the well written - kenneth grahame

The Mole was bewitched, entranced, fascinated. By the side of the river he trotted as one trots, when very small, by the side of a man who holds one spellbound by exciting stories; and when tired at last, he sat on the bank, while the river still chattered on to him, a babbling procession of the best stories in the world, sent from the heart of the earth to be told at last to the insatiable sea.

- Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

By Ella Elviana

photo stories - solitude

A girl sprawls onto the grass.  A man wanders a windy beach alone,
staring up at the melancholy sky from time to time.
What happens after?  What brought them there?  Challenge yourself to write a
story where, perhaps, the reader meets only one very compelling character.

By Mary Robinson

By Chen Xiao Qi

on writing - pixar's story writing rules

This is an amazing list.  Check it out for a good read and great advice.
I personally like these tips:

Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you;
you’ve got to recognize it before you can use it.

Trying for theme is important, but you won’t see what the story is
actually about till you’re at the end of it.  Now rewrite.

Why must you tell THIS story? What’s the belief burning within you
that your story feeds off of?  That’s the heart of it.

By Eric Tan

the well written - jonathan safran foer

Feathers filled the small room. Our laughter kept the feathers in the air. I thought about birds.
Could they fly is there wasn't someone, somewhere, laughing?

- Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

By Nick Patterson

illustration - hair

Many an illustrator likes to do a hair themed piece.  Here are just a few found on Deviant Art.
We know the story of Rapunzel.  And recently Brave (Pixar) came into theaters with a main character of a similarly stunning mane.  Then there's Samson.  Pippi Longstocking.  What other stories are there?
What other stories can we come up with involving hair in some important way?

By Nana-in-the-Clouds

By Gabrielle Rose

By Kate (deviant art)

By Kara Timmons

By Erika (deviant art - cirqueclown)

By Sara Vera

By PJ Wood

By Shelby Leigh

By Katherine Batt

By Ash Cruikshank

a dreamer's wisdom - g.k. chesterton

The world will never starve for want of wonders, but for want of wonder.

- G.K. Chesterton

By Mary Gutfleisch

from the screen - the sensation of sight

DEANNA
You have to swallow life, and you're too intelligent of a man not to.  Swallow, not deciper.

FINN
That boy is dead, Dianna.  Pointlessly now absent.  I think a pause in my life is warranted.

DEANNA
It wasn't your responsibility.

FINN
Deanna, I love words.  I work in words.  Perhaps I could have found one word.

Via either/or Films

a dreamer's wisdom - paulo coelho

It's what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their destiny is. At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives.

But, as time passes, a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realize their destiny... It's a force that appears to be negative, but actually shows you how to realize your destiny. It prepares your spirit and you will, because there is one great truth on this planet: whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, it's because that desire originated in the soul of the universe. It's your mission on earth.

- Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

By Emily Winfield Martin

the well written - katherine paterson

She had tricked him. She had made him leave his old self behind and come into her world, and then before he was really at home in it but too late to go back, she had left him stranded there--like an astronaut wandering about on the moon. Alone.

- Katherine Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia

By Tayylor Leon

from unexpected places - street style

These are from The Sartorialist - some fun characters to describe in vivid, unique ways.
It's all about the details of their hair, the way the skin shifts around the eyes, a strange frock or two, a particular grin.  Pick a random person and try to describe them on one of those crazy original ways.  I just finished The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, who had a great talent for this:

Now he was a sturdy, straw haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner.  Two shining, arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward.  Not even the effeminate swank of his riding clothes could hide the enormous power of that body - he seemed to fill those glistening boots until he strained the top lacing and you could see a great pack of muscle shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat.  It was a body capable of enormous leverage - a cruel body.

illustration - riikka auvinen

Riikka is telling some amazing stories here.
Hopefully they feed the ones you're already telling...
or inspire some new ones.

on writing - ernest hemingway

All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.

- Ernest Hemingway

By Jane (deviant art)

photo stories - cherries and a concert

A bowl of cherries and a packed concert.  What can happen with/at these elements, normal or fantastical?  What could happen while one travels to pick the cherries, pick them, sort through them, wash them, eat them?  What could happen before, during, after a concert - strange or otherwise?
Look at everything around you as containing some sort of magic - some quality worth writing about.
Grab a pen, pencil, or laptop and get writing!

By Laura del Rosal Migoya

By Roland Partis

the well written - frances hodgson burnett

Whatever comes," she said, "cannot alter one thing. If I am a princess in rags and tatters, I can be a princess inside. It would be easy to be a princess if I were dressed in cloth of gold, but it is a great deal more of a triumph to be one all the time when no one knows it.

- Frances Hodgson Burnett, A Little Princess

By Arthur Rackham

illustration - aaron jasinski

Jasinski works in the bizarrely fantastic.  His art could easily inspire a short story filled with vivid and crazy imagery, strange characters, and odd juxtapositions of characters/settings/mood in the science fiction or fantasy genre.  So take a look, be inspired, and get writing.

on writing and reading - william faulkner

Read, read, read. Read everything - trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it.
Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it.
Then write. If it's good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out of the window.

- William Faulkner

By Maja Lindberg

the well written - erin morgenstern

Inside, the train is opulent, gilded, and warm.  Most of the passenger cars are lined with thick patterned carpets, upholstered in velvets in burgundies and violets and creams, as though they have been dipped in a sunset, hovering at twilight and holding on to the colors before they fade to midnight and stars.

- Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

By Francois Roca

photo stories - the circus

I recently finished reading The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
(a wonderful tale).  Some truly wonderful stories have been written
about circuses, illusionists, and so on (ex. Eisenheim the Illusionist
by Steven Millhauser).  In 2000, Michal Chelbin did a series of
photographs documenting the traditional circus performers of
Europe and Israel, and the result was exquisite.  Take a look and
dream a circus of your own.

illustration - maximiliana yvert

All the melancholy creatures of the forest.

 

the well written - ian mcewan

And now she was back in the world, not one she could make, but the one that had made her, and she felt herself shrinking under the early evening sky. She was weary of being outdoors, but she was not ready to go in. Was that really all there was in life, indoors or out? Wasn't there somewhere else for people to go?

- Ian McEwan, Atonement

By Caroline (deviant art)

writing prompts - questions seeking unique answers

Why visit the same tree eight days in a row?

By Noel Tanner

Why keep an empty bird cage in the corner of the room?

By Riki Blanco

Why carve a pumpkin in May?

By Seth Fitts