A photo recalls specific memories to the people who were there. An illustration captures a moment in a story. But if you look at them from a distance, they can be great story-starters for your fiction.
Fiction Ideas from Photos
Browse through someone else’s photo album for story ideas. (You’re probably too close to your own photos to disconnect from them).
- Look for action shots or people in emotional situations. What are they doing? Feeling? What might have led up to it? Are they trying to hide anything? Don’t overlook group shots; look for people in the background who don’t realize they’re in a picture.
- Use scenery photos to create a setting. Does the fog make you think of mysterious happenings? Or yet another obstacle for people lost in a forest? What’s happening behind the curtains of the cute Victorian house? Does the immaculate garden indicate a smooth life where someone has plenty of time (boring story) or a few moments of escape for a worried mother?
Story Ideas from Illustrations
Illustrations are very action oriented. Look at book jackets, magazines, children’s books, and graphic novels for something that catches your eye. Ignore the accompanying story and ask your own “what if” questions. Why is the man hiding? Where are the children running? What will happen when the storm breaks?
Book jackets can often be very spare. If the cover creates a mood instead of showing something happening, what thoughts or situations does that mood inspire? Could the quiet peace be something she’s looking for or something she’s been jarred out of? Is the tension from a family conflict or international intrigue? Cover art doesn’t suggest story ideas as easily, but you can let yourself sink into the mood and your wandering mind will take over.
Historical Fiction Ideas from Paintings
If you have a favorite painting or artist, use it as a story starter.
- Use a favorite contemporary painting with the photo suggestions above. Why is the subject so sad? What are the couple in the café discussing? What secrets are hidden inside the old house?
- Use the painting as a trigger point for your characters. Susan Vreeland did this with Girl in Hyacinth Blue, a novel of eight linked short stories about a hypothetical 36th Vermeer painting and how different families and individuals are affected by it over the centuries.
- Use the creation of the painting for a historical story about the artist. Girl with a Pearl Earring, by Tracy Chevalier, gives us a close-up of what Vermeer’s life was like from the point of view of the girl being painted. Vreeland also did this with Luncheon Boating Party, about Renoir, his life in Paris and how he comes to paint the masterpiece.
- Use the painting as the backdrop for a historical novel about the subjects, with the artist as a minor character. Vanora Bennett’s Portrait of an Unknown Woman is the coming-of-age story of Sir Thomas More’s foster daughter, worked around Holbein’s painting of the family.
When a photo, illustration or painting suggests a story idea, write it down briefly but don’t be in a big hurry. Let the plot simmer and change. Play with possible characters, and then spend some time developing them into real people. You’ll have a story that may have started with a picture, but has become all your own.
For more story ideas, read:
Jennifer Jensen - Jennifer Jensen is an Indiana writer just returned from a lovely few years in County Cork, Ireland. She has been the Feature Writer for ...
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