Tuesday's Inspiration - Anne Lamott - Bird By Bird #MFRWauthor #amwriting

Once a year or sometimes more often, I pick up Anne Lamott's Bird By Bird purchased after I heard her speak at a conference. It's not that I'm stuck or something but I just need something to help pull a memory or to trigger wrods. Today when I picked up the book these words struck me as true. "Remember you own what happened to you."

I'm writing a scene in a story where there is a mud and rock avalanche. Trying to put it down led me to think of a time when my husband and I were in Santa Fe for a conference and we were driving along the Ri Grande with the cliffs above us. There was a mud slide. Now we weren't close enough for it to effect our car but the sight of that stuff flowing down the cliff really set my imagination running. Pulling on this memory allowed me to write this scene - at least block it out so I can go back later and put in the emotions of the characters.

So remembering things good or bad that happened to you are grain for your stories. You may not have experienced the exact thing you're writing about but there are events that came close. You can remember your first kiss when writing a character's first kiss. There are many things so, "Remember you own what happened to you" and use this to make your stories sing.