Success Leaves Clues

I've found a jewel in an old book I stumbled on in looking for humorous writers. In Author! Author! P.G. Wodehouse writes a series of letters to his literary counterpart, William Townend, describing stories he's sold, what he's currently working on, snippets about luminary figures from the 1920s to the mid 40s. He has a delightful humorous attitude, was very well published and well paid, even during the depression years. For six of the years in this timespan, he is confined as a political prisoner by the Germans. I'm finding it fascinating how through all of it, he continues to write and be published. One of the cool things is that he notes unselfconciously the fee he gets on short stories, plays, movies during that time. In the fall of '29 he was paid $2500 per week for script doctoring by MGM, and worked from home, only going in when they called for him, which was rare. Amazing stuff in here, and an example of how writers can thrive even in so-called economic downturns.

Generating story ideas

Hey, I was thinking about how the events of our lives can trigger so many story lines and thought it might be fun to play with that with you guys. My challenge is for us to come up with 10 possible story ideas over the next week from what we are seeing/experiencing every day. Here's mine so far this week:

1. Communication breakdown between parents and their adult children: what she thinks,  what you think, how it looks to outsiders, what's really going on.

2. Nazi nurses and how we react to them when what we want and what they want collide. The level of sneakiness we will go to!

3. Cultural differences in husband/wife relationships. I have an Indian friend who views her husband completely differently than anyone in my circle. She sees him largely as restriction to her freedom because her culture demands she submit to his preferences, so when he returns from business trip, she doesn't necessarily celebrate.

The cool part is, guys, that any of us could take any of these ideas and develop a story around them, and they would all be different. What's going on in your world?

A Place for Feedback

Hey, fellow writers, here is a place for us to continue posting our writing, questions, celebrations of publication, etc. without clogging up our email inboxes. It's simple to use. My request is that we continue to give each other the quality  feedback using the techniques we learned in class. I'm happy to share resources and ideas, and look forward to seeing your work here soon.