writer make some money for the hard work that’s put into their work?

Shouldn’t we resolve the issue we started at the beginning of this piece?

What makes you think we didn’t resolve it?

Can a conversation be had just using questions?

Don’t you think it’s up to the readers of this blog to determine if we succeeded or not?

Where do you think we’ll find the answer?

Isn’t the comment section below where readers can express their opinion?

What if the answer is not in the form of a question?

Why don’t we just wait and see?

You really like asking questions, don’t you?

 

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2017, Writing | Tagged , | 4 Comments

P – Politics, not as usual, please.

Posted on April 19, 2017 by hdh

What if politicians could only talk about themselves?

Is anyone out there tired of politics and election rhetoric? Had enough of the abusive name calling and blaming others for everything? Well, I have a new idea that I would like to put forward.

As a teacher, when students are having a conflict, we ask them to only use “I” statements in instead of blame statements. “I did this when that happened.” or “I feel bad when you do that.” instead of “Let me tell you what he did.” or “He’s the one started that.”  If only politicians followed the same rule.

So here’s the new guidelines: For anyone that wants to run for any political office, local, state or national, not only will you need to be qualified based on whatever rules are required for that position, and have the correct amount of signatures, if any, necessary to be on the ballot, but throughout your campaign you are only allowed to talk about yourself and what you bring to the table.

I need to clarify the last part of that idea. Maybe, once I explain it,  one of you readers can word it better than I did and propose it as a law. I am not advocating prospective candidates go on big ego trips, though some probably will.  It would be nice to know all of your great accomplishments and what your plans are should you get elected, but you shouldn’t be allowed to say anything about any of the other candidates. Personally, I really don’t want to hear what’s wrong with the existing office holders or what’s wrong with the present system. If you are a good candidate, then I should know that based on what you propose and my own knowledge of the existing situation what is going on.

It would be nice and even required since there won’t be anyone pointing out your faults, that you present those faults as part of your own speeches.  “These are the mistakes that I’ve made over my tenure on this issue and here is what I’ve learned from those mistakes.”

To go along with these new rules, it would still be appreciated having impartial fact checkers and also non-partisan groups that present what the issues are and show what each of the candidates stand for. Since the negative attacks that fill the airways about each person wouldn’t exist, people could decide on their own which candidate supports their opinion and they should vote for rather than who they should vote against.

Of course, all this assumes that the voters, not only are knowledgeable about the issues but are willing to hear what all the candidates are saying about themselves with a critical mind.

What if that had to be part of the law too?

 

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2017, Writing | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

O – Opportunity Knocks!

Posted on April 18, 2017 by hdh

What if opportunity were to knock again?

“Some say opportunity knocks only once, that is not true. Opportunity knocks all the time, but you have to be ready for it. If the chance comes, you must have the equipment to take advantage of it.” – Louis L’Amour

How many times has some sort of opportunity knocked at your door and you chose to ignore it? It might have been because you didn’t realize it was an opportunity, or you were afraid the opportunity would fail, or you didn’t have the time or money to invest in it? Did you have regrets?  

How many times did you take the risk and that opportunity paid off?

When I graduated from college, I couldn’t find a job as a teacher, so I got a job as a stockboy for J.C. Penney’s. After working there for 6 months, I was offered a job in the Shoreham-Wading River School District as an administrative aide to the new principal of the SWR Middle School, Dennis Littky. He had been my supervising professor in the education department at Stony Brook University but left Stony Brook to become the principal of this newly formed school. The salary offered me was less than I was making at J.C. Penney’s. Opportunity though was knocking. I chose to take the job because it put me into the education field which is where I wanted to be. Within a month of working there, I resigned because I was hired by another school district (Three Village) to be a permanent 6th grade leave replacement teacher for the remainder of the year (5 months). I was now a teacher. As the year came to an end, Three Village offered me a job in their new 5th-grade open classroom and Shoreham offered me a job as a 6th grade teacher in their new middle school. I picked correctly and ended up teaching in Shoreham-Wading River for 33 years until I retired. (Three Village actually closed the school that I was working in a few years after I left.) Opportunity knocked and I answered.

There were opportunities too that I chose not to take. For instance, I was one of the early users of Apple Computers (I owned an Apple //e) and also AppleLink Personal Edition (the future America Online) and had the opportunity when both went public, to invest in them. I knew very little about investing money and wasn’t sure they were going anywhere so I didn’t invest.  How many of you had those kinds of opportunities and didn’t take them? I’ll bet there are some regrets there.

Unfortunately, when opportunities come along they don’t always announce themselves to you.

Opportunity knocked.

 

 

And even when they do, you may not be in the right frame of mind or circumstances to take them.

