Just Write Something

Before Christmas, I was in a bit of a writing frenzy. I was trying to write two short stories and I had deadlines for both.

In the midst of all the editing I ground to a halt with one of my stories. I had to do a whole lot of work on the structure of it.

Structure in stories is the part that I struggle with the most.

I knew what I had to do, thanks to my frantic reading of books on structure. It was going to be hard work.

With Christmas holidays looming and all the craziness that comes with the end of the school year I felt I couldn’t concentrate. I didn’t have the mental energy to continue ploughing through.

Around about the same time a competition popped into my inbox. It was connected with a cooking blog that I subscribe to.

In twenty-five words or less they wanted me to tell them which recipe I would make out of their newly released cookbook and why. The prize was phenomenal and all I had to do was conjure up a creative way of talking about food!

Surely I could handle twenty-five words or less. It was easier than juggling five thousand words.

I scribbled and doodled in my notebook and came up with a rhyming ditty about a recipe, its ingredients and why I would make it – perfect. I sent it off and then sat down to work on structure.

In the next three weeks I sent off four more ‘twenty-five words or less’ explanations of recipes in between slogging it out with my story.

These little snippets of writing were fun, they were short and they kick started my writing again. I was reminded that in the midst of the bog of structural edits I still loved writing.

I didn’t win the competition but I had lots of fun trying and my story was structured to within an inch of its life.

So, I learnt something.

Knowing that I could write twenty-five words or less and be clever and creative about it gave me the boost I needed to continue polishing my five thousand words.   

Linsey Painter loves to write stories that draw on her rich heritage of growing up overseas. Her children’s stories focus on growing young hearts, challenging assumptions and exploring courage in the face of life’s difficulties. Linsey’s stories are drawn from real life and imaginative fantasy adventures. Life doesn’t always turn out the way we expect and sometimes we need to be brave and find out how to love and trust again. Through her stories Linsey shows that joy and beauty are everywhere even when life is difficult. Linsey lives in Cairns with her husband and two lively boys.