Valamity!

Okay, so I want to write. However, there are a few things I’m really bad at–generating story ideas consistently, planning out those ideas into viable pieces, and then following through. I’d like to start writing something new, now that I’m done with “Oxford Town.” I have a few ideas floating around, some started briefly, some nothing more than bullit points in a word document, but I want something fresh to start on.  One of the books I’ve thumbed through has  a list of suggestions for helping with this,  so I’m going to spend the next hour trying to generate some fucking ideas. Thank you, momentary insomnia. Hopefully, I’ll start with the prescribed list and start to free associate and ramble and things will Occur To Me.

Phrases Which Have Stuck Out From Books For Me

1. “Greedy towels” from I, Jedi (nerrrd)

2. Pus-yellow ice cream from

Important Trips

1. Going to see Leila the first time, at the Museum of Natural History.

2. Driving to My Cousin’s wedding in Las Vegas.

3.

Important Occasions

1.  My dad’s wedding, wherein I was the best man

2. My Sister’s Heart Surgeries

3. My Brief Foray into Private School

Facts About Parents from Before I was Born

1.

Family Stories I’ve Heard More Than Once

Titles Or Words From Other Fiction Writing

1. Cold-penny Tang of the Autumn Night (Infinite Jest)–Something about this phrase, even if I can’t make a story on it.

AFDSFJJ—-FREE ASSOCIATE TIME—-

The fact that my dad says “pumpkin” as “punkin”

My brother’s post-adolescent fascination and love of child-like activities–nobody has ever loved pumpking carving and boiled egg dye-ing like that guy

A treatise on what it is to be someone’s younger brother

The theme of failed manliness, particular failed manhood as role model

My mother and her cigarettes, possibly re: who she is, divorce-type change

Neurosis as a function of modern society–the advantage of inventing fear

Weird fears in general as a way of understanding people

The time my sister found a snake in her room

Something about the internet and the malleability of identity (how fresh is this?)

My brother Casey–warts and all

“I’ve found something terribly sad about a deflated balloon,” I found myself saying, and I nearly believed it.

Something about my freshman roommmate

Haircut as life-metaphor

Failure as soccer coach or perhaps soccer as a bigger idea

The time I had a part in the Spring Play

The time I couldn’t make a basket in gym class

Swearing–swearing as creative endeavor, swearing as metaphor for writing?

My grandpa was a typist during WW2?

Something to do with my mother raising puppies?

The time I hit a deer–other car accidents I’ve had?

Playing at the river–Uncle Steve visiting, fishing all the time

The Summer in Which We Canoed

Campfires which I have sat next to

Shit I’m terrible at getting down specific events–why is everything a theme to me?

Trip to Branson–ugh

Turkey Days

Being in a elementary school “gang”

the time we all sat in the tires past the whistle

Getting lost in public places

State fair?

I really wish I could do a good “stuck on an island” story, but I can’t think of any good details or anything that would make mine stand out.

Thrift (stores?)

Things my mother says “okey dokey”

Other people “I tell ya what”

McCann! He would be a great character

Other things I’ve wanted to write: Vietnam War Story, Post-Apocalypse Story (radio-themed)

“the rank wet smell of dirty laundry”

“lobbies that smell like chlorine”

The differences between my grandparents

The toys and stories I made when I was a child (hey Big Sheep)

Spiritual Deadness

Star Wars–something about it

Pickiness–Green Beans

Race in a Monoracial Upbringing

Bird’s Egg

Bowling?

Man, this book on Writing Creative Nonfiction actually looks okay.

Arcades

Driving Late at Night in Nebraska

Visits to the Zoo

Board Games — Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble, The Farming Game!, My intense dislike of losing

-Geography/Spelling Bees

-Working at the library

-My first job at the computer store

-Why are all my jobs always boring?

-Nepotism

-Teachers I have had

-those times when you realize that you’ve been saying lyrics wrong for years

-False memories

-Hitting a buzzard on the way to school

–A discussion of the schools I have gone to

-my grandparent’s house

-my stepdad, stepbrothers

-Is it possible to write something meaningful about video games?

-Why do writers seem to eskew using technology? I mean why does using or mentioning technology seem to cheapen a story?

-that story about the snake-how do i do that? make it smaller

- love library

-the pond in our pasture

-pastures in general

-how i feel about horses

-wearing my brother’s clothes all the time

-christmas traditions–eating those icecream bars (santa or christmas trees), opening on christmas eve before my half-brothers left for their mom’s, dad ho-hoing and we all knew it was dad but clinging to the idea of Santa anyway

-my half-brother’s mother, and my understanding of her despite never really meeting her

-my mother’s friendships

-losing my hair

-dating someone far away

-my feelings on the internet, nerd that I am

-sledding with my brothers, time I wiped out and laid in the snow until it got dark

-birthday parties I have had

-my grandparents’ wedding anniversaries

-how i like soda, even though I hate everything about it

-things I have stolen from friends by not returning, things I have had stolen from me

- my predilection towards sleeping on couches

-writing about Wallace, writing about Vonnegut

-the terror of ordering sandwiches

-how i suck at making phone calls

-didn’t know my home phone number for ages

-”don’t tell your dad/whoever, but here’s the truth.”

-pets I’ve had–Daisy, Ace, Berry, Marshmallow, Rafriki,

-my shame over not knowing anything about art

-first memory–waking up to having my eyes glued shut from i think pink-eye

-attending church as a kid, esp. my confrontations with authority

-my problems with authority in general

Okay, so there’s an hour of brainstorming. I’ll look through this tomorrow and see what I like. I have a feeling a lot of it is bad. We’ll see.

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