The Developement of Ideas

It never fails that I'm working on one project, that another idea comes along when I'm not working on my writing. Then things will come up that remind you of the idea. They will either help enhance it or squash it.

You can't always trust what your brain is doing while you are playing with stain and polyurethane, even if you open windows some and crank up the ceiling fans. However, one idea might be fun to play with in the future.

I've been reading a lot of historical novels based on the late 1800's recently. I'm even critiquing one over at the Christian Writer's Forum. While staining the shelving system my husband built for our living room, I had one of those 'what if' moments that geared into the late 1800's society.

What if the values and some of that way of life survived all the changes of technology to exist today? A far fetched alternative reality, don't you think? Well, I kept mulling this over during my staining times and here and there.

Then I get reading Julie's post from yesterday over at the Christian Writers Forum Blog and also on her blogspot at TheSurrenderedScribe. It's about how media has affected how Generation X'ers see marriage, but it can be applied to most anything. Media plays a big part in our lives and it seems that each generation takes it to the next extreme, but then asks, "Why are kids the way they are these days?" It isn't the kids shoving the media at them, but the parents. Maybe not directly, but people the age of the parents are making this stuff and some are parents.

This brought me back around to how we lost those values from the 1800's generation by generation. Some may really be outmoded, but others are timeless and should have never been lost. So what if they did not change as technology advanced? I'm right back to my 'what if' I started with, and without the stain fumes. I may not write about this idea this year due to other projects and ideas in the works, but this is one that will be mulled over and at least played with in my idea book. Who knows, it might bloom into an interesting alternate reality book or it might stay forevermore in the realms of ideas only. Time will tell.