Gary Wilcox's Creative Process

As I was driving home tonight, it occured to me that I could make a post talking about the genesis and 'creative spark' of a story that I have been subconciously (re-)writing for the past two weeks.

The moment of inspiration was finding a set of pictures beside a scanner at a copy shop. It was of a group of girls, and the setting seemed to be Daytona or Fort Lauderdale, or one of those places... definitely a spring break type imagery.

In the first of three pictures, the women were roughly high school age, in bikini's, posing at sunset on a pier. I quickly subdivided them into the stereotypes I knew in high school: To-Cool-For-School model, Serious Tagalong, and Hyperflirt Tease. (More on this picture later -- it's where I got the best ideas aboiut the girls and how they might fit together as friends.)

In the next picture, the girls posed with some very excited older men on the same dock. In a black marker, one of the girls had written the following caption:

"I love to FISH!!!! Booooooze!!!"

That explained a little bit more about the 'plot' of their vacation, as well as something of the nature of the girl who was writing these captions (Hyperflirt Tease).

But the third picture just made me laugh. All of the girls, except Serious Tagalong, and four of their female friends, were lined up together on the beach, side-by-side.They were laying on the bellies, propped up on arms, so that their breasts each lined up prominently on display. The caption said it better than I:

"Booooobies!!!"

My first idea was, these three women in Cabo, or some Mexican resort place, and getting into the wrong taxi on their voyage home Sunday morning. The girls get up late, have to hoof it away from the hotel to find a quick taxi to make it to the airport, and settle for a gypsy cab with a driver who speaks a little English.

The ladies argue along the way, and we get little peeks into their group dynamic. Model, 'virgin', runs their little clique, and has a longterm boyfriend who must not know about things that went on in Mexico... Hyperflirt is a spastic yes-girl and the wildest of the group, only because that's the role she plays and it keeps the men chasing her... Tagalong is just glad to be going home, eager to return to studies after a so-so weekend.

Suddenly, the taxi makes a wrong turn, and seems to run into a building, pushing through a gate made of straw... Inside the building, burly Mexican men surround the car, as the girls begin screaming.

I believe in the original fantasy, Model and Tagalong were sold to Jose's, the bar from Parker's REPLACEMENT VALUE... while Hyperflirt became a permanent addition in the machine shop of the taxi company.

NEXT: the evolution of the idea, and the form it is taking as it slooooowly becomes a story.