Shopping for Excitement
Wherein I witness a scene worthy of being written into some story!
Yesterday I took my kids to a city, to a big mall, to do a bit of back-to-school shopping. This is a big deal because we live in the boonies. It was fun to be part of a huge crowd, the selection, the hustle bustle. But we got a bit more excitement than we’d bargained for.
After waiting for daughter 1 to try on some clothes, the four of us were waiting in the lineup to pay. And waiting. This was about the fifth line of the day and we were all getting a little weary. Suddenly out of the corner of my eye I see something go whizzing by. I feel a breeze as someone has just narrowly sprinted around me. Instinctively I check and all my kids are accounted for. And then over the tops of the clothing racks I can see the heads of two guys running full tilt through Big Department Store floor. They were taking different paths but going in the same direction.
The kids and I sort of looked at each other. We made up scenarios for why those guys were acting like that. (Late for an appointment? Pranksters? They just did something bad and were booting it outta there?) We haven’t moved one inch in line.
Not three minutes later we hear loud swearing and cursing. About 15 feet away two men and a woman are steering an unshaven older man through the store aisle. They have the man’s hands pinned behind his back. This odd parade has stopped because a kid and a stroller are blocking the aisle.
Cursing man shouts, “Effing security guards! You’ll hear from my lawyers!” and “Eff! My lawyers are going to deal with this!!”
Man that man could yell. Nothing wrong with his lungs. Anyway, the mother of the kid and the stroller twigs in to what’s going on and gathers her kids out of the way. The alleged shoplifter is lead away down the shopping aisle right beside us, hollering all the way.
My kids and I are kind of stunned for a second. Then wow! We just witnessed a takedown. They remark that little kids shouldn’t hear bad words like that. Conversation ensues about what might happen to the man now. Does he go to mall jail? Will the police come? and the like. Sure made the rest of the time in line pass quickly.
Of course, if you were going to write about it you’d need to add a lot more to elevate it above mere incident status. But so many jumping off points for creating a story…so many ways to add it into a story to develop a plot….
I think so, anyway.
© Lizann Flatt, www.lizannflatt.com
No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.
No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.
What’s Up With That?
Why is it that both
a) inspiration for two new story premises
and
b) inspiration for how to revise two different wip pbs
comes at a time when I’m crashing up against deadlines for 2 wfh projects which have to be squeezed into the hours between
1) back-to-school shopping for the kids that I haven’t started
2) ferrying multiple kids to multiple activities
3) staving off exhaustion by trying to get some sleep
4) squishing in those omigod-where-has-the-summer-gone and I-haven’t-even-done-this-yet activities
all while fighting off an allergy induced fog or, if I break down, an allergy-med induced haze?
Sheesh!
(Yeah, so why am I here doing this even?)
© Lizann Flatt, www.lizannflatt.com
No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.
No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.
Struggling with Summer
Judging by the gaps in my posts here, it’s probably obvious that I’m struggling with the summer thing. I love summer, but it’s a challenge to fit in my writing work with the kids home.
There are kids swimming lessons,
kids sports practices
and games
and tournaments,
play dates,
and relatives that come for a visit.
This region of the province, Muskoka, is considered vacation land or cottage country, so the population doubles in the summer. They’re all here to relax! The whole atmosphere becomes vacation!
party!
chill!
this event,
that festival,
the must-attend annual celebration,
the new cool location.
Not that I pay attention to all of that. But it’s there.
The kids…the things to do…it’s all good; I just have to figure out how I fit my own stuff into it.
And I’d better figure it out. I’ve got another book project to complete.
(Speaking of distractions, in the midst of typing this, I just saw a bear in my backyard!)
© Lizann Flatt, www.lizannflatt.com
No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.
No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.
To Tagline or to Tag Line?
If you troll the internet for advice for writers, many sites urge writers to come up with a tag line or tagline. Sometimes it’s lumped in with something called a platform (yikes), sometimes it’s called branding, and sometimes it’s just a tag line. You know, that one line used to describe a product, business, movie? I like to think of it as a slogan.
So I started thinking of one for myself. But I write nonfiction, poetry, short stories, and fiction (although no book-length fiction is yet published that’s the longterm goal). How to sum all that up? Should I even try?
I have an odd name, both first and last. I can admit that now. I hold no grudge against my parents for this, honestly! But it was hard having such an unusual name growing up. Today it actually makes electronic life on the internet much easier because there aren’t a bazillion others in the world out there with my same name. I’ve decided to play off my odd name in my tagline and came up with “flatt-out fantastic.”
I guess it’s basically like this:
Books by Lizann Flatt…Flatt-out Fantastic!
or as it is on my website
books by Lizann Flatt
Flatt-out Fantastic!
Of course, it might actually fall flatt (okay, bad pun). But I’ll wear it for awhile and see how it feels.
In case you’ve been thinking about one for yourself, here are some helpful resources more related to authors and writing. (If you google “tagline” there’s a ton of info out there.)
Creating Author and Publisher email taglines
http://www.midwestbookreview.com/bookbiz/advice/taglines.htm
author branding from Booksquare
http://booksquare.com/author-branding-2/
author Mitali Perkins on branding generally
http://www.mitaliblog.com/2009/06/virtual-author-branding-five-tips.html
good look at taglines in general and how to come up with one
http://www.suzanstmaur.com/?Writing_Tipz_from_Suze:Tipz_Archive:Taglines
What’s your tagline? I’d love to hear how you came up with it.
© Lizann Flatt, www.lizannflatt.com
No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.
No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.