Saturday, September 6, 2014

collectors




I’m curious about people who collect things. While I was at an SCBWI writing conference this summer, author/illustrator Judy Schachner described her creative process as an act of collecting. She creates characters by collecting and collaging images. I love this idea! So much, I began to search the Internet for things that people collect. Here’s a few of my favorites:

alarm clocks
baseball cards
bumper stickers
coins
Cracker Jack prizes
dried flowers
garden gnomes
guitars
insects
lunch boxes
marbles
mason jars
rocks
sea shells
stickers
t-shirts
vinyl records

Another thing I’d like to add to this list is... words. That’s what I collect.

In third grade, I started my first journal. Since then, I’ve accumulated dozens of journals, filled with thousands and thousands of words. Interestingly enough, I rarely reread what I’ve written. I don’t keep the journals to look over my past. Instead, I keep them because they mark time. I look at the big stack and see the years I’ve lived and the things I have inside me.

How about you? Are you a collector? What do you collect?

3 comments:

  1. Love this post. I, too, collect words . . . and have journals that I don't reread . . . I see them as 'insurance'--in case I ever run out of words. :))

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  2. Such a great list! We are newly moved to France and one of my daughters has started collecting old marbles. Gives her something fun to look for when we go hunting at vide greniers!

    ps- Is that last comment from Sharon Creech ... as in the author Sharon Creech? How fantastic!

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