Maybe It's A Portal To Another Dimension...

 Of course, I know it's not a portal...it's a section of our vinyl fencing in the backyard. But, it could be.

It was some random thought I had while outside last night.

About thirty-five years ago I thought I wanted to start a comic strip. I came up with a character, Eliot, the Ultimate Introvert. Eliot was a monster living in Lake Loch Ness. After I came up with the character, I asked myself, how do those who write comic strips come up with the incredible storylines day after day, week after week, year after year? They were so creative. How do they do it?

I came to the conclusion that creativity is something that becomes easier the more you do it. If you think about the comic strip, the ideas come. The same can be said for photography. A good photographer will see things others don't see, even though they may be looking at the same thing. A photographer's brain has trained itself to see the unusual, the creative. 

What does this have to do with a pattern created by sunlight from a setting sun bouncing off a house window? The writer will see the pattern and wonder if it could be a way for a story to begin...an unsuspecting youth, for example, when trying to catch a thrown football falls and flies toward the family's newly-installed vinyl fence. Knowing he's about to destroy the section, the child closes his eyes, waiting for the inevitable crash, and the expected scolding from his stern father.

Instead, he finds...

Nothing.

No crash, no splintered vinyl falling upon him as he hits the ground. The boy looks up and sees a brilliantly blue sky. He rises and is surrounded by wild flowers and tall grasses. He looks about and sees himself in a field, not a human or building in sight. What happened to the fence? What happened to his house? Where the heck is he now? And most importantly, how the devil is he going to get back home?

Yeah...just some random thoughts I had last night.