20 Questions & The Power of Pinterest.

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First, let me start with a huge thank you to everyone who has looked at my blog and read my first post - a huge 142 views in the first 24 hours, and from all over the world! I was very flattered. I'm now under immense pressure to keep you all coming back and reading...

In my first post (here) I talked a little about music as an influence from which writing ideas can stem. To quickly say something about music influencing setting, it doesn't happen with every song, very few in fact. The tiny, subtle aspects of a place are what make it vivid and opaque; get those perfect and you can cut other decription to a miminum without missing any detail. Music can give you a fleeting glimpse of something powerful; a tiny flash which is hard to materialise. You need to find a way to take that tiny piece and attach words to it until it becomes something tangible, but without losing the focus or integrity of the original inspiration. It can be almost impossible. But get it right and it's so magical it becomes an addiction.

Knowing a setting in detail, either in real life or in your mind if it's not a real place, is key to being able to write it in such a way that it will engage readers and elicit the response you want from them. For a masterclass in description, try James Sallis's short novel Driven. (It's the sequel to Drive, which was made into the film with Ryan Gosling, and just as stylish, if a little short on plot.) 

Finally, I have spent the week working on building a main protagonist for my Back Room project; a venture which for me always begins at Pinterest. I like to build a character out from an image, so I hunt for images which combine looks and fashion sense, and which also hint at a situation I can imagine that character in. I then workshop the character using the list I've included below. Much of the detail included here will never make it to the page, but knowing the answers to these questions is crucial for me  in digging into a character's mind and making them convincing.

1. Tea of coffee?
2. Night owl or early bird? 
3. Where do they call 'home'? Do they miss it?
4. Describe their family relationships.
5. Describe their sock drawer in three words.
6. Your character has a collection of something. What is it?
7. Look at today's cinema listing. If you had to send them to see a film, what would it be?
8. A child breaks their expensive phone/watch/sunglasses. How do they react?
9. Describe their favourite piece of clothing.
10. What would you find in the glovebox of their car?
11. They have an injury. What is it and how did they get it?
12. Have they ever stolen anything? Why?
13. Are they good at their job? What makes them good/bad at it?
14. What is their biggest regret? Have they ever told anyone?
15. When did they last have sex? Who with?
16. It's Sunday. What is your character doing?
17. They just won £1m on the lottery. Now how does their Sunday look?
18. Their phone rings at 1am. Who's calling?
19. How would their best friend describe them? 
20. How would a psychiatrist describe them?

...and if you didn't just go through that list and answer the questions about yourself, you will now!