In this month's Insecure Writer's Support Group post I say that art is a great starting place for a story.

Are you participating in the Insecure Writer's Support Group? If the answer is "No," then I think you should go HERE and sign up. Each month, the Insecure Writer's Support Group gives a bunch of people who sign-up, a platform to talk about writing or writing-related topics. You can choose to do a writing-related blog entry, or you can answer the "Question of the Month." This is what I usually do, and the February "question of the month" is quite interesting.

February 5 question: Has a single photo or work of art ever inspired a story? What was it and did you finish it?

When I was still in high school, I saw the below picture in a book. The artist was Michael Whelan, and I stared at the scene for a while, conjuring up stories of a world where a city fell from the sky. You never see one like this in fiction, you know? The cities are always flying...never one in ruins and lying upon the earth.

I never finished the story, because it was mostly just uncollected thoughts jotted down in a notebook about a post-apocalyptic world of fantasy, where the survivors could see evidence of a bygone age all around them, in ruins (like this fallen sky city). Knowing what I know now of genres, I'd probably make it a steampunk story were I to revisit this thing.

I think art is a great place to inspire an author to write. We are such visual creatures, aren't we? Thanks for stopping by.