Inspiration for Settings

Old North Bridge by Sarah Phillips Pellet

I have a scene in my current Work In Progress (WIP) where my main character and his sidekick encounter a raging river. While I grew up nearby the Concord River in Massachusetts and spent many an afternoon roaming around the gardens of Buttrick Mansion and canoeing under the Old North Bridge, I haven’t spent much time on rivers in my adult life. So to re-enforce my memories, I turned to a virtual source for my setting’s inspiration: Facebook.

A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words

A friend of mine from childhood is a fly fisherman now and lives, breathes, and luckily for me, photographs, rivers. He spends hours immersed in the subtleties of his environment in solitude. He has managed to find places to fish where nothing – apart from the natural  life cycle of things – has changed. No cars, no boats, no other people. Just him, his fishing pole, his dog, and the river. And in the quiet moments of the morning or evening, he captures the nuances of river life: the interesting details of rock formations, the dappled sunlight on the water, the mist curled around rocks, rotting trees spanning banks, unusual bugs. They are taken from the perspective of a patient native, content to let life unfold, not of a tourist taking a snapshot. His pictures don’t scream, “Look where I’ve been.” They suggest, “Look at what I’m surrounded by.” When I see his pictures, I can smell the river, hear the water rushing, and feel the cool soft moss on my fingertips. I can experience the river vicariously through him and it inspires me to take a reader to that same place through my words.

Memories Shape Perspective  

I could have gone on-line and snagged a few shots like the one of the Concord River above, courtesy of Wikipedia, but there is another layer to the photographs from my friend: memories. I haven’t seen him since we were kids, so my memory of him is from that time in my life. When I look at his photographs, I imagine him as he was as a child and thus, see the pictures through the eyes of a child. Interestingly, the river scene in my WIP was one of the easiest ones to write. I was so in the moment, in the character, in the place and I think that had everything to do with my friend’s pictures putting me there in that mindset.  Now, if I could just get my other childhood Facebook friends to capture other settings for me, I’d be all set!

I wonder how other writers glean the finer details of the settings in their stories? Do you immerse yourself in a setting? If so, how?

 

Retreat, Regroup, Refresh

Sunrise at the Cabin

After last week’s post (despairing of invaded writing space), I decided to pack up my materials, some food, a shovel, and head for the hills for the weekend so I could write, undisturbed. No dogs nudging my hands off the keyboard for attention. No children running amok with Nerf guns, having battles in the living room, and hitting me in the head with foam bullets. No husband stopping by my desk to chat about the latest and greatest tool for wood-working that he just read about in Wood magazine. Nope, just me, my stuff, and the snowed-in cabin. Very Ernest Hemingway. Minus the beard, the pipe, and, well, you know, the shenanigans.

It was pretty darn quiet.

But I got so much done! It was great. I didn’t get a whole lot of creative writing done, per se, but I think what I did do, was just as important: I de-cluttered and got organized.

I have a binder where I store all the information relating to my story. At first, it was a file folder. But as the story morphed from a picture book format into a novel format, it became apparent that I needed something bigger. So I got the “Big Binder” as I refer to it as (not very creative, I know, but it works). I initially put my information in to it and loosely organized it. Big mistake. I should have spent time upfront organizing because I’ve wasted a lot of time since trying to find things I know I’ve already researched.  So this weekend I sifted through all the paper, discarded the unnecessary items, categorized what remained, and put it back under proper headings with proper dividers. So much better. Everything I need is at the flick of a sturdy, colorful divider tab. Divine.

The best thing about getting all this information sorted is that I now feel like I have a handle on the complexities of my story. I don’t have to remember who’s wearing what, whether or not I fully researched something, etc. By getting everything in its place and out of my brain, I can refocus on writing. I know that sounds so simple, but sometimes, it is the simple things that matter most.

 

The Wish List

Otherwise known as New Year’s Resolutions:

1. I will finish my manuscript. It will be so awesome that every agent I query will flock to me with advances and book deals.  It will be fast-tracked and appear on The New York Times Bestsellers list before the year is out. (This one is my ultimate fantasy; although I will finish my MS in 2011.)
2. I will lose 25 pounds and still be able to eat chocolates whenever I want. (This one has been on my NYR list for about 15 years.)
3. I will attend the SCBWI conference in January and meet fabulous authors and aspiring authors. (This one is definitely going to happen.)
4. I will stop calling SCBWI “sc-bee-wee” in my head and will learn to use the acronym appropriately. (This one will be tough.)
5. A publishing house will realize my self-published book, The Kangaroo Pouch, does have a good sales track record, will take over production and print the book in hardcover. (Another big wish, but maybe?)
6. I will get birthday cards out to people on their actual birthdays this year. Not their half-birthdays. (Some years I’m good about this, others, not so much.)
7. I will scan all my old photographs and put the good ones into scrapbooks that will make Martha Stewart weep with envy. (Hey, it could happen.)
8. I will not use adverbs, even though I secretly love them. (Discipline, all it takes is discipline. See #2.)