Belated Anatomy of an Idea: Sleepwalking

I printed out my list of names so I could do the last blog post somewhere off-site. It happened to be the last page of my story sparkers / notes file. I found this at the top of it:

Sleeping, Ruin, This Can Fly, Child, Disguised, The Curse was lifted as had been foretold.

And then, sure enough, a two line plot summary of Sleepwalking.

I hadn't honestly remembered that anything in particular inspired this one, but verily, the evidence is there.

This came from the Storyteller cards I mention below in my Boot Camp post. I drew five regular cards and an ending ... and then worked with the elements until they shaped a story in my head. The involvement of my narrator's dear friend didn't come up until I started writing, though, and decided I needed a more personal motive for this attempt to rescue the city.

I also found the notes for my "girl with nanny powers" story - thirty-some words all beginning with H. I did what I call a word tumble with that one: just start writing with no clear plan, but every hundred words, I have to incorporate the next word on the list. It's a zany thing, but it's given me three good stories (one of which, The Winter Queen, will be in Golden Visions sometime this month).