Do Simple Ideas Ever Get Published?

by Daniel Ausema

The first thought that comes to mind is that there are no simple ideas. Any idea, no matter how simple on the surface, has the potential to become much more once you start looking at it more closely. So a part of being a writer is training myself to see that, to discern the wrinkles and crevices in that simple surface.

Beyond that, there are two seemingly contradictory impulses that I try to cultivate in myself. The first is not to dismiss any idea right away. A story kernel--or for that matter, any idea for creating depth and detail within the story--might initially seem too ridiculous to take seriously. Often those ridiculous things turn out to be just what the story needs, if I just look at them sideways. Whether you want to think of it as a muse or something mystic or the role of the subconscious, the story often benefits from taking what seems silly or simple and just accepting that for the moment, filing it back into my mind, and then asking the question, "And then what?" It's like the classic improv comedy guideline: you never say "no," but always say "yes, and..." Take what you're given or what you come up with and then run from there.

At the same time, the second impulse I try to develop is to reach for the second or third idea. Sometimes the obvious, first thought is a dead-end after all, one that will leave the idea as simple as it seemed at first. Always reaching, always asking one more question after I think that I've solved a plot tangle. This doesn't have to be an agonizing, second-guessing sort of slog. A writing group I'm part of will often have intense one-hour writing prompts, and often the stories that come from it that I'm most pleased with are the ones where I ignore the first thing that comes to mind and reach for that idea just beyond it, the one that pushes the story a little further and more unexpected than I'd first imagined.

And always beneath (or above?) it all is an open curiosity. It's where the ideas, simple or not, come from in the first place and where the development of those ideas finds its traction. I'm deliberately and insatiably curious about all manner of things--people and plants, social customs and geological structures--and that curiosity gives the raw material for all sorts of stories.

Daniel Ausema has a background in journalism and experiential education and is now a stay-at-home dad. His fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous publications, including two issues of Penumbra. He lives in Colorado, a land of micro-brews, river rafting, and mountain wildfires.

Learn more about Daniel Ausema on his blog. Stay connected on Facebook and Twitter.

Tangrams And Storytelling by Daniel Ausema

I suspect it's no surprise to those who've read "The Square That Hides a Thousand Stories" that the story was inspired, in part, by tangram puzzles. Sometimes you'll see tangrams referred to as a storytelling device, and one fanciful history of the puzzle from a hundred years ago claimed (with no evidence) that the puzzle originated over 4000 years ago as a gift from the god Tan. Neither claim is reflective of the puzzle's actual history. Most reports I can find suggest that the puzzle was invented--as a puzzle, not a storytelling device--in China in the 18th century. It's possible that it predates those first references by some years, and it certainly has antecedents in a variety of sources in the preceding centuries, but it is vanishingly unlikely that it dates back thousands of years (and there is no evidence of the supposed god Tan).

Yet the idea of such an ancient origin entertained me, and the tangram is used today in school classrooms as a storytelling device as well as a mathematical manipulative. So I started with the idea that the puzzle (or something similar to it) truly was that old and that its original purpose was for telling stories. And if that old...then likely it would have spread to many other places in antiquity as well, and inspired local legends wherever it ended up. So that is how this story came about.

Editor's note--Daniel Ausema's story The Square That Hides A Thousand Stories, is in Penumbra's inaugural issue, available now at www.musapublishing.com.

Penumbra Cover First Issue

Penumbra's first issue is set!

For our inaugural arts-themed issue, which goes on sale October 1, we've selected a group of fantastic authors. Larry Ivkovich's story The Turin Effect is our featured story. We also have Butterfly by Tom Brennan, The Square That Hides a Thousand Stories by Daniel Ausema, Vivid Rendering by David G. Blake, and Inked Upon Thee by Courtney Crites.

We selected these stories from a pool of over three hundred outstanding submissions, and are proud to kick off Penumbra with such a talented group of writers.

You can pre-order Penumbra's first issue on the Musa Publishing site beginning September 1, 2011 at the Musa Publishing website at www.musapublishing.com. You can also subscribe to Penumbra, which will be published monthly, at the same site.