I always tell my students that mistakes and catastrophes make the best stories. "Nobody wants to read about how you get straight A's without even trying!" I say. "Give us a little conflict! Give us some struggle!"
That's why I was kind of enthusiastic when one of the young writers in my class said that she was thinking of writing about the time she dropped a whole bowl of mashed potatoes in her friend's backpack.
This potato dropper is kind of popular, and her friend happened to be in the class, as were a couple of witnesses to the accident. They all started to recount the incident enthusiastically.
"That was soooo funny," said one.
"How did you even clean your backpack out?" asked another.
"I just scooped them out as best I could," the victim laughed. "There's probably some still in there."
"I just don't know what lesson I learned, though," the author sighed. "Don't drop your mashed potatoes? That's not very interesting."
"It's not a universal message," I agreed.
"I guess I could make it Be more careful," she suggested with a frown, "but I don't really like that one either.
I looked at her good-natured friend and her potato-sodden book bag. "How did she react?" I asked. "Was she mad?"
"No!" said the writer. "Not at all."
"I pretty much just laughed," confirmed the other student.
"Some people might get pretty upset about something like that," I shrugged. "Maybe there's a lesson in that."
The girl thought a moment. "I think I'll just write about the perfect chocolate cake I made," she said.
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