Starting Point

The timing of writing this, National Geographic is broadcasting their Shark Fest and Discovery’s Shark Week is coming up right after, some of my favourite shows. Been fascinated by sharks most of my life.

However, what does that have to do with starting points? Camera angles. The calm emptiness above the waterline and then a dip below and BOOM there’s a shark in your face. It gets me all the time. I watch through squinted eyes and still jump. An overused angle for some movies, lately, but still works.

All this has put a creep into my imagination. The emotion that it brings out in me and how could I incorporate that into writing. Not a water setting, but the feel of it.

Writers need more than story inspiration and notes. We need the prompt for characters, relationships, settings and feel, plus the emotions we want to invoke. Yes, settings can have a feel to them.

Take a foggy field. Add emotion via description or character or dialogue and you’ve got… Sadness. Haunting. Mysterious. Magically/Fantasy. Sensual?  ???

Your waterline could be the garden maze, the opening of a door, a window and its ledge. Simply walking into a room with two doorways can have a chill…walk in as walking out.

And…and…I’ve lost my train of thought and it was a pretty good one. Something basement, creak, shadow, mirror…nope, not coming back.

Maybe next time. Sorry to close off so abruptly, but my mind’s drawing blanks. Time to p…again, an interruption from life and the thought leaves me.