Two somewhat unrelated observations

I finished a story during my lunch break today.

It was inspired from a photo on my friend, Stefanie McGee's, blog. A link to it is on this page.

It is interesting to me how a good photograph can inspire a story. I think it gets to the crust of an earlier post in which I talked about the importance of living a life. That includes observing art -- photography, paintings, sculpture, good books. You never know where inspiration will strike. I remember reading that Isaac Asimov would flip open a dictionary and put his finger on a word at random. That word would become the subject and title of a short story.

A second observation.

The photo in question is of a donut shop. I originally thought I could do something pretty funny and poking fun at the stereotype of cops and donuts. But this is a great example of a story taking over. 1300 words later, and my story isn't funny at all. It is quite serious and deals with a very difficult moment in a cops life. I think it is very good and am looking forward to sending the story out.

I think that epitomizes a great story or passage. You start writing and it just comes out...your fingers can't move fast enough. And when it is done you are excited, exhausted and have no clue where what you wrote came from.