“What do I do to write?”

I’m back on my blog to answer a question someone asked me. I have loved writing and have searched for a pen and paper all my life. My children got so used to it that if they saw me struggling to answer one of their questions, for example, “Can I go over to my friend’s house to play?” or “Can I have $5.00 for the show?” Any of these simple questions would make me look for a pencil to explain why or why not my answer was yes or no. When we were driving and their many “Why?” questions never got a direct answer or were they ever dismissed with a “How would I know” instead I would go on and on with a made-up reason as an answer to their question. Finally, they would say, “OH all right, you are just making that up.” They were right; I was making up a story.

I am convinced we all are story makers. If you’re interested, and we all are, your stories hold the answer to the question. Who are you? If you have had an experience that caused you pain, you will find it in your stories, and if you have had the good luck to find joy along the way, it will show up in your stories.

I asked the writers in the “Writing for Fun” group to write some of their thoughts as they go about life this week. Two thoughts came to me at a diner I went to the day after the class.

The first was as I was paying the cashier, the man ahead of me gave her a thirty-dollar tip! He also asked her if she was working the next day. I joked with her as I paid after him and said, “I guess I don’t love you as much as he does. I’m only leaving my change.” She smiled and raised her eyebrows at me as she watched him leave the parking lot.

Now that made me dive into my purse and find my pen and paper; that was a story. I don’t need to know the facts; the story is in me, and I just must write it down to make it a story. It will be based on my experience, good or bad, but it will be a story.

The second thing that puzzled me at the diner that day was a customer who had a full arm tattoo, which black ink had erased. I wondered what that tattoo looked like, and how much it must have cost, and how desperate she was to erase it, and why? The questions filled two or three pages later that day. Having never even thought I would like a tattoo, maybe I’ll never write that story. But for many people, that could be a great start to a story.

What I’m suggesting is that you live life as a writer. Pay attention to the details and write what you see and feel. Combined, that will make your story.