Photographs like this one of a horse ranch in Ventura County can obviously be helpful to a fiction writer who wants to set a story in the present-day California countryside. When I saw it, though, my first reaction was: Strip away the vegetation and that could be a manned station on a harsh, alien planet. My second thought was: Or narrow the valley and fill it with greenery and it could be in Middle-Earth. Writing exercise, anyone?
Study the picture for a minute, jot down three elements that strike you forcefully. (Example: Sunlit house on the far right, long shadows, square compound.)
Write a sentence that adds both details and a change (Example: The house on the hillside glowed in the darkness, lit by outside floodlights and a line of solar-powered lampposts.)
Decide who looking down on the valley—the boss, a stranger, a returnee, a child? Other?
Combine these elements into a short passage. (Example: I took a look down into the valley. The house on the hillside glowed in the darkness, lit as always by outside floodlights and a line of solar-powered lampposts leading up the long driveway. Nothing in the valley had changed since my return, except that now there was no sign of movement, not a soul in sight.)
Is this the beginning of a story, the middle, or the end?
Launch your own story.