The Writer’s Craft #44 – Inspiration Amid the Ruins

Cindy Lynn Speer

Cindy Lynn Speer dreams of being a swashbucking hermit, but until such a time she contents herself with writing stories and teaching historical swordsmanship. More information about her books and her can be found at www.apenandfire.com

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One of the hazards of being a writer is that everything has a story.  As I look around at my office — your usual secretary’s space, with binders and piles of forms, second hand office furniture holding everything from CD’s to envelopes — I know that even this space, these things, can tell a story if I listen. But, fortunately or unfortunately for the world, those aren’t the stories I want to tell.  So, sometimes, when I’m bored or stuck, I wander the internet, and I look at places like LJ’s Rural Ruin, or sites like Opacity.  Try one … let’s wander.  Click through to Bannerman’s Arsenal. Soon I am walking under ornate stone arches, if I work at it, if I build it in my head, I feel the brush against my legs of grass, the occasional snag as a weed catches the fabric.  Stone and dirt crunches under my feet, my nose is filled with the mustiness of dust and mold when I enter the rooms.Not one of these places feels silent anymore, or dead.  They have stories to tell.  How did they come to be like this, abandoned and ruined?  Who walked these halls and paths before us?  I tour them for inspiration, such as this magnificent place:  The Sanatorium F Bezancon.  And though they are only photographs, I can feel the tales they have to tell, and when I need the inspiration, I have a place I can go.  Sometimes what I write ends up being nothing more than  a word-doodle, but at the end I still have the joy of writing, and sometimes when you are stuck and second guessing your main project, that is all you need.Please share a link to an image that inspires you and tell me why.

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