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Chupacabras; or, how I get my story ideas

Several times in the past month, I’ve been asked how I get my story ideas.

As my official bio says, “I draw on my experiences to tell the stories of those around me, with a generous heaping of ‘what if’ thrown in.” 

For example, one night I was driving home and this big thing ran across the road in front of me. It was probably a dog or a coyote, but…what if it were a chupacabra? What if chupacabras are coming out of some kind of dimensional rift, part of some plot by evil satyrs to take over the world? What if I’m the only one who can see them and have to figure out a way to stop them? Yeah, that’s how I get my story ideas.

I found this in a dinosaur museum. I’m pretty sure it’s a prehistoric chupacabra.

Watch a little kid play sometime. He makes up fantastic stories, about monsters and battles and princesses and moms and dads and little kids and airplanes and god knows what. I did it as a kid; you did too. But as a kid grows, he stops voicing those stories. Maybe he writes them down for school assignments, but by the time he’s an adult, he doesn’t articulate them, and eventually that creativity is abandoned and rusty from lack of use.

With practice, everyone could find something to write about, but most don’t because they don’t think they can.

I refuse to let my creative voice get rusty.

1 Comment

  1. I loved this one! Chupacabras…not something I would have come up with but I love the process. Very authentic. Driving at night is like opening some mystical door where all your stories live, where they can parade in front of you. I’m glad to know I’m alone with stuff like this.

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