600 words. I can do that. Easy.

I wonder. 600 words. Such a random number. Or is it? Why not 500? or 300? Will 600 words prove to be the secret to a great story that’ll be revealed later? What’s the Wizard got up his sleeve? 

I’m digressing.

For some time I’ve had this idea for a children’s story about my grandson. I can see the entire story in my mind from beginning to end.

Getting it out? 

I run with the best of procrastinators. 

I need a great opening line! 

I reread the MMM. I google “How to write a great opening line”. Which leads to a YouTube video “How to Write a Good First Line”. Before I even start watching it another video catches my eye “The mystery of storytelling: Julian Friedmann at TEDxEaling.” This will help. Click.

An ad starts “In a world where people love puppies… I’m half paying attention. I see another video “The magical science of storytelling | David JP Phillips | TEDxStockholm”. Science. Better.

The ad continues “… let me tell the secret about money… you can buy things with it.” Wait! What? 

That was actually kind of funny. I become interested. Suddenly, the ad skips to the video “The magical science of storytelling:..” Wait! Go back! I want to see the rest. I refresh the screen. A different ad plays. I refresh. Five times. Five different ads. 

Luckily, I saw it was a Motley Fool ad. I google “motley fool puppies ad” which results in: Motley Fool Stock Advisor, A Foolish Take: Facebook’s Video Ad Revenue Could Top $10 …, Alliance Data Systems – ADS – Stock Price & News | The Motley … Nothing about puppies.

I google “Motley Fool youtube ads”.

The first result is Motley Fool – Youtube. I try that. No luck. I search “motley fool puppy ads” on YouTube. Nada. That’s not aggravating. 

I google 4 or 5 more variations before it dawns on me I haven’t even watched any of the videos. 

I go back to “The mystery of storytelling..” 

The speaker, in this droll monotone, starts with “I’m Julian Friedman and I’m an agent and I going to talk to you from an agents point of view.” Good god!

Next. 

“The magical science of storytelling…” 

This speaker, “In 2009, a man, a journalist, by the name Rob Walker wanted to find out if is storytelling really the most powerful tool?” 

Right to the point. 

“In order to do this, he went on his computer and bought 200 objects from Ebay. The average price for the objects were about one dollar. He then called 200 authors and he asked them ‘Hey! Would you like to be part of a significant object study? Which means I would like to write a story to one of the objects.’ And 200 authors said ‘yes’”.

The gist of the talk is that when Mr. Walker resold the items on Ebay with the new stories attached, the items sold for significantly more than what he purchased them for.

At this point I realize I have completely forgotten my original task. I haven’t written word one of my grandson story.

I go back to the MMM. 

This stands out “The best writers begin by just blurting it out.”

So I blurt. Three hours and 2,315 words later I had a story. I read it. Reread it. Make some edits. Get it down to 2,307. 

Then the brilliant thought process kicked in. This story doesn’t lend itself to 600 words. I’ll just write another one. 

600 words. I can do that. Easy.

– Bryan Kennedy