Yesterday we hosted a visit from Jane and Will Hillenbrand, children's author and illustrator respectively. The Hillenbrands collaborated on a beautiful story of friendship, What a Treasure, inspired by their son's love of moles and shovels.
Will showed us his journal, his "playground," which he carries around constantly, making thumbnail sketches of animals, objects, and people who strike his fancy. He quoted C.S. Lewis: "Images always come first," and encouraged writers in the audience to keep this insight in mind at all times. Lewis started with an image: a snowy landscape with a lamppost by a glen. The beginning of the Narnia books. The seed.
I was reminded of a story my advisor when I was an undergrad. told constantly about William Faulkner. He started The Sound and the Fury--one of my favorite novels--with an image of a little girl with muddy underwear climbing a tree. The beginning of the Compson books. Another seed.
What thumbnail sketches are bouncing around our heads? Which end up in our journals or on our blogs? Which images and seeds disappear like nighttime dreams that are gone forever by the time we step out of the shower?
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