NEW RELEASES
Inspiration Everywhere!
I saw something crazy today. I know, I know. Amylynn is talking to her computer right now because she has always been the benefactor of my crazy sightings as I drive around town for work. Every sighting usually results in a hasty cell phone call starting with, “So, you are NOT going to believe what I just saw…” and she laughs, knowing that I have been blessed with yet more character fodder for any one of several things I have brewing at any moment in time.
So what I saw today isn’t as important as why I am telling you, but for some reason, these sightings generally revolve around people I see walking along the side of the road. Which reminded me of a guy I saw a couple years ago. The visual impact that the man made on my imagination spurred an entire plot for a novel that I am still working on. But visual inspiration is all around us. Stare at someone or something just a little longer than normal. Listen in on a conversation just for fun. Let your imagination fill in the gaps. Here is just the beginning of an adventurous, suspenseful novel inspired by a guy walking along I-10 just outside of town…
It was then, walking on the shoulder of a busy highway in urine-soaked jeans, wearing a dingy wife-beater and carrying a bloody shovel that he realized he was in trouble. As if waking from a dream, things began to slowly trickle into his frame of consciousness. His next foggy realization was that the strange boots he was wearing were not his own, and were causing increasingly sharp pains in his feet. The sound of the raging traffic was startling when he heard it; the eighteen-wheelers paying him no notice. He took a second glance at the shovel, half expecting that if it had been a dream, the wooden handle would have remained in whatever sick, twisted joke his mind was playing on him. But there it still was. After a quick self check, it appeared that the blood on the shovel was not actually his. For some reason unknown to him, this realization almost made him laugh out loud.
He also apparently could not stop walking. With his gaze fixed on the quick-paced boots, he felt as though the shovel was physically moving him forward. Not that he even remembered who he was…but he started to feel like he should get off the road and head for some shade. This small hint of self-preservation made him uncomfortable, confusing him even further. Any number of people could have already called 911, and he had no idea how long he had been so dramatically walking on the gravel shoulder. Once he made the decision, he slowed his pace and looked up for the first time.
Give it a try! This was so fun, taking a visual experience and building a story around it. This was one of those sightings that Amylynn got an instantaneous call on. And then my imagination took over. Be sure that I really did see this man on the side of the road. Soiled clothing, purposeful stride and reddened shovel. In the middle of nowhere. A writer can’t let that go…
And Dear Readers, I can’t even tell you how much I look forward to these phone calls. Among my favorites were the one she mentioned, the homeless guy stealing the car at the gas station, and the man being arrested on the side of the road with a cockatiel on his shoulder. Priceless.
I know what you mean. I keep a little black book of such events. I saw this man one time that was walking like he was a dancing bear and I was so intrigued i wrote a whole story. Another time when I was working in a nursing home, I wrote a poem about a little lady poking her head out of the door. It is great fun and a wonderful way to get inspired. Thanks.
Amylynn suggested I add this story. My ex husband and I were in Parker, Arizona one hot Memorial day and as we drove along a young man was waking without a care in the world. He was carrying a magnificent walking stick and had really great boots on. That of itself does not an interesting story make–but the rest of the story is he was wearing not a stich of any other clothing. Now in my case the sunburn would have deterred me. But it was a joy to watch him on his stroll.
How about the one where she was generously handing a homeless person a five dollar bill???
Wait…..there is even a more hilarious story she told me over the phone when she took her first dog to dog training. I couldn’t even breathe I was laughing so hard yet felt her utter frustration in the entire even.
Indeed, inspiration is everywhere you look/listen. In addition to paying attention to the world around me, I collect interesting and intriguing photos from magazines and newspapers, as well as provocative words, phrases, headlines, etc., and I keep them in a file to use as prompts for when I do writing workshops. (I almost never keep the captions, as they tend to stifle the imagination from going where it will.) I have a whole series of questions the participants have to answer about the character in the photo–about 30-40 questions about every aspect of the character’s life.
It’s amazing the sort of inspiration you can get from a single photo or word or phrase, and these clippings are also wonderful tools for breaking through writer’s block, or just for simple writing practice. (I’m not talking here about keeping photos of people who look like a character I’m writing about. I’m talking about the sort of photos where you can see a whole story in their eyes, body language, clothes, setting, etc.)
Once, when I was taking Screenwriting at St. Lawrence University, we were instructed to find a newspaper article and write part of a screenplay based on it. It was a lot easier than you might think. I came up with several, including writing an entire movie from one of the articles, although my few attempts to sell it fell short.