HOW TO BUILD AN INVENTORY OF STORIES

I remember when I was a child my parents took me to the beach to look for seashells.

​My father said, "Bring back the best seashell you can find and I'll give you a quarter. Remember though, it has to be the best seashell you can find."

As a child I thought to myself, how easy no problem. I'll bet you already know the ending. Let me fill in some of the details.

My father knew exactly where to drive to. Not some sandy beach, oh no, this was more rugged. Millions of various size rocks, many worn down to mere pebbles by the ocean's waves, tide pools full of tiny crabs and starfish, and of course a coast full of seashells.

The first seashell I picked up was a winner. I need to go any further, I was a quarter richer. As I headed back to dad to show him my find saw another seashell that might be better than the first. I picked it up and studied it.

Yes, it was better and I tossed the first. It landed next to another shell and, uh oh, that one looked pretty good. I picked it up and it was a contender. Needless to say, this went on for over an hour and without thinking I had pockets full of seashells. We counted and I had thirty two. All of them unique.
​
When we laid them next to each other they were all beautiful in their own special way. "Well which one is the best?" he asked. I couldn't give him an answer. We decided to take all thirty two shells home. On the way back we stopped at a fish store and dad bought a fish tank. Not for fish, but for the shells.

We lined the tank with sand, added a few rocks, and strategically placed each shell in their new habitat. 
​

By now you are asking what this has to do with writing. Nothing and everything. As writers we are constantly thinking of ideas for new stories. Some ideas take us further than others and few make it all the way to the end.

At last count I have saved 35 stories, each at various stages. You would think most are left to die, but I learned not to toss them away. They sit idle, hidden away and now and then I look at them. Scary stories, westerns, medieval, romance, adventure, crime, they're all there.

Will they all become novels, probably not, but I know sitting in that room is a sequel to The Mouse That Became the Cat, a story about two DEA agents that go rogue to avenge a friend's murder, a young female reality television producer out scouting locations and goes missing in an abandoned graveyard, a love story about a French couple who buy a restaurant and its clientele.     

On and on. Every time I near the finish of one story I wonder what the next will be and it shows itself.

Next time I'll talk about where the ideas come from.