It’s Day One of Storystorm 2025!

Hooray!

From PARTY ANIMALS, illustrated by Anna Raff

You remembered, right?

Did you put it on your Google Calendar?

Don’t despair if you didn’t. I admit, I’m not the most organized person, either. I suppose it’s those creative genes that make me a whirlwind, haphazard mess. Every year when I get through Storystorm, I marvel at how I accomplished organizing it. Because “Tara” and “organized” have never gone together. It’s more like “Tara” and “slapdash” around here. My husband encourages me to plan things out, but I can never get my act together.

This is why I adore Google Calendar. I can take two seconds to throw something on it and then I look like a genius. Like when I start a free trial subscription of a streaming service—I mark the calendar a few days before it expires so I receive a reminder to cancel before I get charged.

I also color-code entries. All my school visits are banana yellow so I can easily flip through the weeks and see when they’re coming up. Doctor appointments are basil green. Deadlines are tomato red.

Perhaps, like me, you play Wordle. (Allow me this quick diversion, as it does have a point.)

December 30th’s word was STARE.

And this is what I want you to add to your Google Calendar: time to stop and STARE out the window.

You see, daydreaming is typically something we do when we’re supposed to be doing something ELSE. In a boring lecture? STARE out the window. Washing the dishes? STARE out at the garden. PBS Pledge Drive interrupting your show? STARE at the ceiling.

Nobody daydreams on purpose. Yet now, I am encouraging you to SCHEDULE IT ON YOUR CALENDAR.

Time to let your mind wander and play is essential to being a creator. So why leave that precious time to chance? Pencil in an hour every week (or however often you want) to do nothing but STARE. Leave a sign on your door that says, “Working!” Because YOU ARE!

I like to STARE in specific places. Like sitting on my front porch with a cup of tea. Ahh, it’s calm and relaxing. I have no real agenda other than to let my mind be. I don’t know where it will meander, but it is inevitably someplace surprising. (But don’t be so flabbergasted that you neglect to write it down!)

So go ahead, schedule a STARE session.

Bonus is that you can color-code it in any hue you wish.

More than you want to know about Tara is here.

Tara Lazar is giving away a fiction picture book critique to one lucky Storystorm winner.

You’re eligible to win if you’re a registered Storystorm 2025 participant and you have commented only once below.

Prizes will be distributed at the conclusion of Storystorm.