The fifth in a fifteen-part short series, Meet the Writer. These posts were originally written as part of a #meetthewriter challenge facilitated by author Beth Kempton.
Companions for writing. There are so many, and this post only speaks to other writing that I keep close by when creating my own.
On that bookshelf I described the other day, the one that helps form the cozy nook in my office, are works from across time and genre.
Even just glancing over the spines of these works brings to mind the stories, literary styles, or images of compelling moments in each one. No matter what, there is always a deck of cards. Even when I used to be able to go out and about, I always had a mini Tarot deck with me; Tarot holds a wealth of stories!
But, these days, I can’t sit at my desk or read physical books. So I write/dictate wherever I am. Which means that it’s typically just a Tarot deck nearby. I always have library audio books on my phone, but the options are far more limited than physical books.
It feels important to point out that there is always research on hand (even if I’m crafting a small creative nonfiction or a poem).
For example, when I was working on my long form story back in the summer, I had a few books on a topic being woven into the story nearby and I referred to them regularly. Or when I was writing a piece that involved hummingbirds, I looked up high quality sources for information on hummingbirds. I recognize some folks may not consider research as “inspiration,” but in my experience, it certainly can be as much inspiration as it is fact checking and world building.
Finally, as much as these may seem more like reference, I also keep an emotional thesaurus and a dictionary of unusual words nearby. Did you know? I wrote a short story that turned into an epic scene, all based on one word from that dictionary!
Read more about my writing craft over here.