The Ideas That Stay With Us

By Margie Senechal

As writers, we always have ideas. Some great, some good, others bad. 

We sift through our ideas to find the ones that will sustain. Usually it takes writing a few chapters to decide if the idea has legs to go the marathon of a novel.

And then there are some ideas that just stick with us in recesses of our brains tucked away in a tiny little drawer called ideas. Or Stuff I want to write someday.

Years ago I was in an online writing exercise group. I wrote genres I'd never even attempted before--Sci Fi, Fantasy, poetry--and one of those stories was a short-short about characters stepping out of the fabric of a tapestry. Not this particular tapestry, but in the same ancient theme. It was an adequate story but someday I actually want to expand it into something kind of special. Because I love the idea of these people being real and just playing out parts in the threads of the tapestry.

Another idea that has stuck with me is the adventures of K.Lee, the first tabloid reporter, circa the middle ages fantasy realm. Consider the National Enquirer meets the Shire. Her stories of hybrids--the woman and the wolf, a particular favorite--are told over mugs of ale and tosses of the coin.

I have a couple of middle grade ideas bouncing around--one about a boy who finds a genie bottle in a garage sale at his grandmother's retirement home, and one about a town that goes crazy after dinosaur bones are found when digging up a yard for a swimming pool. 

Every once in a while, I wipe the cobwebs off one of these--or one of the other couple dozen ideas I've had over the years--to sit down and write a chapter, or notes. But so far, the final plot has yet to step up and say, "ME! Me." Choose me above all others. But, one day, I hope they'll all come to fruition.

Tell me about the ideas in your recesses of your cobwebs. Please assure me I'm not the only one.