Your Most Random Writer's Fodder Moment
Posted: September 20th, 2011, 4:28 pm
I just discovered a dead mouse in my poolhouse. (The poolhouse is really a small shed attached to the house that encloses my therapy pool.) Less than a foot away was a dead tarantula. The tarantula wasn't a big deal, just curled like all spiders do in death and probably only the size of a silver dollar. The mouse, though, was a skeleton with fur. Maggots crawled all over it. I couldn't smell it, thank goodness, but it definitely ranks on my Most Disgusting Finds Ever list.
Now, I'm a sissy when it comes to dead things. I look on with interest when we find a rattlesnake in the driveway but run inside when my husband kills it. I don't do dead things. They creep me out on a basic, human level.
But I scooped this mouse up (with a broom and my long-handled pool net) and valiently carted it to the garbage can.
Most people would call that a day. Yay, a new story to tell to my niece and nephews to make them go "eeewwwwww". But I'm a writer. I now have a great reference for finding sudden death. I know the visceral reaction to it. I can see it in my mind's eye, so now I can write it better.
For others, it's a moment. For writers, it's now the "know" in "write what you know."
I've had several moments like this over the years. I've listened while a tree fell in the forest. I've been shocked by the death of a loved one and healed emotionally by the love of my life. I've had a life-changing medical diagnosis. I've stood outside in the middle of the night while the house across the street exploded. I've seen lightning strike a tree 50 feet away. I've sat in a minivan while a monsoon turned our street into a river and we floated instead of drove. I've ridden a camel through Petra, the site of the amazing Treasury (the gorge and ediface carved in stone used in Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade).
These are my writer's fodder moments - the amazing details I've experienced that make my writing unique, memorable, visceral, and emotional.
What are your favorite (or most amazing, or most random) writer's fodder moments?
Now, I'm a sissy when it comes to dead things. I look on with interest when we find a rattlesnake in the driveway but run inside when my husband kills it. I don't do dead things. They creep me out on a basic, human level.
But I scooped this mouse up (with a broom and my long-handled pool net) and valiently carted it to the garbage can.
Most people would call that a day. Yay, a new story to tell to my niece and nephews to make them go "eeewwwwww". But I'm a writer. I now have a great reference for finding sudden death. I know the visceral reaction to it. I can see it in my mind's eye, so now I can write it better.
For others, it's a moment. For writers, it's now the "know" in "write what you know."
I've had several moments like this over the years. I've listened while a tree fell in the forest. I've been shocked by the death of a loved one and healed emotionally by the love of my life. I've had a life-changing medical diagnosis. I've stood outside in the middle of the night while the house across the street exploded. I've seen lightning strike a tree 50 feet away. I've sat in a minivan while a monsoon turned our street into a river and we floated instead of drove. I've ridden a camel through Petra, the site of the amazing Treasury (the gorge and ediface carved in stone used in Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade).
These are my writer's fodder moments - the amazing details I've experienced that make my writing unique, memorable, visceral, and emotional.
What are your favorite (or most amazing, or most random) writer's fodder moments?