I See Dragons

How this writer views the world

Dragon image credit: Michael Paylor. Used with permission.

I sometimes wonder if those of us who write fiction have minds inherently different from those who don’t, or if we just train ourselves to look at the world a little differently, and maybe a little more often and closely.

We all sometimes notice images in clouds. I actively look for them. I didn’t take this picture; my son Michael sent it to me. I see a dragon in those wisps of cloud. A story about that dragon may appear some day in another post.

The image above is the upper corner of a floor tile. I see numerous images in it. The first is a Casper-like ghost, pointing to his right (our left). If I look at it the right way, I can see a face with either a helmet or a hood. Within Casper’s head, near the mouth, I see an alien face. The part that makes up the arm can also be seen as a horse’s head, with the mouth open.

I’m curious as to whether or not others pick up on what I like to call “found images.” Not all writers are so visually prompted to write, but I think a lot are. Some, like my friend, Jolene, are visual artists as well and create their own artwork for their stories. Alas, my skills in that department end at malformed stick-people.

While I love “found images,” I’m just as drawn to images from other sources. I have the beginnings of an outline for a novel, based, believe it or not, on a fridge magnet. To be fair, I think it’s a pretty cool magnet.

You might think, looking at the picture, that the story will be a fantasy, but it’s a straight-up science fiction, tentatively titled Earth Jump.

I wrote a novel that stemmed from a picture I no longer have, depicting a blue jay looking at its reflection in water. It accompanied a small article on blue jays holding funerals (in fact, all corvids do, apparently).

It led to a scene, which led to the novel. Here’s the beginning of the scene, as I first envisioned it.

“Birds hold funerals too.”

“What?” I looked up from our mother’s grave, scanned the faces surrounding us, surrounding her. Too few now.  So few of us left.

“Well, they did, when there still were birds. I read about it.” Audie’s pale face looked wistful, rather than sad. “When a blue jay died others would call out to alert the whole area, and they would gather around the dead bird.” She looked up at me, her grey eyes dry. “I feel sorry for the last blue jay. No one would have mourned him.  Morrow, you’ll gather for me, won’t you? I don’t want to die unmourned.”

In the final version, Morrow became Audie’s husband, rather than her brother, and she morphed into the main character, with the story told from her point of view. That story became The Hundred (I swear, the television series didn’t exist when I wrote this book).

Images aren’t the only place I find stories, though. Those of you who have subscribed to Fiction in 50 have seen some of the word-prompt stories I’ve written. I love prompt challenges, as well. And sometimes crazy ideas just crop up in my head. The YA science fiction-fantasy crossover series I’m currently writing started as an idea that, after talking to my son, Michael (I often bounce ideas off him), morphed into something far afield from my original idea.

I’m not sure if my brain works in a different way from non-writers. I don’t think so. I really believe almost anyone can write if they persevere and allow their imagination to kick in. The first stories might not be very good (in fact, they rarely are), but writing regularly and studying the craft, as well as reading a lot, make everyone’s writing better. And noticing things? That’s just practice.

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