Stories can come from anywhere--a word, a line, a memory, a Flip Dictionary, a National Geographic photograph. Keep your imagination fed by writing with several sources on your desk. A book of poetry, chocolate, art books, architecture books, magazines, literary magazines, your poetry manuscript . . . .
Listen to a Ted Talk or let your mind drift over interesting videos ---the guy who danced his way around the world or the guys who photographed a couch in front of international monuments such as the Taj Mahal or The Eiffel Tower. Use your imagination as a focal point this time around. I mentioned Bill Stenson's story about the divorce where the husband builds himself a house in the tree across the street and watches his marriage dissolve, his wife and her lover come and go . . . it sounds preposterous in real life but in fiction, with the right declarative details, you can make it work.
Google: Ted Talk, Jill Taylor to listen to an incredible story about a neuroanatomy scientist who has a stroke and is able to watch herself have a stroke as she knows what is going on . . . and the epiphanies she draws from that experience.
Start with a line
The first thing you need to know about Jo is . . . . (We did this one in class today and I threw out the following words: bumper cars, beret Jocelyn's dad, fortune cookie, garage band, robin's egg, leprechaun, Atticus Finch, and then we finished with Really, the only thing you need to know about Jo is . . .
Use Jo or Joe.
The thing about cancer is . . .
The thing about living here is . . .
The thing about taxidermy is . . . .
And then you are off. Once I get the first image in a line, I've got a motif. Once I have a motif, I have resonance and with resonance I have character and with character, I have action.
We spoke about trying a space montage approach for this story. Shrinking or eliminating time. Think of films such as Love Actually, The Red Violin, Valentine's Day, Orozco's story, "Orientation". You remove the necessity of plot and replace it with intensity in description and action.
Stories to read for space montage ideas: Frankie's, Whitney's, Courtney's, Jesse's, Christina's, Terra's, Shan's, or Gill's.
