In My Story

Have you ever felt like you have nothing more to write? No more new ideas?

Join me in my late night/early morning ponderings and you’ll quickly see. You, too, can create an original story once you let your mind wander.

The past week the news channels have been flooded with accounts of the Nigerian schoolgirls who were kidnapped and possible sold into slavery/marriages. Fifty three of them escaped. One girl grabbed an overhead branch and pulled herself up and out of the moving truck. These are young women who were dedicated to becoming teachers, doctors, and lawyers. The first educated from their communities. Their hopes and dreams were to better the lives of their people. Every single one of the girls has a story to tell. As they can’t, a writer can dig deeper and tell a story that will move the world more than celebrities posting hash tags on line as if that will help the girls.

In my story I would have a band of African American Special Forces infiltrate the jungle, find the kidnappers, take liberties with the restrictions about torture and then proceed to find the terrified young women. As each young soldier recovers a girl, we hear her story. Some will be terrified to trust the Americans, others will fall into their arms in gratitude. Some will be found dead.

The news also told of a woman trapped by her car after an accident and spent a week without food or water. That triggers a story of bravery, recovery, friends and family. What went on during that week she was missing? What did her four children think? What did her husband think?

In my story she was leaving them to start a new life but changed her mind. As she tried to make a u-turn on the highway, her car was sideswiped by an eighteen wheeler. The driver never noticed. Her family finds evidence of her depression.

What about the young man voted most valuable player in his professional sport and then during his acceptance speech gave all the credit to his mother for keeping him off the streets, disciplining him when he needed it and encouraging him all the way, all the while working to support her family? What about him and his brothers or sisters?

In my story the boy has one brother who wound up in a gang, and two sisters. One is older, married and living a nice life; the younger one is heading for trouble. Mother is at her wits’ end, filled with mixed emotions. She takes great pride and is humbled at her one son’s tremendous success, pleased, though a little saddened by her oldest daughter’s ordinary life when the girl had showed such promise academically, and baffled by her other two children who refuse to play by the rules.

A woman hired an undercover police officer to murder her estranged husband.

In my story the officer falls in love with her instead of doing his duty and turning her in. He agrees with her judgment that the husband should die for his crimes against her and her children.

There are so many stories to tell and so few with the time to tell them all.

Look across the street, across the grocery counter, up at the window washer on the 36^th floor, the mounted police officer, the middle-aged gay couple, and see what you can write about.

Have fun, take notes wherever you are but beware, soon you will be stopped by having to make a decision about which could be the most interesting story. You are limited only by your imagination.

Veronica Helen Hart (Ronnie) writes from her home in Ormond Beach, Florida, where little excitement occurs in the neighborhood. This doesn't stop her from wandering the world in search of stories. When she lived in a retirement community and learned someone was keeping a baby. That triggered an international incident which became The Prince of Keegan Bay (Champagne Books). For years she harbored the story of her opera singing friend, Lydia. Ronnie changed her story and it became Elena-the Girl with the Piano(Double Edge Press). Next up are The Swimming Corpse, starring many of the same characters from Keegan Bay and The Reluctant Daughers, (Double Edge Press). Both books will be released in August 2014.