Saturday, May 21, 2011

A Perfect Storm

Hi, folks, I'm still reading a crazy number of essays, so a short and sweet post for the week. Last night the sky was on fire with lightning. Flashes lit every second, Rumbling was punctuated with cracks. Rain sprayed down like a shower on high. It was a perfect storm.

My favorite stories mirror thunderstorms. In the beginning the air is thick, sultry. The birds are chirping. It's quiet, too quiet. Flashes of lightning pop on the horizon as the storm rolls in. This is quick. It only lasts a small fraction of time compared to the storm. The next part of the storm is wild and unpredictable full of light and thunder. It rises to a wild crescendo and then ebbs off with random lightning strikes.

Bring something of thunderstorm in to your work this week. If your writing is a gentle rain, see if you can get a little storm going. A thunderstorm of a story is hard to put down. Inject some good old-fashioned storm slant into your pages and see if it doesn't pop! See you next week with more encouragement to seize the day.

Here is a doodle I call "Splashes Against the Page."



Here is a quote to keep you revising.

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.Winston Churchill

5 comments:

Faith Pray said...

I love your storm descriptives. I am a storm child. I may have originated in LA where everything fizzles out into a gray smuggy haze, but I like to think that I have some thunderous home somewhere that claims me as its own. Now, off to grab my storm roots and bring them into my work!

Molly/Cece said...

I hope it's a really wild storm today, Faith. I wish I were in the neighborhood and we could totally bake yummy stuff and listen to the wild wind and rain.

I can't tell you how much your notes always cheer me up. :) Molly

Vijaya said...

Love this post. Yup, it's good to have a storm in the middle to shake things up.

Kelly Hashway said...

Great description of the storm and I love your painting!

SCBWI REP said...

Hi Kelly! I hope you are brewing up your own perfect storm. I kind of like my slopped on the page art too. Though I think it's been proven elephants can do a better job.


Hug, Vijaya! I miss you.