Today I came across two very interesting posts about writers and inspiration:
Here is a post on visual inspiration and character specific colour palettes from Paperback Writer.
And here SF writer writer Adam Israel describes how he uses tarot cards for inspiration at Inkpunks. (Found via Charles Tan)
I always find it fascinating how different writers ignite their imagination and what tools and methods they use.
For example, I am a visual writer and I collect all sorts of images related to whatever I am writing. Not just photos of actors who look somewhat like the characters*, but also photos of buildings, cars, clothes, furnishings, tableware, anything that might pop up. But unlike Lynn Viehl of Paperback Writer, colours and colour palettes aren’t that crucial to my process. Though come to think of it, there often are certain colours that determine the look and feel of a given project. In fact, I might just run some of my project images through that colour palette generate to see what comes up.
The tarot as inspiration is also interesting, because it’s such an obvious idea. I have a tarot deck, but I have for affinity for rune casting. My favourite lecture I held at university was the one about runes and English linguistics – though I suspect my students would beg to differ.
I have also used runes for inspiration on occasion, but usually to generate story ideas. I haven’t actually done a casting for a character, though it’s an interesting idea.
* This can be a problem, when the actor in question mainly appears in historical films, but you need him in contemporary garb. Or if an actor is known for playing a doctor, but you need him as a soldier. What is more, when you put the name of an actress, any actress, into Google image search, you will get lots of nude photos and scanty underwear photos.