
Back in the day, when doing research for a story or essay or whatever, I would get me to the library. And I loved it.
I would fill my little corner with books and bits of paper with card catalog numbers written on them. I might jump on the computer but that was rare. Maybe to see if a book I needed could be had somewhere else...or even delivered via interlibrary loan (1).
But today I am not surrounded by library books. Sure there are notes and bits of paper (2) but my research is happening online.
And when one is researching online and writing on deadline one is also prone to wandering off. At the library this didn't happen.
Okay, maybe there would be a break where The Art Historian and I would devise a new and inventive way of smuggling Starbucks into the stacks...but that was it.
You were there for a purpose. You had work to do. It was a library (3).
Here at home breaks are too easy.
Breaks where I check in on sites like Book Ninja and discover brilliant ideas like Significant Objects.
Intrigued?
I was.
Significant Objects is a site where writers take something that they've found in a charity shop or secondhand store and write a piece of fiction about it. The object and the story then go up for bid.
So you'd get an object and a "secondhand story."
Yes. I just made that up.
What?
Okay. Fine.
Back to work (4).
1. Making the arrival of said book a bit like an unscheduled geek Christmas.
2. Because that's how I roll.
3. That could really have used a Starbucks.
4. But you just know someone came up with Significant Objects during a break.