Suzie’s House 190: Fahrenheit Inspiration

Ben read a chapter or two, then put Fahrenheit 450 down and stared into space.

“I want to write something like that,” he muttered. “Only not like that.” He stared some more. “I want to write something that good.”

He pulled his spiral notebook close. It was already open to a blank page.

What should he write? It couldn’t include any mythological figures or any farts or anything, but what was left?

He’d written plenty of stories that didn’t have any of that stuff, hadn’t he? He wasn’t sure. He pulled out the previous notebook and everything else he had, including all the homework he’d turned in and looked through it to figure out what kind of a writer he was supposed to be.

There were four stories about Greek gods, six about something he called The Glop Monster, one about a dog, and the one he’d written about him, Gene, and Mrs. D the evil teacher. Except the Mrs. D story, there wasn’t anything here that Mrs. Audrey would like. He didn’t want to show her that because it wasn’t really fiction.

Ok, so he had to write something else. But what?

He tapped the notebook with the eraser end of his pencil.

He wanted something as good as Fahrenheit 450. So… maybe he should write about books. Only that had been done. So… maybe about writing? What a great idea! He’d never read anything about writing.

So he’d write about a guy who wanted to be a writer but couldn’t think of anything to write about.

No. No, that was totally lame. It had to be something else. Maybe… maybe a writer has magic abilities. Like… like everything he writes comes true. And he writes murder mysteries!

Gah! That sounded just like a sappy movie.

He flipped the pencil and it bounced off the notebook end over end like a one of those gymnastics girls doing springy cartwheels.

Maybe that’s what he should write about. Girls. He could maybe even have a girl for the big character, the one the story was all about.

Except Mrs. Audrey was a girl, right? So she’d know more about it than he would.

Except what if he wrote about a boy instead who was interested in a girl. She could be like the smartest girl in the school and he… well he couldn’t really be the dumbest because he’d never get the girl then, but maybe he doesn’t get very good grades.

But what if he hung out with the scariest guy in the school. And that guy loved the girl too… This was good! Ben could see everything easy. In fact, he could think of a thing where the three of them get together for the first time. It could all… he picked up his pencil…. it could all be about a pencil they all try to pick up at the same time.

This was great! He grabbed his pencil and started writing. The lead broke. He tossed it aside and dug around for a mechanical pencil. There wasn’t any lead in any of them. A pen? But then what if he had to make changes?

This would be a lot easier if he could use the computers from the computer lab.

He wrote a couple of sentences in the notebook, then didn’t know what to say. Then he realized those sentences were totally lame. He marked them out. Great. The page was ruined. He ripped it out of the notebook, wadded it up, and threw it away.

This would all be so much easier if…

“Mom?” Ben wandered down to the kitchen, calling her name. “Mom, I need a computer.”

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I’m giving myself November 26th off for Thanksgiving this year. Tune in again December 3rd for the next thrilling installment of Suzie’s House.