Inspiration from the Forgotten Files

I wrote in a previous post about how I often use art to help me decide what to keep and what to discard when restructuring a scene. Now its has influenced my writing in a different way. The picture above is one that I made a while ago of a scene from The Fourth State of Matter as I was writing it. This image was meant as an experiment in lighting and atmosphere, and has otherwise sat forgotten on my computer.

However, recently I was tasked with figuring out a tagline, blurb, and excerpt for my story. The tagline and blurb went off without a hitch, but the blurb needed to be revisited. It was too short and didn't provide a good representation of what readers could expect from the story.

In the following days I went through dozens of possible excerpts, but couldn't settle on one. I needed something that would demonstrate the relationship between the characters without showing anything graphic, hint at the 'alienness' of some of them, and also tease the plot so potential readers will want to read more. It seemed impossible to present all of this in a single short scene that can also stand as its own complete passage.

Then, while combing through my files for inspiration, I came across this picture again. When writing this scene I had seen it so vividly in my mind that I had felt compelled to draw it, yet I passed over this scene when looking for an excerpt. The scene is not a location that the characters spend much time in compared to other settings, so it hadn't seemed like a good option at the time. Looking back at the image - titled At The Gravity Well - reminded my how alive this scene once felt in my mind, so I decided to give it another look. Although not the most important setting, the scene did represent the story's atmosphere and energy.

Once I turned my sights on this scene, I found a decent excerpt pretty quickly. And that, as they say, was that.

I'm still waiting to hear back from the publisher if this excerpt will be accepted, but I have high hopes. Until then, I hope everyone will enjoy this sneak-peek into a scene from The Fourth State of Matter. More coming soon!