But read in reverse (from bottom to top), the tone transforms. Read forward, the poem has a pessimistic tone. Several years later, I was determined to write a story in a format based on the poem “Lost Generation” by Jonathon Reed. But I could never get it quite right (now I see why-another benefit of re-reading these long-filed away stories).

I wrote it, revised it, and re-wrote it many times. It involved a girl, her stand-in robot grandmother, and her actual grandmother who lived very far away. The failed story was called GRANDMA ROBOT. Our necessarily infrequent visits always began with shyness and always ended with not wanting to say goodbye. It’s the story of my own experience growing up with a grandmother who lived in a different country. The central concept, one of the growing relationship between a girl and her long-distance grandmother and ancestral culture, is close to my heart. My picture book AMAH FARAWAY, publishing next year by Bloomsbury, began as a failed story. Elements from these stories could be the inspiration for something new, something fresh, something fantastic. Just because a story didn’t work as a whole doesn’t mean it has no value. a story element, when woven together with other elements from other failed stories, that could be made into an entirely new story?.a phrase, a metaphor, some dialogue, or a description-perhaps insignificant to the failed story-that could become the nugget of a new story?.a concept or problem that still resonates with you?.a fantastic world that doesn’t shine because the others story elements didn’t work?.a side character that deserves a story of their own?.a character you love but just wasn’t in the right story?.

They are the stories we shelved, never intending to read them again. They are stories that are still unfinished puzzles, stories that were never quite right, stories that weren’t marketable enough, stories that never found the right champion. These may range from stories that never left your computer (or notebook) all the way to stories that went on submission but were never acquired. If you’re like me, you have tens if not hundreds of partially written and even finished stories. Today, instead of focusing outward for a source of inspiration, I’m focusing inward-on our own failed and discarded stories. But one thing that invigorates me, even during times like these, is the promise of a new story idea. My creative energy, like my time, has been sapped. By my kids being home twenty-four seven (hello distance learning!).

Amah Faraway by Margaret Chiu Greanias