The story that popped from a pineapple tin

This is the tale of a wacky idea for a kids’ story. It was an idea that seemed to pop out of nowhere. Actually (to be precise) it was an idea that popped out of a pineapple tin.

You see, one day I was at home, trying really hard to write a new kids’ story. But I couldn’t think of one new good idea. It was extremely depressing. No matter how hard I tried to make a new idea come into my head, it just wouldn’t. I fidgeted, I squirmed at my desk, I looked out the window in case an idea was just flying by (sometimes that works). But … nothing. Finally, I got up from my chair and began wandering sadly around the house. There was nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing.

I wandered into the kitchen, and then I saw it … a pineapple tin with a rip-pull lid sitting on the kitchen bench. It was an ordinary-looking pineapple tin. It was sitting there because we were going to make ham-and-pineapple pizzas later in the week.

But it got me suddenly thinking. What if? ...What if? And then I had my idea (because my mind works in funny ways). What if I opened up the tin and there weren’t any pineapple pieces in there? What if—instead—there were two tiny aliens in silver space suits.

Then it all came in a rush. I had my story idea. It was about a little girl making pizza with her mum, who opened up a tin of pineapple (with its rip-pull lid) and found two tiny aliens in shiny silver space suits who were extremely grateful to get out. (Apparently the aliens had crashed their tiny spaceship into a pineapple factory on Earth, and had been accidentally canned by mistake.) The end of the story would be about how the girl figured out a way to get the aliens back to the pineapple factory so they could find their spaceship. Wow. I hadn’t been expecting that story to suddenly pop into my head.

I ended up calling the story “Pizza, Special Delivery”. It was about 1800 words long. I typed it all up, and I sent it to the editor of a kids’ magazine (called The School Magazine). The editor emailed me back (I’ve still got the email). She said, “I just read this story and it’s delightful … I must say you have a real knack at making the incredible credible; keep 'em coming,” which I thought was very nice, although I knew that, actually, it was all because of the pineapple tin on the kitchen bench.

I often think of that pineapple tin. For me, it showed that story ideas can come from the oddest places. You just have to look at things with new eyes.