Okay, I’m going with something light today that requires little thought, because we’ve all had enough doom and gloom. Let’s take a break from the nightmare that is today’s publishing industry and I’ll tell you a story.

Sit down, grab a blanket, snuggle up close to the fire Clive’s got blazing over there. We’ve got hot chocolate too. The “special” stuff is in the red thermos and the regular, non-alcoholic stuff is in the blue.

Ready? Good. So my youngest has been writing songs and stories forever. Recently every time her best friend comes over to play, she persuades her to write a story or act out a play she’s written. It’s priceless. This morning I opened my laptop to find their latest work, which they’ve submitted to Mom’s Publishing Company. I couldn’t resist sharing it. She’ll kill me later but it’s worth making you all smile.

Here is it, unedited and completely original.

Lola and Destiny’s Jorny
by K.P. and J.E.

Once opan a time there were 2 girls tht were bffs they went for a walks and they found a portal and they were walking some more and they found a dog it was a girl dog named sparkle and they were walking and they went in to a store they bot beds for there 3 brothers and 4 sisters and they bot a bed for the dog and we bot a morior we are going to rent an apartmunt and they got free beds at the ampartmunt there were water beds we got to keep them for our lives.

We walked around town and we met 2 cute boys ones name is Dalton. Dalton is Lolas boyfriend Destinys boyfriend is Michale

The End

This took me back to when I was Ken’s age (7) and I used to scribble away for hours. I’d get carried away in my own head, imagining all the directions a story could go. I’d imagine these grand places, usually somewhere back in time, with elves and witches and Prince Charmings…sigh.

I needed this today. I used to at least try to pound out short fiction daily. Even if it was crap, the point was just to have fun, piss around. Exercise my imagination. I’d spend ten minutes, an hour, two hours; didn’t matter. Just that I had fun doing it. Often these daily games turned into something more, fleshing out a vague idea into a novel.

This little story, with it’s almost total lack of punctuation and simplistic plot that went nowhere made me smile. It reminded me why I write. Publication? Yeah, I want it. Does it matter how? No. I want to write. I want to be read. I want it to be fun again. Just for a little while. Thanks to Ken and her friend, I’ve got my wish if only for a short time.

What do you do to make writing fun? Or is fun the right word? How do you keep that spark alive? You know, the one that giggles maniacally at the idea of a solid day to yourself spent creating.

I challenge all of you to write for fun today. I don’t care what you write. Just do it. Something that makes you giggle maniacally. Then, share it. Let me know if you share online. I want to giggle with you.