Making your Writing Original - Quirky Thoughts

I was on a Holistic Pampering Day yesterday at my local Tech along with about a dozen other ladies. We were happily walking to the silver service restaurant for our lunch, nicely relaxed after a morning of Indian Head Massage and reflexology, when I spotted something bright yellow attached to the sole of one lady's shoe.

'You've got something stuck to the sole of your shoe,' I told her.

'It's a fashion statement,' she said, without batting an eyelid, and continued walking.

Fair enough, I thought. But a couple of minutes later she bent down and pulled the offending Post-It note from her sole, with a laugh. She had me fooled though for a moment!

I was impressed at how she was able to use her creative thinking enough to turn what might have been an embarassment into a clever joke. I dare say someone really outrageous like Tracy Emin or Vivienne Westwood might wear one shoe with a yellow sticker trailing from it as a fashion statement.

Wouldn't it be fantastic if we could bring that sort of playfulness to our writing. Instead of getting stuck in a rut of predictability, we could revel in our quirkiness. We probably don't even notice when we are being quirky and original because we take it for granted. To us, it's normal.

When I got back from my two salsa classes on Monday, my feet were so sore that I told my husband I wished I could take them off. It would have been so nice to unscrew them and get rid of the pain for a few minutes.

I was talking about this to somebody else this morning, and he said, 'That's funny! I'd never have thought of unscrewing my feet.'

But to me, it seems perfectly logical. It also seems natural not to put sheet music into my bag upside down in case the musical notes fall off the pages and not to put books into my bag upside down in case the words fall out and get lost!

Take a few minutes to think for yourself about your own little quirky thoughts. Then write them in your notebook. You might need them one day.

And even if you don't, you might make yourself smile. Surely that's worth doing?