Welcome back to toydust.com where we talk books, toys, and writing!
The correlation between books and writing is obvious, but what about toys? Why include toys with a blog about books and writing?
A good question perhaps, but here’s another one:
What happens when you play with toys?
As a kid, the first stories I created were from playing with toys. I made up dialogue between characters, gave them a problem to overcome, and while playing with siblings I tried extra hard to put comedy into our toy adventures because we loved to crack each other up.
We played with stuffed animals, Star Wars and G.I. Joe figures, Gobots and Transformers, Strawberry Shortcake figures, Smurfs, Playmobile, Fisher Price, and more. And all the while, without realizing it, I was taking the first steps of learning how to create my own stories. I was learning how to make up jokes.
To be a good writer, you need to read a lot.
Books are where we see how the pros do it. I read for enjoyment, but also to see what works and what doesn’t in terms of story structure, character development, etc.
But playing with toys is where I get to go crazy and generate new ideas for my own stories and jokes.
And when I sit at the computer to work on a new story, having read a lot of books, and having played with a lot of toys serves me equally well.
So, maybe there’s a stronger correlation between books and toys than some might think!