Finding the Spark – My Own First Story

I’m not a writer. There are people in my family who are, and to be honest, I’ve always been a bit jealous of them.

I have tried to write, but I always found it daunting—plots, world-building, character arcs, dialogue, more characters, more dialogue—what are they even supposed to be talking about?! For me, it was too much.

Then, things changed. I was having fun generating images on Midjourney, experimenting with prompts like “misfit unreal alien creatures made of stone” or “mixed media textured full body portrait robotic creature wearing organic tribal armor, natural, geometric, spiritual.” (Prompts are weird.)

The thing is… some of the resulting images were amazing, very creative, and really captivating.

Looking at some of them, I thought: These guys absolutely have a story.

After printing out a bunch of the images and separating the ones that “spoke to me” into a little pile, I selected an image that I felt had a story. I didn’t have a master plan or a plot outline, but looking at that face, I suddenly had an idea for a first sentence. I sat down and started writing. Somehow, the story just flowed.

What I came up with was only six paragraphs long, but I loved it. To me, it was a full, rich, complete story. I DID IT, and I felt really good about it!

MAYA

We felt like something was coming, something was very close, we warned the elders, and they did nothing. No efforts were made to discuss the danger we all felt we were in. But they made us feel like our lives were expendable because discussion was deemed forbidden.

I didn’t intend to cause what may, even today, be considered by some to be a catastrophe. I only wanted people to understand the situation so proper steps could be taken to remove us from to possibility of some type of extreme danger.

I had removed the protective outer gear we always wore, removed my face plate, and yelled as loudly as I could – one word – stop!

Everyone heard it, everyone stopped working. The noise of the machines stopped, and everything was quiet.

From somewhere above we could hear a strange electrified snapping, rhythmic and now very close. No one moved, everyone was listening as hard as they could.

Suddenly everyone felt a vibration and screamed. An ear-piercing sound surrounded us and the ceiling above collapsed injuring anyone standing below and damaging the great machine that we had depended on for survival over the decades. Something intensely bright poured into the room.

We covered our eyes, the brightness was too much, and we scattered as quickly as possible to the edges of the room, we had to get away, away from the large gaping hole and what looked like strange creatures moving towards us.

I thought I was in some way responsible for this, I should have made more of an effort to get people to pay attention days ago, maybe months ago. I decided right now I needed to see if I could control what happened next. I stepped forward slowly, and yelled as loud as I could – welcome!

Writing Maya made me feel amazing. A few days later, still riding my story “high,” I started shuffling through my images, wondering if I could do it again. Within a few months, I had written 12 stories, each one born directly from one of my images. They aren’t perfect by any means, and they certainly aren’t grammatically flawless, but they are mine, mine, mine. It felt wonderful to create them.

After thinking about the writing process and how one image was able to get me doing something I’ve wanted to try for a long time, I thought there had to be other visual people who might like to give this a try. With that in mind, I created a site for anyone looking for creative, original images to use as inspiration for a story. I called it CreativeStorySparks.com. It’s not overwhelming with thousands of images, just a curated little group that I update when I have some new images to share.

But I knew I could take it one step further.

While I might not be a traditional creative writer, I have worked in advertising and marketing for many years. As a designer, combing through thousands of images to find the right one for an ad campaign is a part of the job. I have spent years training my eye to look for color, atmosphere, and emotional value. It’s something I’m practiced at, but I realized most people haven’t had that training.

So I thought about how I could use that experience to help others who want to write but are having trouble getting started. The idea is to demonstrate how a single image can act as a springboard for any size or type of story—whether you’re trying to write your first story like me, break through writer’s block, write a scene for a movie, or any narrative.

That idea led to this site, CreativeAideStoryIdeas.com. My hope is that it can be a space for new writers to use as a breakthrough tool, or simply a sanctuary for anyone looking for striking images and story ideas that help spark the imagination.

Sometimes, you just need the right picture and six paragraphs to get started on a fun, challenging, and creative adventure!

(If you know someone who wants to write but is struggling to find a starting point, please feel free to share this page with them.)