Just Do It

I made a poncho last week. It's right out of the early 1970s. I don't know exactly what I'm going to do with it now that it's made, but the poncho is made.

Why is this at all significant? The kit for this poncho has been around since the early 1970s. That's when my mother paid $9 for a girl scout poncho kit with pattern and wool yarn. Recently she was cleaning out her attic in anticipation of moving and gave me all of her yarn. This kit was included.

I wasn't sure what to do about it. I didn't particularly want a 1970s poncho. But I had the pattern and all the yarn. It is so rare to have everything I need for a project right at my finger tips, that I decided to just go ahead with the project. So now I have a poncho.

And what does this have to do with writing? How about this - it's never too late to recycle that idea or finish that story you started. Go for it. Who knows what you will end up with if you see it through to the end? Maybe nothing worth keeping, but maybe it will be a diamond in the rough that will really turn out to be something great. But if you just let the idea sit in the drawer you end up with nothing at all.

I know this is relevant because many years ago I started a story and revised and changed and revisited that story many times over. The final result of not letting it just sit in a drawer and fester is REALITY ALI which will be available in May. But even better, out of some of the other ideas that kicked around for all those years, I now have a contract for a series of four books, with REALITY ALI being book 1.

So, make that poncho. Write that story. You never know where it might lead!