Chapter 4 - Eureka!

"I am living proof that you don't have to have lots of ideas to be a writer." -Gail Carson Levine

As someone who is trying to work up the guts to be a writer, this sentence is very comforting.  Levine goes on to say that she doesn't have any special ways of getting ideas, and that her ideas are pretty ordinary.  For her, "Relaxation, repetition, and rhythm let the mind fly free." 

I can see how this pattern would be helpful, I just need to allow myself to relax and go through the motions of writing so that I can find my own rhythm.

In this chapter, Levine also confesses that she writes a lot of "junk" before she gets to "the good stuff."  She says that by continuing to write, even if it's just junk, "eventually that subterranean part of your brain will come through and begin to send you ideas,"  and then you need to work with those ideas to thank that "brilliant part of you."

Writing Assignment:  Write 12 story ideas (they don't all have to be good).

1. grade school girl getting her feelings hurt by best friend

2. historical book about the lost city of Guge

3. mystery/adventure/growing up story of royal twin boys

4. growing up story of grade school girl-one summer's experiences

5. picture book about Ringo the Rainbow Pig

6. picture book about worrying

7. a child coming home after a long absence

8. fictional book about Emily Dickinson

9. pioneer story related to Prayer Rock

10.picture book about gardens

11.picture book about 4 yr old boy and his tractors

12. condensed, picture book version of The Mansion