Gorgeous!

In that funny way that anyone who has googled a single specific fact and found themselves, hours later, in the most random and unexpected places can attest to, I have discovered this wonderful artist: Alberto Seveso.

Drops of ink in water, and the results are paint drops floating upwards, silk, fabric coiled about itself with a sensuousness that goes beyond... just beyond.

Go. Look. See.

Pocket Princesses

Because I don't want to forget, but these are so awesome I cannot not share them: Pocket Princesses by Amy Mebberson.

Really, all the art on her tumblr is so much fun. It has a cartoon, almost chibi, feel to it, and covers the spectrum of Disney, My Little Pony, Darkwing Duck, Muppets and more (do those all fit on one spectrum?).

I'm a strong believer in keeping art nearby when you are a writer. There are reference photos that can useful in a more concrete-y, research way, there are photos that inspire worlds and stories, and then there are just drawings and pieces that are so much fun, they make you want to create something, too. Sometimes, a piece can do more than one.

Amy's work definitely makes me want to create as well, I just need to channel that into the writing instead of yanking out the sketchbook, not that that doesn't have its own ways of inspiring.

Inspiration Wednesdays

Although, this could just as easily be called "Let's Take a Few Moments to Look at Pretty/Neat/Awesome Things", but there is the goal of hoping what follows inspires you in some way.

May it spark an idea, or offer a twist in a story, or give you to urge to create something new.

That's what I hope for myself.

Theme for the Week: Steampunk

A steampunkified keyboard

A steamy version of Cinderella's carriage

Is that a steampunk Cheshire or are you just happy to see me?

A miniature steam-fairy. (I don't even care if this is completely Photoshopped, because it looks awesome.)



Note: If anyone has credits they'd like to me add to any photo, please just let a comment. I just do a lot of Google Image searches, and mean no harm other than to promote these wonderful visuals.

Honest, I didn't mean to disappear so soon for so long

I thought, "My self-imposed 'blog once a day for a month' is over, I'll take a few days off. Why, the first is even a Sunday, when I'm rarely on the computer anyway.' Five days later...

I ended up hitting one of those ugly walls of uncertainty, questioning a lot of things and generally feeling kind of junk. I opened up in more detail on my personal journal, and was reminded how great some of my friends are. I received some wonderful lines from a fellow writer, and an artist friend pointed me to this YouTube video:

Ira Glass on Storytelling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hidvElQ0xE

(Sorry, I'm trying to copy and paste the embedding link, but it doesn't want to cooperate.)

This was a great motivator.

And then I revisited Jeffrey Thomas' Portfolio, with the twisted Disney Princesses, such as a creepy Sleeping Beauty. Just the look of it just makes me want to write about a serial killer who kills in their sleep. (Not like a sleepwalker, but cursed or somehow self-induced, so people think there's no way it's Person X, they're always asleep during the murder.')

Isn't that a great painting? Super creepy. And some of the details on these are interesting (the books next to Alice, for one, but I won't say more because I like the thrill of discovery and hope you do, too). Seeing these, coupled with the encourgagement of friends, just makes me excited to write. It doesn't matter how discouraged I can get, I'll never stop writing.

Inspiration

I was trying to think of what to write about today. I've been fighting that sensation of thoughts like rubber balls bouncing around inside my skull. When they rebound, it's even harder to grasp.

I end up drifting through the day in my own head, trying to settle on any specific thought I can grab.

I've already spoken about 'where I get my ideas,' and where I put them (notebooks!), so I figured I'd try to share a few thoughts about inspiration. For me, some of it can come from those overheard conversations, but word-nerd that I am, a lot of inspiration comes to me through visuals.

I love art. Before I really started writing, I was drawing. I still have sheafs of papers with drawings of aliens, elves, centaurs, some dragons and unicorns. Around sixth grade I started my first novel, unfinished. It was epic fantasy, I got about 40 single-spaced hand-written pages in, and the pictures of the main characters were inseparable from the story. If memory serves, the drawings came first, and the story developed from there.

Of course, I was utterly a write-by-the-seat-of-my-pants type of writer then, so I still don't really know where the story should end. There were two sisters, princesses, running the kingdom while their parents were at war. Father was human, mother elf, and a tentative alliance between the species cemented in that marriage. There was a long lost prince, living as a thief in the capital city. I still love the characters, and I think there might be a strong kernel there (well, the long lost prince bit has been done to death, especially when he grows up to be a thief)...Uh, I'm going off on a tangent, aren't I? Point being, the pictures came first, the visuals inspired the story.

I still draw, but not as much, and I don't feel as compelled to draw character sketches of every person in every story. Other inspiration comes from others' art. When I'm trying to get in a darker mood for a story, I visit Lisa Snellings blog and look at her Poppets and other creepy sculptures. I have a long list of art blogs, some dark and creepy, some cartoonish, some realistic.

I also find a lot of inspiration in music. There are some artists or albums that just get me in the mood to write, and they tend to make their way onto every playlist I create for different stories. Most of the time, though, certain song swill invoke specific moods and I'll get a jolt that propells me toward one story over another. A recent addition, "Who Killed Amanda Palmer," inspired me to want to write a steampunk story, but with the story growing and solidifying beyond that 'feel,' I think I'll need more than that album when I'm ready to write.

Right now, I'm trying to think of a Halloween short story to write. Short stories are already not my forte, and sometimes I have a hard time thinking of a story plot when I start with something so general as 'I want to write a Halloween story.' [Strangely enough, the latest three stories are just so, Halloween, steampunk, and YA teen vampire (with a vicious rather than sexy, sultry vampire), which would partly explain why they're all taking longer to get from conception to 'sitting down and writing'.] What is happening with the Halloween story is that an image, or mention of some old urban legend or nursery story, will spark an idea, which I jot down. But so far the interest hasn't lasted long enough to reach the writing stage. I think I need to find a catalyst and then quickly feel around for additional little propelling images or songs. The inspiration is the first burst of forward movement, but the extra bits keep me going.


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Huh, apparently skin sensitivity is at its highest between 10 pm and 1 am, according to this guy on Rachel Ray's talk show (he wrote a book on when it's the best time to do various things, like make love). That clicks as a bit of inspiration. You might be able to play with that idea in a sci fi story. Genetic manipulation/engineering?


Happy writing everyone,
Sabrina