Yes, you read that right. Anything that you watch can be fuel for your writing, if you watch it the right way. If you watch the television actively, instead of passively, you can actually increase your productivity and add verisimilitude to your work at the same time.
Over the last eighteen months especially, I’m sure that we’ve all had times when hours — and possibly a tub of ice cream — have disappeared as you’ve sat in front of the TV. Do you remember even half of what you watched? Passively watching TV will only detract from your creativity. Now imagine if you’d watched actively… your productivity would have soared.
No, you don’t have to sit primly with a cup of tea, twinset and pearls watching documentaries — unless you want to, of course. You can watch whatever you want, simply tweak your attitude as to how.
I’ll talk about the “what” first, before the “how”.
Keep your genre in mind when choosing what to watch. Historical, Regency, or Paranormal? I’ll keep the choices narrow, but the ideas can be applied across any sub-genre, no matter how narrow.
An important thing to note is that you aren’t watching the show for the historical content, this is frequently completely inaccurate; The Tudors, for example, conflated two of Henry VIII’s sisters into one. No, the historical details you’ll have to do the hard way. What you are watching for are the details of the sets and the costumes.
How do the fabrics move? How do the gems gleam in the ‘candlelight’? How is the room furnished? How big is the fireplace? Choose which shows to watch depending on the historical period in which your work is set.
The other thing that you are looking for are characters for your novels. If you spot an actor who epitomises your main characters, take a note of their name and find a photo on the web.
Paranormal requires different parameters. Since most are contemporary, we already know the details of how the world works, and I presume that you’ve already made up your own ‘rules’ for your Supernatural characters; your wolves may not be ruled by the moon and able to shift at any time, for example.
In one of these shows, you are searching for ways to describe the shift, how the character’s body morphs with any FX used, and this shift could be different depending on whether the effects are achieved by make-up, prosthetics, or CGI.
Pinterest would be the easiest way to collect the photos that you gather — and you will get quite the collection before too long. You could create a board per book, or could separate the Pins into settings, furniture, characters, and so on.
This comes with a caveat however, you may move from the lounge and Netflix, to the lounge, Netflix and Pinterest. This is called procrastination, and should be avoided. To avoid that trap, I’ve found that the best way to collect this information is on paper. You will be able to print out your avatars and sum up your book in the one place.
The other thing that you should get into the habit of doing, is to keep your notebook with you at all times. Someone makes a jolly jape with Queen Elizabeth I? Write it down, continue the scene, erase the original trigger and replace it with your own. You will be surprised at how much of your novel then only has to be transcribed from your notebook.
So next time someone says that you’re watching too much TV and you should be writing instead, tell them that you are “observing the drape of the velvet on Queen Elizabeth I’s dress and how the lighting affects the glint of the gems contained within her jewellery. Also, how the shadows move and flicker in the light of the candles. Plus, it’s absolutely fascinating to see how the flames roar up the chimneys.”
Just make sure that you press pause first.
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