Pay Less Attention to the Outside

By Marcos Perales | Big Stick Editor |

We’ve been so focused on the stories, especially the coronavirus, that are going on around us. We are being taken away from the idea that we all have our own stories to tell. The stories don’t even have to be real. The stories don’t have to be about us. Yes it is very unfortunate that the outside isn’t really safe, but we have a whole other world that can be explored inside our own minds.

Did something weird happen to you at the store or something? Write about it. Are you having the time of your life in quarantine? Write about that. Write about it as if you were explaining your experience with someone else. Maybe it won’t be as interesting to you as it could be to someone else. Things often work out like that. Give the story a little twist and you may have yourself a masterpiece that will impress another author or reader.

When we think of stories,  they’re most likely thought of in a book or paper form. That is not the only way stories can be told because it’s 2020. Does your front yard look beautiful in the sunset lighting? That should be filmed and saved. That’s actually one of the more safer options right now in terms of filming scenery. Who knows, maybe there’s a filmmaker in some of us and we just don’t know it yet. 

With almost everything that has to do with creativity, there’s a “writing process.”

A creator jots down their ideas just to get it out there and they may not know where they are going with whatever they’re creating. As time pass

es, they begin to revise and edit their creations if they want to go through with the idea. The product of one’s mind begins to flourish and the one who is responsible may go on to be recognized for it, or the product might just be there for the creator’s own amusement.
It’s all about growing and improving in the creative world.

It’s okay if the product of your own imagination isn’t that great to begin with. The band “Chicago” faced this obstacle themselves. Knowing that they were a great band that a lot of people loved, they knew they

 

couldn’t come up empty handed. The band was sitting in a hotel just thinking about what their next song was going to be, the night before the song was due. Eventually they got to songwriting that night. Much later it was revealed that their song was literally about writing a song. Nevertheless, their song still became a big hit. My 10th grade English teacher told me that story and it inspired me.

The point is anything a person does can be a story by itself. People are so focused on what we physically can’t do because of the coronavirus. Human beings have always been brilliant at creating, otherwise we probably wouldn’t be here right now. Even if we’re not necessarily the creative type, we can always remember that each of us has a story to tell.