At bedtime, I make up stories to lull my children to sleep. Often times, I’ll rewrite favorite movies on the fly to make them kid-friendly. My children don’t know that they’re movies, they just think I’m a master-storyteller.

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When I’m not stealing from screenwriters, I actually do make-up stories to help ease the time before lights-out. And occasionally, I’ll tell one that has… something. And this is how the story of the bird and the tire swing began.

 

I told it. and then I kept retelling it, editing it and refining it as I did. Then one night, as I told it, a nice ending came to mind…An ending that motivated me to start drawing pictures to go along with the words. And here we are.

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So my recommendation is to buy it, read it, memorize it, then pass it off like you wrote it. 

In my experience, this is usually followed by great creative inspiration. 

- jbn