Record of a Summer Romance

What fun I'm having! I've put off cleaning out some old files for weeks, and finally dug into them. In the process I found the old notebook I used as a diary in high school. It isn't easy to read today, because I taught myself Old German script for writing it, to ensure privacy. Fortunately I did keep a master key, so I can still decode if I were so inclined.

But that wasn't the fun I'm referring to. I may go back to that another day, but I found something more interesting. Stuck in those pages were several sheets from a notepad giving a day-by-day account of all the dates my future husband and I had on our whirlwind summer romance. No details are recorded, but none are needed. With the simple prompts of date and place, it all comes flooding back.

Oh, the stories! Being an incurable binge and impulse writer, the urge to stay up all night and write is strong, but I'll let it go at typing up the list so it won't get lost again. I can use that list as the basis for a fairly long story about that summer.

Lists like this are a great way to begin a story that consists of a series of smaller ones that you plan to arrange in a chronological order. You might want to refer back to the post Like Beads on a Necklace for a refresher on compiling stories such as these.

Do you have any old lists that could jump start a new story? Maybe you'll be inspired by my example and dig into some piles you've been avoiding. You never know, your muse may be hiding in there.

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal