By the title, you can probably guess that there will be some pimping going on in this post. You would be right, but that isn’t the sole purpose of the post.
The good folks at Every Photo Tells have a very interesting premise for their short story podcast. Every month they post a new photo on the site as inspiration for all us writers. Authors are encouraged to write a story (between 1,000 and 5,000 words) based on the picture and send it in. If the story is accepted, they do an edit and podcast it.
I’ve been meaning to do this for some time but always managed to miss the deadline. This past month I finally wrote a story and sent it in. It will be posted on their site this week.
I like the premise of this whole thing. Pictures can mean different things to different people so, when presented with the same image, you will almost always get stories that are completely different. In fact, the stories people write may not even be in the same genre.
A question I sometimes get (and I know other authors get too) is where do I get my ideas? The simple answer is, everywhere. In songs, in scents, in people I see, situations and…pictures. I never know what will trigger a story idea.
That’s the fun thing about ideas and being a writer. Ideas are all around us. What we do with them is what is challenging and exciting.
This is the first short story I’ve written in quite a while. I always seem to be working on a novel or anthology or podcast lately and don’t make the time to write shorter fiction. Don’t get me wrong, short fiction does not equate to less important to me. I just have contracted work that has to take precedence.
I had fun writing this story. It’s different from anything I’ve written before and I am excited to share it with you all.
Update
You can find my story at: http://everyphototells.com/2013/03/episode-113-you-can-never-go-home-again/