Ambitiously Challenging My Creativity

I had an idea for a new column in Bread 'n Molasses that I'm going to start writing this week or next. It's been floating around for several months. I was really excited by it, but then I got some feedback and almost decided not to do it . . . It's an ambitious project . . . it's REALLY ambitious.

I keep searching for ways to make me feel more excited about my work. I don't enjoy doing Bread 'n Molasses very much. It's not "real" journalism . . . and it's certainly not "real" art . . . It's the Harlequin Romance/Breakfast Television/Star Magazine version of a webzine. Now, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, there's a big audience that goes in for that stuff and we do a really good job of pleasing that audience . . . but it's not exactly the sort of thing I had in mind for the rest of my life. Anyway, I keep searching for little ways to get me excited about working on Bread 'n Molasses. So, I came up with an idea for a column that I think will appeal to our readership and satisfy some of my creative urges. A few years ago I started writing a play called Nellie's Place about all these goings on in a General Store in a small town. Kind of poking fun at small towns . . . in a Trailer Park Boys type of way (complete with a Bubbles type character, toned down for a G audience with more innuendo.) Anyway, a few scenes in I realised I had never written a play in my life and had absolutely no idea what the hell I was doing so I put it aside . . . Until now.

Nellie's Place has become Molly's General Store, the new column for Bread 'n Molasses. It's a serial work of fiction written in journal format. I've set up a blog for Molly and every week or so she'll post a new entry (maybe more often depending on how creative I get). For readers it will be like reading her diary. Molly runs the General Store in a small town. So, her diary will be about the goings on in the store . . . and everyone knows the General Store is the place where EVERYTHING goes down. She'll talk about the old guys who hang out there everyday, speculate about what Mr. Jones' son got in the mail and who that nicely dressed stranger was -- there will be a story unfolding in her entries that readers can follow from week to week, each entry will be like a chapter in a novel. And it's still going to be a little bit funny I think . . . well, some of the plot ideas I've got are kind of "off the wall" but not unrealistic in a small town, lol. The second purpose of her entries will be to impart bits of wisdom she gleans at the store every day -- general sorts of household tips like rubbing vaseline on your hands to get rid of the smell of gas, soaking ink stained coloured clothing in milk before washing to get rid of the stain, cutting through aluminum foil to sharpen your scissors, and so on. These things will be woven into the story, not just listed at the end of every entry or anything. Like she'll need to sharpen her scissors and someone will tell her what to do and then she'll write about it in her journal. There'll just be a couple per entry. I hope to keep the posts relatively brief.

So, it's a work of fiction, a story, with real household tips that people can try. And I'm going to write it anonymously (well, as Molly I guess). I've already set up the Molly blog and I'll let you know when she starts publishing. I wondered though if you had any thoughts about the idea. I was really excited about doing it and then when I mentioned it to someone they didn't seem to get it (or didn't think it was a good idea) and I almost quit before I started. . . but maybe if everyone thinks that's a silly idea, I SHOULD quit before I get started :-) So, a shout out on it either way wouldn't go astray.

Mood: Chipper
Drinking: Diet Pepsi
Listening To: Brahms
Hair: Squeaky clean and loosely knotted