Babel Clash

I just spent today driving up from Los Angeles to Monterey, along the coastal CA-1 North route. In the morning, the light was thin and wane. By mid-day, clouds had occluded the sun and made the light murky. Early afternoon brought a sunshine that illuminated everything like a painting by Turner, making each landscape around each bend stand out in sharp relief. By late afternoon, a richness had invaded those same landscapes as the sun began to set.

Just driving through these amazing coastal settings, let alone stopping alone the way, has already inspired all kinds of thoughts for future stories. The texture, the way the scrub and earth pick up richness and lose it, the verdigris of undergrowth racing down the side of mountains, the stark boldness of the blue sea, the fireworks explosions of golden reeds appearing between tufts of dull green grass and stunted trees–all of this combined with the variety of sea smells, the kelp and shells and sand black and light on the beaches almost overwhelms the mind, but also fortifies it.

Whether it’s characters or settings or something else entirely, I know this drive through unfamiliar territory will crop up in my fiction. It brings to mind as well something the writer Jon Courtney Grimwood said on a panel once, about having to visit a place in order to write about it. This may be true of novels set in real locations, but it’s also true of fantasy novels. Today, I picked up a hundred different entry points to story.

For anyone reading who creates things, whether stories or something more physical–what kinds of catalysts spark your imagination?