Writey Thoughts

[awanderingbard]

Does anyone else have an inspiration folder for their writing? I have a file of photos to help me picture people, places or objects I'm writing about. Like, I have a picture of Miranda's engagement ring, and some cuff links that were almost part of a Sherlock story, and stock photos of children who look like my mental images of Fay, Mal and Graylin, and some dresses that I don't think I even ended up describing, but are still how I picture them to look. Is this something weird, or do other people do this too?

In other completely random news: screw you, Downton Abbey and the British television that you rode in on!

Comments

[bookblather.livejournal.com]

...am I going to be glad that I stopped watching Downton Abbey after they killed Bates/Anna in the first episode of second season? I think I am.

Anyway, I do! I have an actual physical folder of pictures I cut out of magazines that make me think of stories, or characters. I have a whole folder for Firestorm, and miscallaneous stories for all the rest. It's a great way of doing it.

[guardian-chaos.livejournal.com]

Oh, no no no, you are certainly not. I have not just one "inspiration" folder; I have probably dozens of sub-folders for whatever specific inspiration I'm after. It's more fun this way!

I'd be more surprised to find that anyone who writes doesn't have one of these. o_o

[aeron-lanart.livejournal.com]

I have bits and bobs scattered through a fair few of my graphics folders, though since I started writing Sherlock fic, I have actually graduated to having one folder called 'fanfic help' mostly because when I wrote my collab fic last year, we had a clothes/makeup inspiration post linked from the fic so people could see what we were visualising which, as that is how the fic started out, only seemed appropriate.

You know, I've never seen an episode of Downton...

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

To be fair, they did fix Anna and Bates quite nicely in the end, but now they're killing people at extremely joyful moments in their lives for maximum angst and I am disgusted!

My friend finds keeping pictures of people that remind me of the characters creepy, so I was just wondering if it was me or not. I like having visual references, even if I don't use them.

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

My friend once commented that she found it creepy to keep picture of people who remind me of characters, and I was looking for... something the other day, I forget what, and it reminded me of that, so I was curious. It's a good way to get the creative juices flowing, looking through pretty things.

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's a good idea! I hadn't thought of multiple writers seeing things differently, but of course they would.

Downton's not for everyone. I enjoy it, but I totally see why some people don't. So, you know, you may not be missing out, really. But you might be. Such is life. :-D