Writing Quote Wednesday: Imagination

“Imagination, which is a quality writers must have, does not mean the ability to weave stories out of nothing. In the right sense, imagination is a response to what is going on—a sensitiveness to which outside things appeal. It is a composition of sympathy and observation.”

—Willa Cather, from an Interview in Lincoln Daily Star 1915, as quoted in The Literary Ladies Guide to the Writing Life by Nava Atlas, p. 42

I took this picture a couple of years ago, and it inspired an entire middle grade novel. Actually, the novel idea was there since 2009, but this definitely helped with a specific scene and gave me a lot of inspiration. The book isn’t about orange mushrooms surrounded by rotting leaves (though that would make a great poem). But this image was the catalyst that inspired my imagination.