I was at Edisto Beach a few years ago, and it rained all week. I mean two days of hurricane-type rain and five days of drizzle. Water dripped off the porch roof and plopped in the sand below. Ozone hung in the air. A small herd of deer walked hidden in dunes and assorted grasses, not caring in the least about being wet.

My sister-in-law had returned home from being there with us, there was zero on television, and I wasn’t in the mood to write. So I sat on the back porch and watched the clouds over the water and other islands, playing what-ifs in my head.

I saw a kayaker in the Sound and wondered who was foolish enough to go out in this weather. Which morphed into: What if I was an antagonist watching someone I knew floundering in a kayak though unfamiliar choppy waters of the Edisto Sound? It was off season, crazy hazy, and pouring. I would’ve known they were going out, but I chose to sit back and watch, despite the danger.

Pen to paper, I described where I was and what I felt, saw, heard, smelled. . . all the senses. A fun chapter. Maybe an opening chapter to a novel I’d not thought about yet.

A year later, most of it became chapter one of Edge of Edisto.

By sitting down in an environment rich in senses, weather, scenery, and potential, creativity oozed out. Slow at first because it was a little forced, but in closing my eyes, I hit pay dirt and the rough-edged chapter happened. I didn’t want it to stop.

You don’t always have to write for a reason, deadline, or defined purpose. And you don’t always have to write in your regular chair at your regular desk. Mix it up. Write for no reason. Write somewhere unique and strange. Do it with daring, as if nobody would ever see it. Dance on the page. Write outside the boundaries. Never be without a notepad.

I had another such moment on the back porch of Edisto a couple weeks ago. The result was three pages of story. Slowly but surely, I’m seeing it as part of something to expand.

Allowing yourself to be an author rich outside your norm, just may teach you to grow and achieve something unusual. . . and reach a fresh higher level you didn’t see in yourself before.