The Trouble With writing

Found this story mindmap on Pinterest and it made me smile

Today I ate lunch with my little sister. Her face was speckled with sandwich crumbs as she suggested we play two truths and a lie. Though school has been my home for the past nine months, I agreed, thinking I knew her well enough. We played a few rounds. She spotted my lies and I fell for hers.  Finally I told her about three stories I might or might not have written.  She somehow guessed the lie.  "You wrote a story about Tupper Lake?"  Olivia asked, munching a huge bite of sandwich. Tupper lake is the small area in the Adirondack mountains where we spend summer vacation.  It's a gorgeous area bursting with inspiration and beauty.  I still remember typing away at my story gingerly incorporating our daily activities.

When I first got back from school I spent a whole day unpacking and rearranging my room. After unpacking, I plopped onto my bed and flipped through one of my writing class notebooks. Writers are fanatic readers. My notes from day one.  I quickly shut the notebook realizing the long list of books awaiting me. Since I've been back I have read a few different things,  Heart of Darkness and The Call of the Wild kept me busy.  Now I'm working through The Lord of the Flies.

Most of my reading leaves me wondering how the author so perfectly mends his story together.  Thinking back on the short story I wrote last summer I recall writing whatever came to mind next; there were no boundaries. The story told itself in some ways, taking me in directions I never planned to go.

When I have a story in mind, I always have the most trouble filling in the gaps.  I know where I want my characters to go but how to get them there is the hard part. Or many times I have the beginning of a story but where to take it next always stumps me.