Using The Junk in Your Trunk

To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk. Thomas A. Edison


I’ve been a writer since I can remember. From the time those black squiggly lines on a page started to mean something to me I’ve loved words. Mama couldn’t afford to pay for kindergarten for me. My first babysitter was an elderly Creole lady who couldn’t read or write. Learning the ways to fight off voodoo spells isn’t exactly in line with recommended early childhood education! My mother tried to make up for the lack of pre-school attendance. Mama worked as a housekeeper for a wealthy family. No money to buy books either, right? But the rich folks had a library that they regularly re-stocked. Sometimes they even threw out books. Well, they thought they did. My mother gave those poor things a home. Even better she would clean the attic and find more gems, what were probably rare books got dusted off and brought to our little shotgun house on America Street. No kidding, that’s the name of the street where I grew up. Anyway, Mama worked hard, but she still found time to read to me as a toddler. As I got older and she had to work longer hours I was on my own. She didn’t have the time, energy or patience to screen all the books so I started getting a real education. See a lot of the books contained “material not suitable for younger audiences” as they say. I figured out real fast to keep my mouth shut about the stuff I was learning! As a consequence I developed a love for all kinds of books and a wide-ranging curiosity about a diversity of subjects. Thus began the collection of “junk” that would serve me well as a writer.

God in his wisdom decided that I would be born poor, female and black in a world not kind to that combination. On the other hand he plunked me down in a big family of colorful, eccentric storytellers. So my love of words extended beyond those on the page. Not only that, but I landed in a poor neighborhood full of more wonderful characters and drama. Honestly, I’m sure I won’t be able to use all the great “junk in my trunk” even if I spend a lifetime of writing stories. I witnessed all the classic plots play out just by sitting on our front porch in the summer or visiting relatives.

Sure, books on writing, conference workshops, networking, critique groups and even reader input enriches us authors. But don’t forget the “junk in your trunk”. Edison’s words struck a huge chord with me. All I did was substitue the word “write” for “invent” in the quote above and it perfectly describes my writing process in one sentence. Non-writers will always ask how we come up with stories out of thin air. Ah, that’s where imagination comes in. As writers imagination applied to the same “junk” non-writers see transforms the ordinary into a character, a plot, an entire novel. So collect junk- piles and piles of it. The junk in your trunk may just help you out of a creative bind someday.

One thing though- if your office or house become a mess don’t tell your significant other that Lynn Emery told you junk up the place. I said collect junk, I didn’t say you had to turn into Fred Sanford

Lynn Emery
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