Posts Tagged ‘Influences’

Lighthouses In A Sea Of Time

Posted July 12, 2010 under Entertainment, Writing | Tagged: , | 1 Comment

I’ve spoken before about my love of the animated series Gargoyles, and watching a few episodes these past few days has only served to remind me even more.

The episode I have just watched is “A Lighthouse In A Sea Of Time”, a very special episode about the importance of literacy. Unlike a lot of other VSEs though, “A Lighthouse In A Sea Of Time” (and the episode “Deadly Force”, about dangers of improper use of guns and the importance of respect and proper care of them) doesn’t come across as preachy, and as well as getting their message across they are also used as springboards for character development.

And if nothing else, “A Lighthouse In A Sea Of Time” gives us the following quote at the end, in-story as the forward of a novel a guest (and eventually recurring) character begins to write:

The written word is all that stands between memory and oblivion. Without books as our anchors, we are cast adrift, neither teaching nor learning. They are windows on the past, mirrors on the present, and prisms reflecting all possible futures. Books are lighthouses, erected in the dark sea of time.

If books are the lighthouses, then those of us who write are the lighthouse keepers. I don’t know about you, but I quite like that idea.

Monday Inspiration: Pushing Daisies

Posted March 1, 2010 under Writing | Tagged: , | 2 Comments

In an attempt to motivate myself into posting more often on this blog (even without comparisons to On The Nightstand, postage here is rather lacking), I have decided to do A Thing – an attempt at a weekly meme where I post one thing (a picture, a quote, a video, a song) that has inspired or influenced my writing/a story in one way or another.

Ned and Chuck

Ned and Chuck, the central couple in the prematurely deceased TV show Pushing Daisies, helped inspire me with regards to defining a few subtle traits that help key into the personalities of Delia and Daniel (the MCs of my first novel, Blood Bound). Dee and Daniel were very much formed by the time I really got into Pushing Daisies, but when I noticed vague similarities between the two sets (tall, adorkable and able to bring people into a state of second-life-ish vs short, bubbly and very much alive) another thing became defined.

I had already instinctively started to settle them into a colour scheme (Daniel in somber colours, like Ned, and Dee is brighter ones, like Chuck), but upon noticing the deliberate colour and style schemes for characters1 I began to pay much closer to clothes and colours, and enhanced the difference in their personalities by looking to characters like Ned and Chuck (mostly Chuck) as ‘fashion models’ for Dee and Daniel.

It seems like such a simple thing, really, but until Pushing Daisies, I just didn’t see it.2 So: inspiration/influence.

  1. Yes, yes, I know, I was slow. I was clothes (and other stuff) dumb then. [↩]
  2. Now though I have Seanne. She talks all about different things to do with filming like angles and lighting and costuming and filters it is all very very useful to hear. [↩]