What I Saw

I have been trying to capture butterflies with my camera lens for years. But I just don’t have the equipment or luck, I guess.

So imagine my surprise when I came across a Pipevine Swallowtail along my morning running trail. Then imagine my alarm when I realized it wasn’t resting in the path like I’d at first thought.

The underside of the Pipevine Swallowtail is breathtaking in the sunlight. Scroll below to see the butterfly’s topside, drab but renewed and magical with raindrops from the previous night’s thunderstorm. Click to enlarge.

I decided to carry him back to the house and document his beauty, even in death, placing him on the window ledge. Later that night, the winds picked up and whispered new life under his wings, taking him across our patio and into the path of rainfall.

When I awoke the next morning, I saw his beauty in a whole new light (see below).

For Writers: This experience reminded me of the importance of seeing familiar things with fresh eyes, a new perspective. Changing one detail in your description can be the difference between excellence and mediocrity in your imagery. Look at the butterfly’s wings in the last picture above. Adding one thing – water – changed everything. The same goes for characterization and plot. Changing one personality trait, adding one plot twist, can enhance your story tenfold. Sometimes taking a step back from your WIP – for a few days, a week, a month – provides that fresh-eyed perspective. Give it a shot.

It’s true. My love affair with the saguaro cactus continues (you’ll see I’ve talked about its flowers and fruit in previous posts. But I’ll hold off on future saguaro blogs … well, after this post, of course).

One of my favorite saguaro shots: a full moon still hanging out in the morning sky, framed by one of the beautiful saguaros in our backyard. Click to enlarge.

So … lucky me that there are more than 30 saguaros scattered among our property (that’s at least how many I could see in plain sight). They are majestic – rising from 15 to 50 feet in the air – and they’ve earned my respect for their resilience. It takes a year for a saguaro to grow an inch …  And some mature saguaros are thought to be at least 200 years old.

But probably the fact that has me most awestruck is that they are unique only to the Sonoran Desert … my home! How supremely cool is that? I have access to these wonderful plants that exist nowhere else in the world!

For Writers: Maybe that awe speaks to the author in me. I have a treasure in my yard that is unique only to “my” part of the world.

What’s the unique treasure in your novel – unique only to your story? I just read an excellent novel by Therese Walsh, The Last Will of Moira Leahy, and one of the unique treasures in her book – literally – is a keris purchased at an auction house (a Javanese dagger with believed suggestive powers). Walsh’s novel (contemporary women’s fiction) is supported by graceful prose, believable characters, tension, emotion and momentum, but the mystical aspect of the keris makes it truly unique.

What is your novel’s unique hook? An unforgettable story? A different perspective on an age-old theme? A new world? An extraordinary setting? A fresh voice? Depth of emotion? Artistic language? A mysterious object? What’s the unique treasure that will get your novel noticed by an agent, published and cherished by readers?