Last week, my husband and I took our children camping for a few days with some friends from church at a State park about an hour away. We had all had a blast, and it was a wonderful time of fellowship and refreshing.
The puddle in the picture on the left was there all week. To most of us, that puddle wasn’t anything spectacular. It’s a puddle that’s formed in a low spot where who knows how many bikes have cut through the grass right there.
But to my four year-old daughter? That puddle was magical. The very first time she set eyes on this puddle, she excitedly exclaimed that she’d found a dinosaur footprint.
We had to pass this puddle every time we trekked up to the bathroom, and every time my daughter was in fresh raptures over that ‘footprint’. She wondered how big the dinosaur was, and where it was now. She was so excited.
In other words, she saw something mundane and ordinary and her imagination made it truly special and unique.
I’ve thought about her and that puddle a lot since last week. Without imagination, this world would be a colder, grayer, boring place. On the practical side of things, we’d have far fewer conveniences or advancements, but on the soul side of things? Wow, would life be bleak.
Imagine life with no music or art or books—any of the creative things that require imagination. It doesn’t strike me as much fun.
Honestly, half the fun of writing is taking something mundane and ordinary and looking at what it could be or might be. (The other half is the sheer joy of creating. grin)
My daughter’s dinosaur footprint was a great reminder about the importance of imagination and how even something as simple as a puddle can spark a great story.
Speaking of mundane things sparking the idea for a story, a while back an old tree covered in vines gave me the idea for a short story. I passed this tree every time I left our house, and even though I knew it was a tree, the vines covering it made it look like an oddly-shaped old statue. The idea of a vine-covered statue sparked The Vorovian Vine Crisis. (Which is currently being offered as a funding reward in the Kickstarter I’m running for Blowback, Finder Book 5.)
And speaking of Kickstarter…
Blowback’s campaign has four days left!
We are so close to funding and getting everybody not only early access to Blowback itself, but also a copy of The Vorovian Vine Crisis. (And if we manage to hit a stretch goal, everybody gets another free short story as well!)