A couple of summers ago Osceola Library Director, asked if I would help with the summer reading program. 

I entered the library, chatted with the director, and wandered around the building, waiting for the kids to show up. (Keep on reading. You’ve gotta read the story that those kids created!)

The creativity in that one building is overwhelming! No matter the genre: whether fiction or nonfiction, romance or sci-fi (science fiction), memoir or self-help, every book has a world, a setting. A memoir’s setting, for example, might be the author’s home, or a town, or a workplace—whether past or present.

The next time you’re in a library, pause. Let the books speak. Think about your favorites. Wander around and read the titles on the spines. Someone created that title, the story, the sense of wonder or sense of fear. The author created that.

The day I got to interact with the kids was creativity at its best!

I picked out two or three books from the children’s bookshelves and asked the kids what the cover made them think about? Then we created our own story. One child had a Star Wars T-shirt on and we were on our way.

Setting: grass, camping, swings, sandbox.

Plot: Dance. March in the country. Hunt. Dig a hole to New York (that might work as a plot, actually.)

Characters: Darth Vader. Dog named Ruff. Squirrel. Rabbits. Stormtroopers (of course!) and various deer and bears.

But there’s a new guy in the story. Darth Vader Ⅱ!

This is where it gets interesting. Darth Vader Ⅱ is Darth Vader’s twin brother. I know! I didn’t know that either, until the kids told me!

Darth Vader Ⅱ, the evil one in a white suit, has a dog that he stole from his brother. It’s a Chihuahua.

If I have the story right (according to the kids) Darth Vader in black is the good guy. His twin brother in white is evil!

They end up fighting over the puppy. The squirrels help beat up the evil brother, get the dog back to Darth Vader Ⅰ and they all do cartwheels.

Talk about creativity!

That’s a little different than my usual writing process, but every author is different.