Thursday, 25 November 2010

Muse me this...

    Everyone who writes has different methods, different sources of inspiration. For me I have two essentials; my notebook and my wall. When I first conceived the initial glimmering of my story I jotted down a few notes on a scrap of paper, soon I was scribbling furiously and upgraded to a notebook, wherein lies my world history, characters bios, lists of possible names, random images I find striking, sketches, the odd compelling sentence, social demographics for each country/culture. Now this is in whatever order its popped into my mind, so at the back are chapter breakdowns and story thread webs. The few people who have seen the webs say they make absolutely no sense, but for me it does; how each plot, character and event intertwines.

Now my wall is a much more visual reminder, in my dining room, which i have to walk past everyday. On it are image clippings from newspapers, magazines etc that remind me of my story or have inspired me. Its not uncommon to find me sneakily ripping out pages in the doctors waiting room...I get some odd, and disapproving looks. All in the name of Art, darling. And then there are my sketches, and doodles. When writing scenes like the description of the Rosalind Castle I have to have the image firmly in my mind, so its essential I draw it out first. And so with geographical bearings, I had to have maps. Now I'm no cartographer so, please, bear in mind that these are rough.



Azalai


Youthful Iona


Map; Sea of Sorrows & surrounding lands


Map of Danua





Rosalind Castle
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1 comment:

  1. Crimson Ebolg11 December 2010 at 20:45

    Its fascinating to see how other people work. Your style of information-gathering is so different to mine. I suppose it's because you have a whole novel's worth of narative, whereas my poetry is much more of a snap shot approach. I always fine that a line in a novel or a song or an overheard conversation can trigger a tidalwave of ideas in my mind. For that reason, my mobile is my best friend, I always jot down ideas on it to write up later. I think, though, I must learn to take my note book out with me more often, as the mobile phone format is quite limiting. Its also important, I think, to see your ideas written in your own hand. Makes it easier to remember trains of thought I think.

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