Broken Streak

That is right, I broke a streak of weekly writing on Friday mornings. Oh well. Things are never perfect.

I have not been reporting on any stories lately, so I have little to muse and write about. My storytelling process, one could say, is in the fermentation stage. I feel this is the most important phase of crafting a story.

I often do it and have three, four, five, or more stories bubbling away in my mind like a jar of kosher dill pickles on the counter. This stage of change is where alchemy takes place. It is how I take an idea and create a story.

I have ideas about public land use, feral horses, pollinators, climate change, conservation, and culture mixed up like good kimchi in my head. This cross-pollination thinking helps refine my ideas and build a larger foundation for each story.

I met with a local journalist last week, and he mentioned that he strives to make his stories do more than one thing. To go beyond the story and engage with the reader is always the goal. When stories can inspire change or further learning, then journalists have succeeded.

This is where I like to take my stories.

So in my head, at any given point, the ideas swirl about, and when a pitch comes out and is accepted, the story will find an outlet. I will have the chance to thoroughly (as much as possible with a full-time job and two halflings) report the idea and narrative. Then rest on the material for a day and start the writing process.

Write now I have the methane story in progress. While I wait to hear back from a few sources, I continue to let the methane ideas percolate and ferment alongside those other ideas upstairs.

Even at the start of writing this post, I had no idea what to write about. But having a curious mind keeps me reading and thinking. So the idea of writing out how I go from idea to story came out like water from the faucet.