You open a door, an ordinary looking door, and walk into a room where everything is made for giants. The furniture is huge. To sit on a chair would take mountain climbing gear. To cross the carpet would be like walking through a tangled mass of weeds higher than your head. No one is in the room. It's quiet and still. On the walls you notice portraits of fairly ordinary looking people. The room is a little too warm with the massive fire burning in the fireplace on wall to your left.

What would you do? Go in and investigate or leave through the same door?

If you stay in the room continue to read. But if you leave scroll down to the next paragraph and see what happens when you make that choice.

You walk farther into the room. The fire is crackling like a forest fire. To you, it is a forest fire since even the small pieces of wood look like enormous tree trunks. Under the big couch you see something small glitter in the firelight. Taking a chance that it's not a rodent looking for a snack you explore. It turns out to be a diamond. Massive and worth a fortune if you can manage to carry it back out with you. It's heavy but it won't roll so you struggle, panting and staggering around under it's weight. But, finally you make it to the small door you came in. You open the door and half lift, half push the diamond through. Once again you are in the world you know. But now you have a diamond that will make you rich for the rest of your life.

If you leave the large sized room without exploring...

You go back through the door but you aren't where you expected to be at all. Instead everything is tiny. The room is just barely big enough for you to squeeze in all scrunched over. There is a teensy table and chairs with a miniature tea set all laid out, ready for a tea party. The table is so close to you it's almost knocked over by your knee when you wriggle around trying to get comfortable. By accident your elbow knocks a bookshelf and all the books fall down to the floor like confetti at a wedding. Picking up one book you notice your own name on the front cover. The book is a story about you! Of course, its so small you need to squint to make out the printed words inside. You realize the book is about a birthday party you had two years ago. Picking up a few other books you discover they are all about you, recording your life from the time you were born until today. There is no one around to ask about the books, how they know so much about you and who wrote them. Finding the latest, most current book you carefully turn pages until you get to the end of the writing. The journal of your life is stopped at the moment you entered this room. How curious you are now. What happens to you next?

Write about your ideal, best day. How would it start? What would you do and who would be with you? What season would it be, summer, spring, autumn or winter? Maybe you would swim and skate on the same day, skating at an indoor rink in the summer. Would you have a pack of friends over and eat birthday cake, play video games and ride horses outside? Finally, as the day is fading and the sky begins to get dark, how would your perfect day end?

Here is my perfect day, or some ideas for it. I would wake up and the sun would be pouring in my window. The wallpaper would glow in the sunshine, but it would still be really early in the morning, about 5:00 or 6:00. I would get up and wear my favourite clothes, probably jeans and a denim shirt to match. I wouldn't need to do all the boring stuff like brushing my hair and teeth, that would just be done automatically.

When I go downstairs my whole family are home, even my Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles who have died. We would have a great big breakfast, cooking and cleaned up by robot servants so that none of us would have to stop talking to pour more coffee or juice or get seconds on pancakes. The breakfast would be bacon and eggs, buttermilk pancakes, toast, homefries, and omelets. Served with coffee, tea and fresh orange juice. It would be like a weekend day so the big weekend newspapers would be there. Each of us could take a section and read a bit and chat about what we read.

When the robots cleared away all the mess from the table we would all play euchre, a card game my Grandma always used to love. The robots would keep everyone served with coffee and snacks while we played. Finally, it would be time to get outside and away from the kitchen. Everyone would go for a walk in the woods. We used to have a deep ravine behind our house when I was a kid. You could see all kinds of birds and small animals who lived in the ravine. It was a lot of fun to walk down there and see different rocks, animal holes, rotting trees, plants, wildflowers, mould and fungus on rocks and trees, sticks and the water at the bottom of the ravine too. My brother and I built kind of a fort too. There was a path at the end of our street which went through the ravine. That is where we would all walk, it would be easier for the older folks and still plenty to see.

We would come back from the walk and it would be time for most of the family to go home. Everyone would say good bye, wave and honk horns and then they would be gone. So, I would get in my car and drive over to the big bookstore to browse around the magazines and books. I really like the bookstore. Not many people that I know enjoy it as much as I do. I can spend hours in there.

But, on my perfect day I would have so much to do that I would only spend an hour there, just have a fancy coffee and skim some magazines. Check the shelves for books about writing, computers and other topics that interest me. Then I would hop in the car and go to the train station. I'd take the brand new super train and go to the west coast of Canada in just an hour. (It would have to be a super train cause the trip really takes a few days). On the coast I would finally get out to Victoria in British Columbia and see the lakes and mountains in the Okanogan. Then, I would take the super train again and go to Ottawa, Ontario and be just in time for the tulip festival. After that I would get the train back to Toronto and spend the rest of the day walking and window shopping in downtown Toronto. There is another big bookstore there too. But I'd like to wander around the Eatons Centre mostly.

When the sky became dusky I'd have a look at what movies were on downtown. If something good was coming on in the next few minutes I'd buy a ticket. If there was nothing appealing I'd pick up a coffee at The Second Cup and pick a hotel to stay at overnight downtown. For a late night dinner I could order pizza up to the hotel room or choose something else along the way. I might go to the Swiss Chalet or a fancy place where I could get a club sandwich and fries. I really like staying in a hotel, you can leave the TV on all night and watch a bit of some show or other until you fall back to sleep again. Also, hotels always have nice beds, with good mattresses. The last things I would do for my perfect day would be ordering a special coffee and dessert tray to be delivered by room service and giving myself a night of pampering with a deep conditioner for my hair and a long, hot shower.

I hope your perfect days are as good as my own.

Most of the time when we write a story its about someone who is a lot like ourselves. Could you write a story about someone who is nothing at all like you?

If you're a girl, write about a boy. If you're good in school, write about someone who doesn't do well, though they try. If you love sports, write about someone who always comes in last and never gets picked to be on the teams. If you have favourite hobbies, write about someone who has completely different hobbies. If you're parents are divorced, write about a kid who lives with both parents and maybe a Grandmother too. You get the idea. Be creative and try to think like someone else.

How would that other kid feel? Are they happy, what is good and not so good about their life? Just as there are good and bad things about your own life, there are good and bad things about everyone's life. Its not so easy to figure out what those would be.

What would that other kid do for fun? Who would their friends be? What are their favourite things at school? What books do they like to read? How do they like to dress? You can build a whole character and write a story about someone you don't even know.

I saw Chitty Chitty Bang Bang when I was a kid. It's always been one of my favourite movies. My favourite song from the movie was Hushabye Mountain. Today I looked around online for it and found the lyrics. Lyrics are the words to the song, without the music.

Could you write a lullaby? If you have younger brothers or sisters what would you write to sing them to sleep? Sometimes a lullaby is just to soothe them. Thats probably how it got the name. There is a word lull, which means to soothe, quiet or send to sleep.

Here is Hushabye Mountain if you need a little inspiration.

Hushabye Mountain

A gentle breeze from Hushabye Mountain Softly blows o'er lullaby bay It fills the sails of boats that are waiting Waiting to sail your worries away

It isn't far to Hushabye Mountain And your boat waits down by the key The winds of night so softly are sighing Soon they will fly your troubles to sea

So close your eyes on Hushabye Mountain Wave good-bye to cares of the day And watch your boat from Hushabye Mountain Sail far away from lullaby bay

Once upon a time is an old rhyme

Who said it first? that little verse

Oddly, without fail at end of every tale

They all live happily ever after

Can you write something short and poetic? Its not what I usually write. I'm not especially great at it, but it doesn't matter. Its fun to write something different. Sometimes change is a good thing.