Talismans...

Eight years ago a car manufacturer issued a recall for one of their brands. 

It was Kia, it was on Friday the 13th and it was for the Soul. Kia is Recalling Souls was the headline and it amused me so much that I made it my status update. 

Dana turned it into a writing prompt and posted that as the first comment. 

I was in the middle of a NaNo stint where I was writing fiction every day. Either working on my long story WIP (that I've never finished and probably never will, totally fell out of love with it) or writing a short piece for the blog. I ended up writing 21 different short stories that November. Which is pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. 

So anyway, when Dana wrote that sentence I heard the bell in my head but was busy with another story that day so I made a quick note to come back to that post, that line, and that story. The note was "Dana's Defective Soul." 

Once that notebook was full and I needed to start another one I did my usual routine of paging through to see if there was anything that I wanted to copy from the old pages to the new. A quote I liked. A story idea I had never gone back to. And there is was: Dana's Defective Soul. It made me laugh out loud. If you didn't know what it was about it was a great non sequitur. And if you knew Dana, and specifically the fact that Brent and I often call her some variation on the daughter of my black soul, it would make you laugh too. 

So even though I wrote the story right away and didn't technically need the note I copied it over anyway.

And 8 years later it's still on the front page of my notebook. It's become a talisman of sorts. Something that makes me laugh and also something that reminds me that I can write. I do have moments of raging creativity that can be sparked by something as simple as a headline on a fortuitous date. And that I have people around me who are also crazy creative who I can lean on when I feel I need some creative help. Dana writes. Like capital W writes. I love everything she does. I feel sorry for all of you who don't get to read her stuff and I am her biggest cheerleader for getting published. 

She also sends me writing prompts when she sees ones that are in my wheelhouse. We have similar tastes but her writing is more grounded than mine. (And more technically proficient, I don't think I've ever read a piece of hers where she switched perspective in the middle and then claimed it as a style choice instead of a mistake, hypothetically of course...I mean I would never...) And most of the time when she sends me a prompt it does cause that bell to ring and I'm off to the races.

I love that bell ring moment. When I hear something or see something and it resonates in my head. THIS WILL BE A STORY. It starts the gears turning. The dialog, the scene, the feeling. Whatever it is about that moment that spins out into a story. Depending on if I can sit and write right away or if there is enough there yet to sit and write right away I start working it out in my head. Often I've "written" a scene or a piece of dialog multiple times while cleaning a bathroom, or washing dishes, or going for a walk. I know that I've written really great stories that became sort of okay when trying to remember them to write them down. Or at least that's what I tell myself...

I think that's what I'm looking for in 2024. More of those bell ring moments. Not just with writing but with life in general. Those moments where you know that this is the right path. This is what you should be working on right now. This is your story. 

And speaking of stories, here is the link to the story I'm talking about. The opening line is what Dana wrote in response to my post, without the "and go!" part.