In the past I've been struck by inspiration while out for a walk in the park. The trees, the flowers and all the colours and smells of nature, but today, instead of being inspired by nature I was moved while working on a demolition and remodel of a bathroom in a very old A-frame house. It wasn't the beauty of the architecture that I was fascinated with, but rather the decay and history I saw as I ripped down the walls and exposed the framework of the house.
Looking at the insides of the walls and the layers (literally layers of history in the wallpaper) on the walls as I tore them down was amazing. Even someone with the smallest imagination would have been amazed when they realised there were 4 different layers of wall paper exposed on one wall.
I also created stories about the water damage and the dust and grime. I also practised how to describe it so that a reader could see the creeping black mould as it snaked up the cracked wall, through the pealing pastel wall paper and onto the rotten, exposed wood behind, up to the buckling ceiling like a tide of destruction lapping at the walls, poisoning and breaking every surface it touches.
Look at these pictures. Find something that speaks to you and describe it.
Or think of when you would use some of these pictures to inspire descriptions in your writing.
For example:
Look at this Lath and Plaster wall. Used up until the 1950s.
Lath and Plaster, with the rough wooden slats, plaster pouring through the gaps, giant wad of hair and discarded cloth poking through holes in the wall.
All these details could be used in a horror story set in an old house.
Or:
You could describe all 4 types of wall paper in this room during a chapter where a family is renovating the late grandparent's house to resell and reminiscing about all the generations that the house had housed.
I like to fixate on little details, but you have to know when to describe and when to let the reader's imagination do most of the work.
For example:
I could choose to describe every inch of this picture, or I could simply tell you it was an old bathroom, stripped of walls, leaving the old, worn skeleton of the walls exposed. From that sentence the reader understands that there are no walls, and they don;t know Lath and Plaster, but they know the old, worn wall is exposed.
On the contrary I would describe the layers of peeling wallpaper; the bold geometric patterns, the pastel coloured florals and the faded red apple visible through a tear in the top layers of paper. The red apple, bright and warm in a sea of pale, dirty and cold dried out old paper. I would describe the faded white chefs that had faded from exposure to the Sun except from a patch behind the toilet where water damage had discoloured one with mould.
Textures, colours, smells, emotions, memories, everything can be a descriptor to describe the room. The decay of this room makes me feel sick. BAM! The reader knows the room is unappealing in its current state.
"My hand unintentionally moved to the collar of my shirt and held it over my nose as I entered."
"My mind danced in wonder at the families that had shared this room. A bathroom covered in little chefs. What would it be like to brush your teeth every night, look around and have an undeniable urge to eat an apple or bake a pie?"
Inspiration comes in all shapes and sizes. Today it came to me in the form of age, wear and decay. Beautiful in its own way and exceptionally descriptive, if you know how translate the story.
Happy Writing!
-Brandolyn
Anything stand out to you? Any amazing descriptors that you can't wait to use? I hope so.
Leave me a comment and give me an example. Thanks!
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