Here in North Carolina right now, music fills the air! Temps are starting to soar, my walks with Reilly, my 95 lb Golden Retriever, are breezy and warm. Robins, chick-a-dees, blue birds and sea birds are singing and soaring. It’s like one big party in the air!

Robins are now pecking their broad yellow beaks into the soft, muddy earth, pulling up wiggly worms and collecting pine straw and all sorts of odd things to build their nests and start new families in the tall Carolina pines. They’re ready to start a new story. Are you?

Birds are not the only nesters! We too, as writers, pluck at the strands and strips of our imaginations and that is, of course, where story begins. Writing is a dream world, one that I dream up, conjuring all the parts and pieces of it as they appear each day. Much like the robins, I can only imagine what will happen when a story hatches its way out into the world!

But first, there are categories of collectibles we, as writers, need to explore! Here are a few to think about as we get started:

One Great Character/s…
Who has a big problem or a bit of trouble,
That causes him, her, or them to take Action
To talk and interact (Dialogue),
In a place (Setting) with great details to put the reader there (Description).
This Character has thoughts or feelings that they may not want to say out loud.

But most important of all…the writer tells the story more than once, rehearsing it, writing and rewriting it to make the character, problem, setting, the action, dialogue and description crystal clear! This takes Beautiful Words, a great deal of the Writer’s Energy and Attention, and most of all, a commitment to work on that story every day (Time)!

Do you have a favorite book? One that makes you say to yourself, what a great story! I could write a story or a book like that! If you have a favorite writer, I’m guessing you know how to admire their work. That is the way to imagine or dream yourself into the world of writers. I have so many writers I admire, I must be careful, though. I’m not writing the story they’ve written, I’m writing my own.

So that’s it for now, dear writer. Hoping you’ve got that writers notebook out and that your pen or pencil is moving along the page. I love, love, love drafting stories and snip-its of ideas for stories. Playing on the page, daily, is step one!