Much has been written about the tendency humans have to imbue
automobiles with personality. Literature abounds with cars as characters,
sometimes carrying as much weight in the story as the people do, and often with
longer-lived popularity. Stephen King’s Christine comes to mind, as does the
Dukes’ General Lee, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and a certain Aston Martin of
note. I even made this car a major character in my last book, Memory of Murder. Knight Rider gave KITT special powers and William Daniels’ voice. And, of
course, Pixar turned autos and planes into a virtual motherlode of
merchandising ideas.
But for me, cars are a source of an entirely different type
of creativity. They break writer’s blocks.
This harks back to a question every writer hears sooner or
later: Where do you get your ideas? I’ve finally broken this down to one
answer: Parking lots.
Y’see, I’m nosy. When I’m walking through the parking lot at
Publix, WalMart, wherever, I look at other people’s cars. I look at bumper
stickers and those little stick people on the windows. I glance to see what’s
in the back seat or how many child car seats they have. When I’m sitting in
traffic, I people watch, to see if the person matches their car. (Seriously,
folks, your car reflects you in SO many ways.)
And I make up tales, little stories to go with what I see.
This keeps my writer’s brain spinning at all times, sometimes at high speed. Sometimes
these little stories turn into big stories…one of them became my novel TheTaking of Carly Bradford. A pottery piece became The Face of Deceit. A pickup sitting
in a cornfield became Field of Danger.
Every writer has felt what I call the post-book slump. That
first day or two after “The End,” when you don’t know if you’ll ever be able to
do that again. Write another book. Some of us have ideas stored up for years,
more ideas than we can use in a lifetime. But others . . . not so much.
For those folks, or if you just want to practice your flash
fiction skills, I’d suggest a stroll through the closest parking lot. People,
and their cars, are infinitely fascinating.
Just don’t linger too long or peer too closely. Security
guards can be a bit touchy about this.
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