Writing From a Single Image
Sometimes when I am inspired to write I am compelled by a single image in my mind. Usually something I have imagined rather than something I have seen. Something that seems to hold a story all its own. A story I want to know; to spend time in. Often, getting that image down on paper and building the rest of the story around it is how I work. I have intuitive feelings about the story just from what I see in that image. Sometimes details, sometimes the knowledge is more vague.
The image may be a setting with no visible people. Occasionally, it will be an action – one single frame of a scene. Often it is more of an inner look at one character. That one image in my mind seems to sum up the essence of the character. Other times, I know it is a misleading image and that’s what makes it interesting.
Pursuing that path. Following the story outward in all directions from that single prescriptive image becomes a rich adventure of discovery.
The image may be a setting with no visible people. Occasionally, it will be an action – one single frame of a scene. Often it is more of an inner look at one character. That one image in my mind seems to sum up the essence of the character. Other times, I know it is a misleading image and that’s what makes it interesting.
Pursuing that path. Following the story outward in all directions from that single prescriptive image becomes a rich adventure of discovery.