Get inspired with this week’s Fantasy Art Wednesday, where fun fantasy artwork is combined with a writing prompt to get your creative juices flowing.

This beautiful image goes along well with this week’s Medieval Monday post about travel. While the carriage isn’t one from the medieval era, it’s certainly from a time long gone. A slower time, before cars and planes could quickly whisk us away to any destination of our choosing.

Instead of whizzing by this beautiful scene, with the hum of the motor vibrating, windows rolled up tight, and the radio blaring, the person in this carriage hears only the roar of the falls, the calls of birds, and the steady clip clop of horse hooves on stone. A leisurely, peaceful ride through a dreamy, majestic landscape. The horse’s head is down–there is no sense of urgency in his pace–and the rider doesn’t seem to be trying to press him on faster. Sometimes the journey matters more than the destination.

But this is still a writing prompt, so where’s the story, you ask?  Today the story is the setting itself. Part of writing is world building–creating places that your readers can love, where they can escape from our world into another one for a time. When you can express places full of wonder, like this one, they remember it. They come back time and time again to visit, in their minds, if not by re-opening the pages themselves. What striking landscapes can you create with just words? What unforgettable places can you paint onto your reader’s imaginations?

“Waterfall” by Jordi Gonzalez Escamilla