Elderflower and Pine

For my current book, anything can spark a story. My current (second) book is a collection of short children’s stories based on fables, so I am often inspired by a quote, an animal, or an already established fable. For the story I worked on today, I got inspired years ago when I read “How to Change a Client’s Mind” in 2021. I was on a psychology kick at the time. I found the way he described the three ways of mitigating distance between the zone of acceptance and region of rejection using football fields so vivid and inspiring – I put a dozen asterisks next to the idea. Still, I didn’t know how I wanted to use it until recently.

The next piece of the puzzle of how I am putting together this story came this weekend when I went to the library and read out some of my ideas to the local librarian who specializes in free-form writing and helped me bounce some ideas off of. Together, we decided who the main characters would be – a wise owl, a grumpy gnome, and a lamenting hedgehog. 

And then today… I was overstimulated and anxious. It is a long and boring story where I realized I didn’t have my license and I needed it for Friday. It was out of my control as I had to rely on people to send it to me, and the patience to wait until they were able, so I went for a walk around the nearby labyrinth to calm down. The enchanting labyrinth, despite the stifling, uncharacteristic heat and humidity, calmed me down, and before I knew it, I was figuring out the plot points and sequence of events for this story. So, if anyone is reading this, just remember that 1. You don’t have to do it all in one go, and 2. Taking a step away could help you both mentally with both your emotions and your writing. Remind yourself that progress is rarely linear.

I hope that even though you can’t join me in this peaceful moment, the picture can at least help you visualize it…