Dear Library Guy, Sorry for Stealing Your Hat; or, The Advantages of Writing in Public
Lately I've been having trouble concentrating on my writing here at home. Much of it is due to the incredible distraction of the Internet. If you're here at my blog... you know what I mean.
So this week I started loading up my stuff and heading to the library. I stake out my table and pull some reference books off the shelf (baby name books for characters... an atlas for place-names). It works out rather well actually.
The best thing is that I can become completely lazy as a writer by working at the library. Here's what I mean...
I was trying to think of a visual oddity for a character of mine. She's very gorgeous and skinny and model-perfect, but I wanted there to be something different about her. Something quirky and distinctive.
All of a sudden this guy walks into the library, wearing this butt-ugly blue-and-white pointy crocheted hat. Now, some crocheted hats out there are very cool. Some are Bob Marley-ish. Some are funky and rather jaunty.
This particular crocheted hat looked like something that Library Guy had stolen from a baby in a stroller. I went Googling for something similar so you could see what it looked like. The closest I came was this:
Don't get me wrong; it would look adorable on a baby. On an adult, it is perfectly ... UM... distinctive, quirky, and unforgettable. Now, I'm all for quirkiness. Some would say I'm just a TAD quirky myself. So is my character. In fact, this hat was MADE for her. This is the hat she's been DREAMING about ALL HER LIFE, but could never find. And she would have had to continue dreaming about it, were it not for Library Guy!
I love writing in public! I'll never stop doing it now. And yes, my gorgeous, skinny character now comes complete with a butt-ugly, babynapped, pointy crocheted hat. I must say--she looks FABULOUS in it.
So this week I started loading up my stuff and heading to the library. I stake out my table and pull some reference books off the shelf (baby name books for characters... an atlas for place-names). It works out rather well actually.
The best thing is that I can become completely lazy as a writer by working at the library. Here's what I mean...
I was trying to think of a visual oddity for a character of mine. She's very gorgeous and skinny and model-perfect, but I wanted there to be something different about her. Something quirky and distinctive.
All of a sudden this guy walks into the library, wearing this butt-ugly blue-and-white pointy crocheted hat. Now, some crocheted hats out there are very cool. Some are Bob Marley-ish. Some are funky and rather jaunty.
This particular crocheted hat looked like something that Library Guy had stolen from a baby in a stroller. I went Googling for something similar so you could see what it looked like. The closest I came was this:
Don't get me wrong; it would look adorable on a baby. On an adult, it is perfectly ... UM... distinctive, quirky, and unforgettable. Now, I'm all for quirkiness. Some would say I'm just a TAD quirky myself. So is my character. In fact, this hat was MADE for her. This is the hat she's been DREAMING about ALL HER LIFE, but could never find. And she would have had to continue dreaming about it, were it not for Library Guy!
I love writing in public! I'll never stop doing it now. And yes, my gorgeous, skinny character now comes complete with a butt-ugly, babynapped, pointy crocheted hat. I must say--she looks FABULOUS in it.
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