The Place is the Thing by Nevada McPherson
I’ve written a few times about what inspires me and asked what inspires you in your writing. One thing I keep coming back to are places that inspire my stories and characters.
I’ve written a few times about what inspires me and asked what inspires you in your writing. One thing I keep coming back to are places that inspire my stories and characters.
What fuels you to write? Passion? The rage to tell a story at all costs? Those things are certainly key and you can’t do it without them but in this case what fuel do you use to invite the muse?
Let’s welcome back monthly columnist Nevada McPherson as she shares with us “Bend Your Mind, Stretch Your Imagination!” Enjoy!
Let’s welcome back monthly columnist Nevada McPherson as she shares with us “Adaptations and Transformations for 2017!” Enjoy!
I’ve been watching lots of news lately (probably way too much) and now that the election is over I’m still watching news but am also enjoying getting back into my favorite scripted T.V. shows, looking at non-news print media, and catching up on some reading in other subjects.
The weather has just turned cooler where I live and with it I notice the light in the afternoon has a different quality. In the summer heat it’s difficult to imagine these brisk, golden days will ever arrive and when they finally do I greet them with joy and a renewed sense of purpose.
I recently saw the film Florence Foster Jenkins, starring Meryl Streep in the title role. It’s about the New York heiress and socialite who loved music with a passion and supported musical productions with her patronage. She herself also sang—badly. Surrounded by a coterie of friends who complimented her singing and encouraged her, she performed private recitals and developed a devoted cult following.
Greetings! Hope your summer reading and writing projects are coming along nicely. If you’ve been busy with other summer activities you’ve still got a few weeks to read a novel or two or to pen a rough draft before fall arrives. I’ve personally been in the process of moving into a new apartment and am only now getting to some projects I’ve been planning.
I came across this quote on a bookmark the other day and was mindful of it the next time I went outside to sit on my back steps. There is a positive and grounding force in connecting with nature and I believe it feed and nurtures our creativity.
In the past I’ve discussed my evolving style and methods as I continue to learn the art of comics and the graphic novel. When I look at my past books I can see clearly how my drawing is changing to suit my voice. This graphic novel, Queensgate, contains mostly my hand-drawn frames, and I’d incorporated traced pictures of photographs I’d taken on my first trip to London.
In my last post I talked about how you should take every opportunity to talk about your work when you get the chance, to see what others have to say and to learn from the questions people ask. Sometimes they catch you off-guard in a way that makes you have to say something from the gut, and it forces a writer to be in the moment, and to be authentic.
Most writers know from the outset that this is a very solitary pursuit they’ve chosen, that there’s no other way to create than to spend long, often lonely hours at the keyboard or over a blank page, struggling to find just the right word, phrase or image.
When you sit down to create a novel, graphic novel, screenplay, or any other piece of writing, chances are you have a purpose in mind—an idea to get across, or just characters and a story to share with the world.
How are your writing resolutions going so far? Have you been meeting your writing goals? I’ve been working at it and succeeding to a certain extent but according to astrologers the planet Mercury has been retrograde since early January, scrambling communication, causing glitches in technology, delays for travelers and generally making it an uphill battle to get into an organized, efficient routine for making good on all those New Year’s resolutions.
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