Blog Prompt: How Artwork Affects My Writing

This is the first of this week's blog-prompts, and for me, it's a pretty good one. I have a writer's prompt blog, and a Pinterest board with fantasy images for writing prompts, I bought tons of images, and have used free sites too. And we all know about the blog-prompt group, since I usually post from it at least once a week. I also had a Musicians with a Pen, group, but lacking vision, it bit the dust pretty fast.

For me, inspiration comes from everywhere, and when I'm writing, the muse goes all over the place. I've tried writing the ideas down, but I've found that the vision still wavers with time. So, to avoid that problem, I started writing terrible first drafts. I know that's okay, but the worse they are, the more difficult I find the rewrite to be. I have a couple of great novels coming as soon as I finish those rewrites.

My fascination with images began when I told a writing partner I wanted to write a dragon story. Waiting to hash out the plot and details, he kept asking if I had started yet, and finally sent me a website with incredible dragon images. I loved it, and spent hours flipping through them, in awe of the talent of the artists. I wasn't on Pinterest at that time, but many of those images on there now. Here is the link to the website if anyone wants to check it out. http://wall.alphacoders.com/

I use images and music to inspire me when I need a specific mood, or when the feel of the story needs correction,  although I've been known to sit down and write exactly what I believe the characters would feel, and how their specific personality would react to a given situation. Images are much faster than that.

Here are some of the images from Reflections that I've found inspiring, and why.

Juliette is my main character. When the story begins, she is a Regency era, teenager. She's arrogant, and cruel. When the story ends she has learned survival skills in some very difficult conditions, and she' learned how to love, and treat people with respect.

My character has dark hair, initially worn in the ringlets that were popular in her time, but as time moves on, her clothing and look have to change too, so she wears her hair down. While Reflections is a YA fantasy/fairy-tale. this image shows a touch of beautiful, sexy, arrogance, and a stubbornness that will make her strong.

I loved the idea of a female centaur and was so excited when I found this image on Shutterstock. Actually, all these images came from Shutterstock.

The woman is beautiful, she has style, but she is sassy, and she is not weak. She can stand up and defend herself in almost any situation, and take care of herself too.

My beloved Zylphia. A witch with a vendetta that refuses to take any sass from anybody. She loves her niece, but she expects Emily to obey her, and she will keep Juliette and the exotic creatures she's taken into her world, under her thumb where they belong.

Colovere, the unicorn in Reflection. He embodies wisdom. He is a King, and he is fiercely loyal. He has a clearing in the middle of the forest that he's claimed for himself. He love unconditionally, and chooses to love without wisdom at times. It was impossible to find a unicorn with a white body, black horn, tail and mane, and a gold spiral that corkscrews around his horn. This was the closest I could come.

If you want to check out my Pinterest boards, you can find them here: https://www.pinterest.com/jenabaxterbooks/

If you want to join my blog-prompt group, you can find us here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1469855100007740/

If you want to check out the Writer's Corner blog, you can find it here: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/jenabaxter


What inspires you?