Looking Around Us

This month our theme is STORY STARTERS. Have you ever had difficulty coming up with an idea for a story? Of course you have! Every writer grapples with that problem from time to time (hopefully not every time!) Perhaps we can learn a lesson from the Five Grumpy Writers:

Five grumpy Writers
rarely left their houses,
where they sat at computers
and ignored their spouses.

The five grumpy writers
met one time each week.
They’d run out of ideas.
There was naught to critique!

Writer number one said,
“We need a change of milieu.”
So they left their computers
and went to the zoo.

Writer number two said,
“I’d rather be writing.
I miss my computer.
This isn’t exciting.”

Writer number three said,
“Not a thing is inspiring.
I need Internet and e-mail
or this writer’s retiring!”

Writer number four said,
“I have writer’s block!
This is wasting my time.
Tick-tock, tick-tock!”

Writer number five said,
“The elephants stink!
The kids are too noisy.
I can’t hear myself think!”

Then the zoo keeper spoke up.
“Try looking around.
Ideas for new stories
can always be found.”

So, they wrote about animals
till their pencils were nibs.
But what inspired them the most
was a zoo full of kids!

They heartily agreed
that kids of all ages
gave them ideas galore
to write pages and pages!

So the five happy writers
made a promise to leave
their computers more often
and take a reprieve.

The writers—-all five,
had smiles on their faces,
as they sought inspiration
in interesting places.

They visited parks.
They watched children play,
and went back to the zoo
on School Field Trip Day.

From then on they carried
their notebooks and pens.
And they found life inspiring,
not secluded dens.

Sheryl Crawford plans to visit the zoo—SOON!

Copyright 2008 Sheryl Ann Crawford