Create a memorable scene by writing what you don’t know
To create a memorable scene, you don’t need to know everything about what’s happening or why it’s happening. Mystery makes a scene memorable. Most of the time we don’t know exactly why things happen, why people do what they do—and writing is no different. That’s why we say “write what you don’t know” . . . just as Steve Glovsky did in this piece written in 10 minutes, to the prompt of Trey Speegle’s image “The Future Was Better.” I first heard Steve’s piece over a year ago in our Saturday Prompt of the Week zoom session, and it has stayed with me. A memorable scene indeed!
If you’d like to explore using random prompts to build memorable, scenes, join us any Saturday for our Prompt of the Week gathering. The Zoom link is on our homepage: click here.
I don’t like shit shows, but here we were floating on an unlikely cement island somewhere in Tunica on the upstairs deck drinking cocktails, and an old face had just glanced at us before jumping over the railing and into the bog below. Jumped right in, and when she hit the water, the bog pulled her in with passion like the trees had claw roots and we all just watched. She seemed to slip time, if you will, water, water was everywhere around this strange casino, and we viewed, numbed by alcohol.
I bet that old face came with hopefulness, pulled the slots for hours, probably had her cup filled with quarters at some point. I wonder if she was drunk when she jumped. Or maybe just depressed. No foresisters telling her not to look for it in a shot glass or a bucket of coins, no foresight either unless she planned it all out. If she did, it seemed like painting by the numbers: upset, drunk, over the railing, and into the drink. She probably knew she’d sink.
Never really know with bogs though, they have that impressionistic view, filled with God knows what, naked trees, shrubs, bushes, peat. Never know how deep. Rotting stuff, living stuff, simultaneously rejuvenating. Nature shows us birth and death. Something magical in nature.
Not in that old face. She had made a map to nowhere. She wasn’t climbing out of the bog. She had sunk like a cement block. Slipped time. Dust in the leaves.
Let the Imaginative Storm inspire you! You can find an archive of great writing prompts on the Imaginative Storm Circle and on our YouTube channel, as well as daily prompts on Instagram @imaginativestorm).
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