The left has written books and done little short vignette movies about assassinating George W. Bush. And once again, for all the CNN fear running around about violence against journalists, the only people I've seen picking up guns is Democrats aiming at Republicans.
Keep a diary, but don't just list all the things you did during the day. Pick one incident and write it up as a brief vignette. Give it color, include quotes and dialogue, shape it like a story with a beginning, middle and end—as if it were a short story or an episode in a novel. It's great practice. Do this while figuring out what you want to write a book about. The book may even emerge from within this running diary.
I was interested in cross-pollinating the two. I thought there was something lovely in the little vignette forms. I wanted to explore that.
Remember: a story is not a vignette. It has a beginning, middle and an end. It is not merely a snapshot in time.