Writers In Motion: Week 0
Earlier today the prompt for Writers in Motion was posted. I wasn't able to focus on it until very late, so all I'll be able to do is post initial reactions. Hopefully over the next few days I'll have a stronger, more concrete reaction to the prompt.
Here's this month's WRITER IN MOTION image:
I have not done many flash or short fiction at all, let alone in response to a visual image, so this is all new for me. Let's parse it out, shall we?
It's a strong image, meant to inspire stories, ideas, and conflict. I don't have any story ideas outright, but I thought I'd react here, giving some of my first impressions.
To me, the image speaks of escape, isolation, retreat, respite, a safe house. It holds hope, promise, something beyond the mundane. It's got life all around it, space all around it, but everything within is warm, cozy, inviting. We're on the eve of Lammas or Lughnasadh, a pagan holiday of plenty, where people celebrate the first harvest. In this time, the harvest is plenty, there's an abundance of wheat, of fruit, of everything we need to sustain ourselves. But we celebrate the harvest now, not because we think this abundance will last, but because we know this moment marks the high point of our fertility, of our crop. From this moment forward, we fight against the diminishing fields, the withering wheat, the dying green. This is our moment to seize what is ours, and store it, until we need it. Lean months approach. It is only in our preparation, our anticipation of these trying moments, that we will survive.
That is not where I anticipated the prompt taking me tonight. But it seems to be where we are. I'll continue pondering these themes, these ideas, and I will see what kind of story I come up with.
I'm excited about it all, and it's been a while since I was this excited. I think this is part of what #WriterInMotion is all about.