Where Will Curiosity Lead You

The Powerful Paragraph

As I was brainstorming ideas for a new short fiction story, I decided I wanted the main character’s name to be Lizzie. But once that name got stuck in my head, I couldn’t stop thinking about Lizzie Borden. As is usually the case with my curiosity, I decided to follow it not truly knowing what I wanted to do with the information once I found it. I spent several days researching the Lizzie Borden case and in doing so, learned about the negative effects of morphine, that Halloween came to America from Ireland in the late 1800s, and that self-sealing envelopes were invented in the mid-1800s. I became fascinated by all of the small side topics that came up as I continued to look into her case. While much of the information I found was helpful to learning the context of life in the late 1800s, I doubt much of it will be useful in my next story - or maybe it will be. That’s the beauty of following your curiosity. You never know what you’ll find, and you never know how your discoveries will benefit you in the future.