Tag: What ifs

Out of Thin Air by Dianna Sinovic

This month we are please to have Dianna Sinovic as our BWG featured author.

Dianna is a contributing author in the recent Bethlehem Writers Group anthology, Untethered. A man buys a painting of a jungle scene that is so realistic it seems to change in “Point of View.” She has also contributed stories for the Bethlehem Writers Roundtable magazine, including “In the Delivery.”

Born and raised in the Midwest, Dianna has also lived in three other quadrants of the U.S. She writes short stories and poetry, and is working on a full-length novel about a young woman in search of her long-lost brother.

Out of Thin Air

I listened to an oldie album by CCR last week that included a favorite: Lookin’ Out My Back Door. If you don’t know the tune, songwriter John Fogerty describes a fantastical scene he imagines in his backyard—elephants, dinosaurs, a flying spoon. You might laugh about what John was imbibing at that moment, but the lyrics made me think about the concept of imagination.

It’s what we as fiction writers do every day we sit down at our keyboard or put a pen to a notepad. We imagine. We pose what ifs, and then we run with them. It’s the core of our craft. We write about things that never really happened while trying to persuade the reader that they really did.

Hats off to those who write fantasy, because they create worlds whole cloth, weaving in just enough detail that we accept those worlds and embrace them. Harry Potter, anyone? But even the most true-to-life fiction demands imagination in order to engage the reader. The precise description of a character that make him/her jump off the page and into our lives. The carefully scripted, rising tension that has us looking over our shoulder at that odd noise from downstairs…

I recently finished reading The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. In 1996, Russell imagined a future that’s pretty damn believable. (OK, the future is already here, with the second chapter set in February 2019, but I was slow to pick up this classic.) She dreamt up a crew that travels across the cosmos using an asteroid as their vehicle. Why didn’t I think of that?

And that’s the marvel of imagination: We each have our own mental stewpot where new ideas are always bubbling. I’ve participated in a number of writing-prompt sessions led by author Kathryn Craft, in her living room, and each time we share what we’ve written from exactly the same prompt, I am amazed, astonished by the breadth of variations on a theme.

Beyond fiction, it’s imagination that fuels new inventions and creative ways to rethink old problems in order to solve them. “Imagination is everything,” said Albert Einstein. “It is the preview for life’s coming attractions.”

Read Dianna’s short story “Point of View” in BWG’s latest anthology.

The Deadline for Bethlehem Writers Roundtable 2019 Short Story Award IS April 15, 2019

Just two days to get your story polished and submitted.

The winner will receive $200 and may be offered publication in BWG’s upcoming anthology, Fur, Feather, & Scales: Sweet, Funny, and Strange Animal Tales. Here’s the LINK for more information or to enter.