So I’ve gotten back to writing in the middle grade fiction world of Bailey Best and her little brother Ben. And it’s great fun! I’m working on the third book in that series, The Pharaoh’s Curse. It tells the story of what happened when Bailey and her family go to Egypt because she won a prize to work at The Great Dig for a week. As you can imagine by the title, there’s a heavy hint of Indiana Jones and thrilling adventure.
Anyhow, I recently finished reading a book called Essentialism by Greg McKeown (amazing read btw!) and an idea for a story arose. The basic premise of his book is that it’s more important than ever for us to cut out the noise that modern society bombards us with and focus on doing only the essential things. One of the manifestations of this problem is that most of us say yes far too often. Yes to coaching the outdoor soccer team. Yes to coaching the indoor soccer team. Yes to the school camping trip. Yes to leading the build of a primitive structure. Yes to driving to LA for the weekend. Yes, yes, yes to all the choices that land in your lap. And yes, those are just a few of the Yes’s I’ve agreed to lately.
I don’t regret saying yes to those, btw. I’m just saying that I agree with the book that it’s SUPER easy to commit yourself all over the place and end up being stretched to the breaking point. It’s an occupational hazard of living in the modern world. And that was the seed idea for my story.
What if Bailey said yes to everything for the day? Which immediately brought up other angles to consider.
Why would she even consider doing that in the first place?
What would happen if she did that?
Would there be limits to it?
What if kids at school found out? What if the biggest bully in her class found out?
Could she survive a whole day of it?
So yeah. A great seed idea will instantly start sprouting other questions and ideas. That’s how you know you’ve got something worth building. And as I hadn’t yet written a short story in that series, it turned out to be the perfect opportunity to change that.
I’m doing my read through pass now. After it’s been given a proper shine, I’ll send it over to the Readers Group for a gander. And it’s 100% free for them! If you’d like to get a free copy of your own in the near future, sign up to the Readers Group already.
Thanks for reading!