So the question is, knowing what you know now if those opportunities were to revisit you, would you take them? What would be different in your life now, had you taken the opportunities when originally offered? Where would you be?

Are there circumstances now, having not taken the original opportunity, which impact this decision in a different way, given that it’s the same choice again?

For me, if I had taken the Apple offerings I would hope to be wealthier. But what changes would that choice have made on the career path I took? Would I have been as willing to retire (with a medical insurance buyout) as early as I did or even taught as long as I did? Would I have traveled more? Would I have purchased Islander season tickets? Serious questions.

On the other hand, I’m still a skeptic investor and somewhat concerned about the unknown and taking financial risks. Given the same opportunity to invest in a startup company that had potential future gains, I probably would make the same decision I did then. At least this time I wouldn’t be making the decision on my own. Being single, when some of my opportunities came knocking, then and being married now certainly would affect my/our decisions.

Of course, throughout my life, there were many opportunities not taken that I should have. Continuing with piano lessons when I was younger to improve my musical skills, pursuing my desire to become a published writer, talking to my parents and relatives more when they were alive to learn more about my ancestors, learning german and traveling to Germany to find out more about my family’s past, and not going to France to visit my brother before he became ill, to mention a few.  

Opportunity came and went. Though some of those opportunities may come back again. I still could publish. I still could travel. Some I know have passed for good. That begs the question, those that do come back or new ones that show their faces, what will I decide to do?  Your guess is as good as mine. Hopefully, I’ll make the right choice.

Now what if time travel becomes a reality? Can I go back and influence myself to take those opportunities the first time? Time will tell.

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2017, Writing | Tagged , | 4 Comments

N – Nothing, Nada, Null, Rein, Zero

Posted on April 17, 2017 by hdh

What if I have nothing to write?

There comes a time in a writer’s day that they are stumped as to what to write about. So how do I resolve this dilemma? The simplest solution is I don’t write, which is probably the one I choose more often than not. But if you are looking to write, or have to write, because it is April 15th and you need something that fits the letter “N”, here are some ideas:

 

Two books that I’ve used in the past are, Steering the Craft by Ursula K. LeGuin ©1981 and In the Beginning – Great First Lines From Your Favorite Books collected by Hans Bauer ©1991. The first book gives you exercises that you can do to improve your writing, the other gives you a lot of first lines on which to base an idea you might have. Actually reading the first lines of any books you have can be good starting off points. I’ve also used the book, Telling Your Own Stories by Donald Davis ©1993. Davis’s book is really good if you are looking to write some personal narratives. It is full of memory prompts.

Of course, ranting is a great way to start of writing. Go after those things that annoy you and write away. You’ll have to wait until my “R” entry to see what some of that looks like.

The last way that I use is to start writing. Describe a place or a person, and let it evolve into something on its own. Here is an example of the start of one of my pieces of writing:

It was cold and dark in the small cottage. The wind howled as the couple clung to each other to maintain warmth. It had been a long time since they could afford wood for the fire. Food supplies were minimal. Their chance of survival was slim unless their son returned soon to save them with much-needed supplies.  He had been gone for two days.

Their son had problems of his own. It had been a long time since he had seen his parents. They sent him away to another village where people could afford to satisfy the needs of a growing boy shortly after he was born. He had returned to his natural parents as a strapping 16 year old. He was not aware of state he would find them. He had returned for only 3 days when they sent him off in search of sustenance and basics necessary for all their survival.

Though he understood the need to help his parents, they abandoned him for 16 years, so he didn’t feel the driving compulsion to assist. He was doing it more out of expectations of a son, than heartfelt desire.

Being new to this area created another problem. He was in the middle of a dark forest and had no clue as to where he was. He was lost and time was running out.

 

When I wrote this I had no idea of the plot of the story or where it was going to go. But I did get it written down. So now that I look at it almost 1-½ years later, I’m encouraged to pursue it. Anyone wishing to give me suggestions as to where I should take this story feel free to make them; at the moment I have no idea.

Doing this kind of writing leaves you with a bank of material to work from when you are stuck with no things to write about. As a teacher, I taught my elementary students the elements of story (see http://www.hdhstory.net/Storyblog/?p=28). In the process, we designed all of the elements for a particular story – character, setting, time, problem, helpers, hinderers, and solution. I would take all that information and write the beginning of the story and then pass it back to the students to finish the story. I still have all those beginnings of stories that I had written.

So when you have nothing to write, my suggestion is that you keep writing. You can even fill up a page of writing like I just did for today and it still can be meaningful.

And just imagine, what if one of those ramblings goes on and gets you published? Wouldn’t that be exciting?

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2017, Writing | 9 Comments