Getting Clear...

I spent last week getting clear. I milled over what I learned at nationals and what Sheila Hodgson had said to me about my story. At times I even agonized.

But I decided to give myself some time to get clear on things and to figure out what I needed to do to get my submission in shape to send off.

Late in the week, a kernel of an idea came to me. Then, last night I went to an event with hubby and my best friend and her hubby. It was called "Brew at the Zoo" and it was a load of fun.

It was a beer tasting event at our zoo. They had brew houses from all over there. When we went to the Budweiser building they were playing the Real Me of Genius commercials over and over and over, back to back and I thought of Julie S who once blogged about her fondness for those commercials.

We made our way around all of the tents, with our little sampling glasses. Then, through the thick tropical foliage of the African Safari camp, came the bright lights of the microbrews. And boy were there a lot of them. And boy did we sample.

Along about the twelfth sample, we used small sampling glasses, mind you, it came to me. The solution to the crux of the problem with my story. And I considered jumping up and down and shouting hooray! But then I realized I needed at least twelve more samples to do that and I was too lazy to stand in line anymore. We were hot and the humidity was near 100% thanks to an earlier storm.

So we came home and I slept on my idea and woke up and low and behold, the idea still had grand merit. So I emailed it my cp who thought it was a grand idea!

Now that I'm clear on what I need to do, I just need to do it. Argh. I knew there was a down side too all this revelation!

I found clarification while downing a tablespoon of Shiner Blonde. I know this isn't unique to me. So what about you? When and where have you found clarification on a story you were working on? Any special tricks for getting it to come along faster?

April