I enjoy objects that are both beautiful and functional, thereby pleasing my aesthetic and practical sides. For this Visual Inspiration mini-workshop, I’m using three-dimensional arts and artifacts–furnishings, statues, pottery, plate settings, jewelry boxes, mirrors, masks, and more–to spark story ideas. Check out the Smithsonian website for tons of art to browse through. Pick something (or more than one thing) that catches your eye.

I’m going to use two examples, since I had a hard time picking just one.

My first one is actually two statues from the Indus Valley civilization–the priest-king and the dancing girl. I have an emotional and familial connection to these pieces, since my father grew up close to the ruins of Mohen-jo-daro. I’ve walked in the excavated streets and peered down dug-up wells and peeped out through the windows of these old old buildings. I am intrigued by these ancient statues and the obvious and inferred disparity between them–disparity in power, gender, clothing (or lack thereof). Juxtaposing those two statues, I’ve had glimmerings of what might some day be a story–sacrifices, immortality, river dolphins, ritual, dance, childhood. The questions I’ve asked myself: Who are these people? Why were they important enough to make statues of? What rites and functions did the priest-king and dancing girl perform? And most importantly, how might they have related to each other?

Part of the premise of my current work-in-progress was sparked by Faberge eggs. I started with the following questions:

What is the purpose of this object? What other uses can I come up with? Faberge eggs are curiosities, intended to delight and surprise. But perhaps you could hide something in them. A small piece of jewelry, a will, a property deed, a love letter.

Who would own or use such an object? Somebody rich, powerful. Or someone obssessed or gifted with amazing artistic talent.

Who has it now? Here you can twist the answer to the earlier question. In my example, the egg has passed through the hands of a mafia boss, a pudgy accountant, and now is in the possession of water elementals.

Who wants this object and why? My protagonist, who is being threatened with the loss of everything she holds dear unless she recovers it. The people threatening her, who wish that the thing hidden inside never comes to light. The water elementals, who do wish the thing inside unleased.

Your turn!

This is the second in my Visual Inspiration series–an intentional way of immersing yourself in images, giving your right brain plenty of opportunity to come up with ideas. Today I’m going to talk about using collages to spark a story. This is fun because you get to do, not just look. Get some scissors, a glue stick (less mess than regular glue), a sheet of paper and a stack of magazines.

This technique is simple: Go through the magazines and cut out pictures of anything that strikes your fancy. These could be images of objects, swatches of color, a cool pattern, a word or phrase, whatever. Once you have a bunch of them, try arranging them in different ways on your paper. You may find yourself abandoning some perfectly decent images because they don’t fit the mood of your collage. That’s fine. I had a nice looking Irish castle that I set aside because it was far too ostentatious and sunny to for the tone of my collage. Once you’ve picked your pieces and arranged them, glue them to the paper.

Here’s the one I did:

story collage

Now, ask yourself questions.

What is the mood of this collage? What adjectives jump to mind when you look at it?

Somber. Mysterious. Ancient. Hidden. Cold. Trapped. Feathered. Twilit.

What are the common elements in these pictures?

There are a lot of dark cool colors in here, purples and blues and greens.  A lot of stone–rocks on the beach, in the mosaic. Some of the patterns look like prints in stone. The feathers hint at brighter colors and warmth.

What are some of the surprising connections (these are what will spark the most interesting ideas because they suggest conflict)?

Why are the feathers in this collage? After all that brick and stone, they bring life and warmth, but it is a trapped life. I have this sense of a tropical bird far from home in a cold place, with mysterious life-draining rituals. And what’s with that college library with the lit windows on the left side? It doesn’t quite fit the collage, as if there were two timelines or stories running parallel to each other, intersecting only… where? With the finding of a stone artifact or a feathered cape?

… and so on.

Again, the answers to those questions will spark more questions. Follow these rabbit trails. Be inspired.

Till next time.