“The effect of this cannot be understood without being there. The beauty of it cannot be understood, either, and when you see beauty in desolation it changes something inside you. Desolation tries to colonize you.“

–Jeff VanderMeer, Annihilation

Write about character that gets lost in an uncolonized space. It can be a forest, outer space, the ocean, anywhere. But there is something strange about this place, something they aren’t aware of until it’s too late. Think about the space as a character. Is it good? Bad? Is it hurting or needing something? Does it want to be discovered or is it angry at the presence of your characters? Write about how the space embraces or lashes out at the characters and how they react. Why are the characters there in the first place?