Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Getting Ideas For A Story



This is a shot taken in Fort Morgan in Alabama. What's inside that doorway? Only the author knows for sure.







Each author has a particular element of surprise to convey to his/her readers. In short stories that element of surprise has to be quickened in one way or another. There really isn’t much time to dally around with objectives that may keep the author from getting right to the point. In a novel however, we have the chance to sift out every possible plot and/or circumstance that may very well be a very important part of the overall story.

In this case it’s a doorway that’s pitch black inside. Pictures sometimes give us ideas and certain thoughts. By ‘us’ I mean writers and authors to be exact. What exactly could happen to a person who would dare to walk into that room alone? What terrible fate could await an unwary visitor who happened to wander away from the rest of the crowd? In our minds we must visualize the facts and fantasies that bombard our brains and turn them into something that people would actually care to read.

It doesn’t really have to be a creature of some kind. It could be someone totally human, but someone who has slipped off the deep end as we sometimes say. They were pushed to the limits of their sanity. When we think of dark places, we often think of vampires and ghosts. What better place for a vampire to hide during the day. Would some visitor find them out? Would anyone believe that this being actually existed? Once again, it’s up to the writers to pinpoint that individual thought.

Many people complain about not having any ideas about a story they would really like to write. Pictures have a way of bringing that imagination part of the brain to full light. A closer look at one of those photos and something inside that skull has to click.

Hm! Picture that!