Tuesday Tip: Enroll Your Reader's Imagination or The Abominable Yeti is a Duck with Funny Feet

Recently, the rains turned dusty hill trails into a doughy mud that recorded the invisible: the furtive goings and comings of wild animals. Among the many footprints, hoof prints, and paw prints, I was startled by a set of paw prints, the size of large fists. I shuddered, “What kind of wilder beast hikes on these trails?!” Like all good storytellers, Nature had given my imagination just enough to let it finish painting a vivid and powerful vision. Maybe those prints only belonged to a baby squirrel who wears size 15 paws, but the illusion in my mind of a beast stomping about kept me on edge.

What a great lesson! Just like the Yeti! Its only signs? Foot prints, blurry silhouettes through blizzards, distant groans, but never an honest-to-God, real sighting. Yet, these hints have fueled our imagination into believing in a gigantic, abominable creature. In reality, the Yeti may just be a duck with funny feet! That's enough for a small meal. Not a legend!