Story Shorts – Side Hustle or Procrastion?

My friend used to re-life items she’d find curbside. Her talent lies in this area; she has made some good money by turning old footstools to cat beds, sweaters into Autumn pumpkins, and wooden boxes into storage chests.

I’m not very creative when it comes to such things. I have to have gotten an idea from something I saw somewhere else and only then can I try to replicate it. I simply cannot look at something and see its future like she can.

However, once she presents me with the ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures of her creations, I can wrap a fictional story around them, so we decided to collaborate this into a unique part of the sale of her items. She would create something and I’d come up with a short story about it and print it on a card to be included with the sale.

Now that she’s no longer doing this, I wonder how I could implement this idea into other avenues of my own life? The ‘what if’s’ are flying this morning as I sip my coffee – I have a story brewing in my head about the lighthouse pictured in the artwork I have on my wall, as well as one of the shadowy reflection I see in the blank television screen from across the room. 

How’s that imagery for my own morning writing prompt, and is it a(nother) way for me to avoid working on my work-in-progress stories?

Perhaps I need to jot down some details into my ‘story ideas’ notebook and move on to the Western I’m trying to finish?

Must…have…more…coffee…