We like to meander along unfamiliar roads and pathways. While we were travelling on the Sunshine Coast a week ago, we followed this country road until it finally ended at a private residence overlooking Jervis Inlet. Along the way there wasn’t much to see thanks to all the overhanging trees, but while we retraced the trip in the opposite direction we looked closer, and there were plenty of discoveries.
Maple Road on the Lower Sunshine Coast
Tall spikes of Foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea)
A Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) on the lookout for lunch
A patch of Oriental Poppies (Papaver orientale)
An American Robin (Turdus migratorius) enjoying the dappled sunshine
We wouldn’t have noticed any of these delights if we hadn’t been looking for something. It’s not that we were specifically looking for any of them, but simply keeping our eyes open, watching with expectation.
One of the most common questions a writer is asked is where do our ideas come from. The best answer I can come up with is “everywhere in general and nowhere in particular.” Everything has potential as story material. Whenever my hubby sees something interesting or unusual, his first response is usually, “How can I turn that into a children’s story?” Mine is, “Surely I must be able to get a writing application out of that!”
The trick is not to just move through our daily existence, but to experience each moment of it with expectation. So much is there, just waiting to be discovered!
Did you discover anything new or especially interesting last week?
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“But blessed are your eyes because they see,
and your ears because they hear.”
[Matthew 13:16]
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I discovered shingles blisters, but that wasn’t exactly a welcome discovery. Haha. I did keep an eye on a seal that was peeking out of the sea, disappearing & reappearing, and when he popped up one time, he had a fish! The two guys fishing from the rowboat nearby, however, didn’t catch a thing…
No, shingles wouldn’t be welcome at all! Hope you recover quickly. The seal discovery would be much nicer, although the fishermen probably wished it would go somewhere else and stop scaring their fish away. 🙂
As usual your photos & comments are certainly interesting & so appealing! And Shari’s discovery of “shingles”, well, been there had them…not nice.
As for those “goals” you mentioned, I wish. I’ve got some essentials worked out, But still haven’t got the writing started. And Shari I finished your book and really enjoyed it, especially because I’ve got teens involved in my Harrison & Cera epic : | just don’t know yet if it will be considered as a contemporary romance, or for the teen market.
It sounds like maybe your ‘plotting’ self is in conflict with your ‘pantsing’ self! LOL. Maybe you could decide to use those essentials like signposts and just start writing from one to the next. I’d love to see you get started … I’m anxious to read Harrison and Cera’s story!
I’ve never seen a heron in a pine tree! I’m glad you had your eyes open.