from unexpected places - accidental archive

For some reason, I find collections of objects very inspiring, however
they're organized - color, shape, era, etc.  So these photographs by
Sara Cwynar really caught my eye.  Maybe it's the overall impression
that inspires, or being forced to pay attention and sort the items out,
but there are magical stories here - magical or scientific, surreal,
romantic, quirky, and more.  Sort through and see..

Observations often tell more about the observer than the observed.
- Chris Geiger

from unexpected places - willow holster

So there's this fascinating book edited by Jeff Vandermeer called
The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities.  It's full of short
stories posing as real anecdotes of Lambshead's life and collection.
What was extra fascinating to me were these little blurbs in the back
- more anecdotes, but little paragraphs of mystery and eccentricity
instead of full-on stories.  Let the imagination bleed; I was very
inspired by these and I think you would be too.  Here's one:

Silence, One Ounce—Origins unknown. Found amongst the
possessions of the recently deceased Frank Hayes, thirty-four, who
tragically lost his life when he stepped in front of a public bus that
failed to stop. