Wednesday 3 October 2012

Looking Deeper - Lynne Garner

Each year I set myself a photography challenge. This year I decided my challenge would be to take photographs of a small strip of land (seen right).

Each day this is part of the walk to the local supermarket for many a shopper. It is the way to school for a large number of local children. I assume in their hurry to get to their destination many of them will simply see an untidy mess of weeds and nettles. I wanted to look beyond that and discover what was going on hidden in and under that mass of the green foliage.

So at least a couple of times a week when I took the dog for a walk I made sure I had my camera with me. Between ball throwing I spent time looking deeper. I soon discovered a hidden world of bugs living out their lives. What follows are just a few of the characters I discovered.




Quite a number of these


Loads of these


A number of these


Just one of these


Lots of these little chaps


And just one or two of these ... 

Now you may be wondering what this has to do with writing and books. Well the more time I spent meeting my challenge the more I realised this is how I tend to view the world. I try look beyond the chaos of life and use things that interest me in my writing. I take one idea and let my subconscious bend and shape it to create a story. So if you're stuck for an idea try to look beyond the weeds and the nettles and find the creepy crawlies hidden beneath. Hopefully you'll discover something you can use as inspiration for your next piece of writing.

Lynne Garner
Follow me on Twitter @lynnegarner

I also teach and the following writing eCourses start on the 6th October 2012

7 comments:

Joan Lennon said...

Great photos - great inspiration! Thanks!

Lynne Garner said...

Thanks and pleased it inspired.

Susan Price said...

Loved this, Lynne! And I know what you say is true. I have been planning, for quite a while now, to model a 'Green Man' - but even if I never make it, just thinking about it has changed the way I look at things. I find myself studying the different shapes of leaves, and the way they grow. I'm looking with sharper attention at the dead foxglove stalks and the way autumn colour mottles into a leaf. Like you, I recommend it!

volná místa said...

Great photos! Love it.

Sue Purkiss said...

Lovely! I often do the same walk up the hill behind our house, and take photos of it through the seasons - but this is a much tighter focus - I really like the idea.

Lynne Garner said...

Thanks for the positive words. Today during a creative writing class I was teaching we ended up discussing looking deeper to understand a characters motives.

Pauline Chandler said...

This is such a lovely post, Lynne! Thank you! So true of the process of writing.