Curiousity and its companion, Awareness

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dirtsider

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I've always loved older buildings, particularly historical ones, as my family would often go to historical sites on vacations. (Dad loves history.) But now that I'm writing again, I find myself noticing little nooks and crannies in these old buildings. Stuff like a small door by the stair case in my friend's house that kind of looks like a laundry shoot or a door that looks like it leads to stairs in an older building. I've also noticed things in a small little tourist trap of a historical town I love to hang out at, that there are some buildings and things that are now out of place but might have been used in the past. And they make me stop and think: What were they used for and can I use them in my writing? It's gotten to the point where I'm regularly bringing a camera with me, just so I can get a picture for visual references.

Anyone else notice that little things, odd things, grab their attention more? For the most part, I write fantasy - both medieval and urban.
 
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...It's gotten to the point where I'm regularly bringing a camera with me, just so I can get a picture for visual references...

Quoted for truth.

Excellent idea.

I never go anywhere without my mobile phone; not so people can get in touch with me, but because of the 2.3mp camera on it.
 

dclary

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I photograph locations everywhere I go for use in my stories. I photograph people, anything. Details matter, and when you realize that, you start looking for them.

You've just taken your first step in a larger universe.
 

dirtsider

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I photograph locations everywhere I go for use in my stories. I photograph people, anything. Details matter, and when you realize that, you start looking for them.

You've just taken your first step in a larger universe.

I've always liked poking around at things when I go places. Now I just have a camera with me and a focus for it. And having spent time as a volunteer at a local historical farm which is very hands-on, I now have itchy fingers as well. No, actually - I had itchy fingers before where I always wanted to reach out and touch things to feel the fabric or the material. Working at the farm, which is, like I said, very hands-on and meant to be that way, just made it worse.
 

tehuti88

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The main location I write about (I write a fantasy version of it, of course) is a place I've visited ever since I was a child, but I didn't notice much about it when I went there when little. It was just a place. I liked one funhouse there but the rest of the place, I didn't care for it, didn't even know it existed. I wasn't interested in stuff like trees and woodland paths and caves and rock formations, much less in history or myths.

Over the years I began to write about this place and over time, my interest in it just grew and grew. I learned about the myths surrounding the place. Then the native culture. Then the natural formations. I started looking up all sorts of obscure books on the location. I looked at old postcards online and wished I could learn more, more, more. I lamented when I learned that some old landmarks no longer existed. I even wished I could get in touch with an expert on the subject.

I once said to somebody who wrote to me, "I wish I could find somebody who loves this place as much as I do." To which they replied, "You won't. Nobody loves that place as much as you do."

I think there's a strong argument for that, considering that I've written over four hundred chapters of fantasy serial about it and plan to write more!

I go there every year now and I notice all the trees and paths and rocks and all the tiny things that most of the visitors never even bother looking at. I look at odd fungi and fallen trees and spiderwebs strung between trunks and tiny paths obscured by cedars. I adore finding new things there, even in places I've already walked. I spend hours just walking and looking around, I love it so much.

I'm sure I'm the same way with other things, too, now that I write so much. When we went to visit a beautiful natural spring once, for example, I was the only one paying acute attention to the way the roots of the nearby cedars looped out of the ground and dug into little waterholes. I was fascinated by that. I wanted to remember it, to put it in a story someday.
 

dirtsider

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I go there every year now and I notice all the trees and paths and rocks and all the tiny things that most of the visitors never even bother looking at. I look at odd fungi and fallen trees and spiderwebs strung between trunks and tiny paths obscured by cedars. I adore finding new things there, even in places I've already walked. I spend hours just walking and looking around, I love it so much.

I'm sure I'm the same way with other things, too, now that I write so much. When we went to visit a beautiful natural spring once, for example, I was the only one paying acute attention to the way the roots of the nearby cedars looped out of the ground and dug into little waterholes. I was fascinated by that. I wanted to remember it, to put it in a story someday.

LOL - now you make me want to go back to where I went to college and see if they still have the paths through the woods that I recall being there. One of my favorite places there was a bridge crossing a creek which was surrounded by cedars. Considering it's down in the Pine Barrens, most of the area should still be tree covered.
 
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