Today I want to challenge you to let your stories emerge.

Do not try and control or pre-empt a story. Many of us were taught to structure our writing – ‘it must have a beginning, a middle and an end.’ – what nonsense!

Just write and see what happens.

Ruth Tearle shared a lot of her daily musings with me when she was writing ‘Blackboards, Bubbles and Cappuccinos’ (See www.ruthtearle.com) 

We would chat briefly in the morning and she would send me her latest addition every evening. This was at a time when she was pushing to complete the book.

I could not wait for the next chapter to arrive each evening and I would eagerly download email late at night to get the next episode in the unfolding drama.

‘What’s going to happen next.’ I would quip to try and elicit the story out of her in our morning chat.

Surely she must know where this is going? Why couldn’t she tell me?

‘I don’t know,’ was her stock answer, ‘I’ll wait to see what presents itself.’

Amazing

So - be like Ruth!

Do not decide on the content, characters or structure of your story.

Let the story write itself and see what happens.

You may just be surprised.