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Saturday, May 20, 2006
More About the Clippings -- Bronwyn Jameson
Yesterday I made reference to my collection of clippings from magazines and newspapers. And since I've been doing this for ten years (minimum), I do mean collection. At first I threw them all into a file I called "Ideas" (have I mentioned that titles are not my thing? *g*)
When that file bulged, unbecomingly, I split the clippings up. Story ideas. Jobs. Abodes, exterior. Interiors. Clothes. Cars. And then I had all these little bits of miscellanea which defied a label. The story ideas file--the one I *thought* would be most useful--is the one I've used the least. The others I haul out whenever I need an idea for a more interesting job or a visual of my hero's flash mansion or some inspiration for dressing my heroine for the upcoming party scene.
I guess you could call it another form of brainstorming. It's often not the idea I find in the clipping file that I end up using, but the exercise inspires me to look beyond the obvious or first thing to come to mind. It helps create colourful settings, characters and scenes...or at least I hope that's the end result of another of the steps I take in my long and laborious pre-writing stage. More on that tomorrow.
posted by Bronwyn Jameson at 5:13 AM
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4 Comments:
Karen said...
I've got an image of you drowning in clippings *g* Hope you survived!
I stopped making paper clippings - but my web browser bookmarks are drowning in "ideas". Or "Writing Links" as I call them (guess I need some naming inspiration too). Every time the list gets to big, I just make a new folder... now my folders have folders of folders.
5:41 PM
Dena said...
Hi Bron I never heard of another writer doing this for ideas? I can see the positives of doing it because fashion changes so much and trying to write about a mansion or other things it's easier with a visual.
5:03 AM
Bronwyn Jameson said...
Karen, toss me a life buoy! I am drowning, in clippings and bookmarks, too. I have folders and files and subfiles. Usually I can find something if I'm looking for it. And sometimes I spend a few hours browsing through them all and discover gems I'd forgotten I'd saved. That is fun.
5:01 PM
Bronwyn Jameson said...
Oh, and I meant to say...
After saying that I rarely use the story ideas I clip thinking "ooh, what if such-and-such happened instead, what a cool story starter!", yesterday I was skimming a Sunday paper and saw a story that I really think I may use someday. Not the story itself, but the background was really intriguing. I didn't clip it (since the newspaper belonged to the coffee shop) but I made a note. And put it in the file! *g*
5:04 PM
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