from unexpected places - men's street style

Anyone can be a main character.  What story belongs to this man?

Image via The Sartorialist

the well written - cornelia funke

Blue as the evening sky, blue as cranesbill flowers, blue as the lips of drowned
men and the heart of a blaze burning with too hot a flame. Yes, sometimes it
was hot in this world, too. Hot and cold, light and dark, terrible and beautiful,
it was everything all at once. It wasn't true that you felt nothing in the land of
Death. You felt and heard and smelled and saw, but your heart remained
strangely calm, as if it were resting before the dance began again.

Peace. Was that the word?

- Cornelia Funke, Inkdeath

By Helen Sewell

resources - short story collection

Here is a place to find short stories from authors like L. Frank Baum
to Leo Tolstoy to Edith Wharton.

By Stephanie Fizer Coleman

illustration - yoko tanji

Yoko Tanji's illustrations, provoking dreams and stories of discovery, wonder,
and vague melancholy.

on writing - margaret atwood

So much for endings. Beginnings are always more fun. True connoisseurs,
however, are known to favor the stretch in between, since it's the hardest to
do anything with. That's about all that can be said for plots, which anyway
are just one thing after another, a what and a what and a what.

- Margaret Atwood

the well written - margaret atwood

Old lovers go the way of old photographs, bleaching out gradually as in a
slow bath of acid: first the moles and pimples, then the shadings. Then the
faces themselves, until nothing remains but the general outlines.

- Margaret Atwood, Cat's Eye

from unexpected places - noveau motley on etsy

Noveau Motley on etsy makes steampunk-type jewelry.  Harry Potter had
its time turner.  Hugo needed a special key.  Lord of the Rings had, you know. 
What unique artifact could play a character in your next story?

the well written - ray bradbury

Bees do have a smell, you know, and if they don't they should, for their feet
are dusted with spices from a million flowers.

- Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine

illustration - alexander jansson

The vivid worlds of Alexander Jansson.

illustration - mark ryden

Mark Ryden.  Amazing.  Any number of strange, fanciful stories can
be had from his work.

a dreamer's wisdom - albert einstein again

If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. 
If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.

- Albert Einstein

a dreamer's wisdom - albert einstein

Imagination is more important than knowledge.  Knowledge is limited.
Imagination encircles the world.

- Albert Einstein

the well written - ed park

A few insect skeletons lay scattered on the narrow sill, shiny and
precise and sad as broken jewelry.

- Ed Park, Personal Days

By Sergey Krasnotcvetov

the well written - gregory maguire

The eye is always caught by light, but shadows have more to say.

- Gregory Maguire, Mirror Mirror

By Aaron Ebersole

illustration - goro fujita

These are amazing.  What wonderful worlds.  Fujita illustrates stories to inspire our own.

photo stories - crazy fashion in vogue uk

If you remember in Hunger Games, the elite of society were described
to wear elaborate costumes and crazy makeup.  If you're writing a story
with a similar element, fashion photography can be a great inspiration.
See below for an example.

Photographed by Mario Testino in Vogue UK May 2008.

on writing (fantasy) - ursula leguin

In reinventing the world of intense, unreproduceable, local knowledge, 
seemingly by a denial or evasion of current reality, fantasists are perhaps 
trying to assert and explore a larger reality than we now allow ourselves. 
They are trying to restore the sense — to regain the knowledge — that 
there is somewhere else, anywhere else, where other people may live 
another kind of life. The literature of imagination, even when tragic, is 
reassuring, not necessarily in the sense of offering nostalgic comfort, but 
because it offers a world large enough to contain alternatives, and 
therefore offers hope. 

- Ursula LeGuin, The Critics, the Monsters, and the Fantasists

Read the whole essay here.

the well written - neil gaiman

Speaking of fairy tales, Gaiman did an amazing re-telling of the Snow
White fairy tale called Snow, Glass, Apples.  Absolutely amazing. 
And inspiring.  You can read it here.

By Julie Dillon

illustration - ofra amit

If any of you are trying their hand at rewriting a classic fairy tale, these
illustrations could serve as inspiration.  Amit gives each tale a different
atmosphere, altering perspective and mood, as a great rewrite should do.

a dreamers wisdom - roald dahl

And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you
because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places.
Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.

- Roald Dahl

By Mary Ann Licudine

from the screen - buffy the vampire slayer

Tara to Buffy, as the first slayer:
I have no speech, no name. I live in the action of death. The blood cry,
the penetrating wound. I am destruction, absolute, alone.
You think you know... what's to come... what you are. You haven't even begun.

- Written by Joss Whedon, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Restless"

on writing - the well written - patricia a. mckillip

Imagination is the golden-eyed monster that never sleeps.
It must be fed; it cannot be ignored.

- Patricia A. McKillip

By Goro Fujita

on writing - henry miller

COMMANDMENTS for writers, by Henry Miller.

Work on one thing at a time until finished.
Start no more new books, add no more new material to “Black Spring.”
Don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.
Work according to Program and not according to mood. Stop at the appointed time!
When you can’t create you can work.
Cement a little every day, rather than add new fertilizers.
Keep human! See people, go places, drink if you feel like it.
Don’t be a draught-horse! Work with pleasure only.
Discard the Program when you feel like it—but go back to it next day. Concentrate. Narrow down. Exclude.
Forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book youare writing.
Write first and always. Painting, music, friends, cinema, all these come afterwards.

resources - h.p. lovecraft short stories collection

Here you can find a collection of Lovecraft stories... in case you're the
darker kind of storyteller.  Enjoy.

By Mark Draws

illustration - gabriel pacheco

These illustrations have a haunted, melancholy feeling.  It could be a great 

exercise to try to write a paragraph or short story that captures this mood.

the well written - george macdonald

People must believe what they can, and those who believe more must
not be hard upon those who believe less. I doubt if you would have
believed it all yourself if you hadn't seen some of it.

- George MacDonald, The Princess and the Goblin

Illustration by Nick Harris.

photo stories - sarah moon

Lovely last name, isn't it?

This is a story about a beautiful clown with a day job as a hotel maid.
Or something like that. You decide.

the well written - h.p. lovecraft

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest
and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.

-H.P. Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror in Literature

illustration - justin gerard

The work of Justin Gerard.

Steampunk Wizard of Oz. Flying sea turtles. Tea with a dragon. Sleeping dragon.
Amazing. Imagine the same.

on writing - ursula le guin

A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they
say it. Writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so
they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight. By using
words well they strengthen their souls. Story-tellers and poets spend their
lives learning that skill and art of using words well. And their words make
the souls of their readers stronger, brighter, deeper.

-Ursula Le Guin

She is so wise. Check out her quotes page on Goodreads.

By Chris Van Allsburg

a dreamer's wisdom - unknown

Big ideas don't make themselves known as big. They begin with the little
ridiculous ideas that most people would discard or reject.

-From some interview in Interview Magazine, but I didn't write down with who!

illustration - shaun tan

These are from children's graphic novelist Shaun Tan. Most are from his
book The Arrival. Simply amazing. Similar to the feel of Chris Van Allsburg,
but with Tan's own spin. By all means, be inspired in your own storytelling.