The Place For My Writers Notes

An exercise for the fun of it. Here's the basic notion. As you are aware, there are various sayings, clichés, quotations, etc. that bounce around in our little noggins. For example, "a stitch in time . . ." well, you know how that ends, right?

So what do you do with something like this? You might start by thinking about its background. What could this phrase mean? In the case of the stitching, I suspect it points to the desirability of early repairs. When a shirt or something starts to tear, stopping the tear with a single stitch can avoid having to put in multiple stitches late. So fixing something at the first sign of a problem avoids the growth of the problem, requiring extensive renovations and resources at a later date. Or, as the saying goes, "a stitch in time saves nine."

One of the modern games to play with phrases is to toss it into a search engine. See what Google has to say about "a stitch in time saves nine." Idioms, proverbs, the New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy - and there's a cross-reference to "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Plenty of fun and games to mix in.

Another approach is to consider some slightly variant readings. A science fiction fan might wonder about a literal stitch in time, connecting this point in space-time with that point in space-time. Or what about the stitch in your side? How could that change things? Of course you can add various possibilities for the nine. What items does the nine refer to? And how does a stitch in time saves nine iPods, anyway? Or the  inevitable misreading - a snitch in time? A scritch in rhyme? Saves mine? Go ahead, let the word warp and see what you find.

Finally, of course, we might consider using this as a bit of story bait. The theme of the story might very well focus on the saying (or perhaps one of those variants you were playing with?). Or perhaps the story focuses on what happens when people ignore the saying. After all, if you don't make stitches in time, you'll need nine!

So - go to your nearest proverb collection, quote site, or whatever. Or just pull one out of your head. And then consider the background (you can even look it up if you want to), check out the search engine threads, let your synapses fold, spindle, and mutilate the phrase of your choice, and last but not least, consider using it for a story seed.

And you were going to be bored!