I found a bit of inspiration courtesy of Instagram. The Happy Writers and Richard Botto of Studio 32 recently gave my account some much appreciated admiration, so I returned the favor by visiting their pages and found a most recent post to be at first intimaidating and then totally inspiring. The post was a photo of a boy and a girl with the female subject being the focus of the frame. She is thin and pale with soft lips, auburn hair and heavy eyes. The boy has his tan arm around her as she appears to be falling asleep against his chest. All we can see of him is his tan skin, emphasized by her paleness and his white t-shirt. His neck is visible as well as what might be five o’clock shadow and then the frame cuts off. The background is blurred. It is just them. This boy and this girl together. Below the caption read:
Alright writers….FADE IN. She’s your protagonist. Who is she? What’s her name? What’s going on? Who is he? Let’s color her story…..
Let’s color her story, that is a line that a lady like me cannot resist. Especially with the beckoning five dots at the end. I almost didn’t contribute though. At first I was going to when I thought only one other writer had filled out the characters in a very solid paragraph. Then I saw the additional comments. More than 20. Good comments, great descriptions, exciting details. Some of these ideas I wanted for myself. Did I want to jump in with a gaggle of writers who clearly know what they’re doing? No but I did it anyway. Creativity is about risk and the more creativity you use, the more you have. Creativity never runs out. It simply builds and builds off practice with your own craft and bubbles with time spent in other creative expressions. Before long, you’ve single handedly built a fucking pyramid with nothing but your own imagination. Additionally, there’s no real risk here. It’s an Instagram post. Sure it’s on the internet for anyone and everyone to read but I’m not baring my soul for the sake of a random photo. There is no sincere truth, this photo is not my memoir. This is nothing more than a random instance for creative practice. Describing the two characters in the photo would be nothing more than fabrication for fun. Here is what I wrote:
His name is Scott and although he has not proposed yet, this is the night he told the girl falling asleep in his arms that he wants to marry her. What he hasn’t told her is that he’s already married, to the woman who took this photo. The other woman is sitting next to them in the airport lounge. They are weary and tired as they wait for their flight home to Scotland. They have a plan and Scott’s prelude proposal to the sleepy girl was step one. The rest will take off as soon as their flight does.
Photo cred: not me
Inspired by: @thehappywriters @rbwalkintoabar and @studio32online
Mindless Peace 