Everyday Canvas

Flowers and Ideas

Prompt:
Do you wish you had a garden of different flowers and each flower you picked gave you a great story writing idea? Better, yet, each story you wrote was a novel and a best seller. Write about this for your Blog entry today.

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This is a fun prompt to write for. Forget about any best seller. Just concocting a story behind each flower is a treat. I used to garden a lot in my earlier years, so the subject is dear to me. I think I might be able to find inspiration from the folklore and the unique qualities of different flowers.

I'll start with a shy flower that overcame its shyness for the good of the society: The violet. In a society where emotions are suppressed, violets showed empathy to the populace. Encouraged by the violets' empathy, a rebel group, with awakened minds and hearts, lead to an uprising against a cruel government and they win. Well, not always, but I do like winning stories.

Now, if I wanted a semi-horror story, I would go with the red poppy. Here the story goes: In a fantasy realm, a dream-weaver accidentally creates a nightmarish creature. Then a hero has to journey into the dream realm to set things right. Thus, the theme of the story explores fear, courage, and the duality or the subconscious mind.

So to ease things a bit, let me go ask a daisy for a story. Let's assume that a magical daisy field has the power to show people their true loves. A young man and a woman who have just had a fight stumble upon this field of daisies where they confront the reality of their relationship as daisies reveal to them their personal truths and the strong emotions they didn't expect they were having. So, they make up and live happily ever after.

Now, how about a flower story that originated from the rainforest? Let's say an exotic orchid holds the secret to a life-saving serum. A botanist, who first discovers the medicinal properties in a dying orchid in his wife's garden, teams up with an explorer to find the live species of that orchid before a ruthless corporation does. The orchid's rarity leads these two people through a dangerous landscape and tests their survival and morals.

Then, maybe a magical treasure story with a sunflower is in the works. A field of sunflowers turn to gold at sunset, a legend claims. A passer-by after hearing the legend, discovers a fantastic realm right under the sunflower-field where sunflowers are the guardians of a sunken treasure. Then the passer-by sets upon a magical adventure.

Last but not the least, the beautiful rose who inspires lovers has walked into my thoughts. A skilled botanist and magician thinks he can extract and bottle emotions. For that end, he uses roses to capture the essence of love and he is very successful. Then, when he finds his own true love and uses the essence of the rose on her. He misses, however, the experience of a genuine, unforced love. Will he be able to come clean and face the consequences of his actions or will he continue to live the lie?

I mean, I can go on and on weaving stories around flowers. After all, they are inspirational just as much and maybe even more than the other elements of nature. Also, just like the flowers, birds and all other animals and spending time in nature inspire a sense of awe in me, allowing me to consider the different ways of looking at things and finding new ideas.


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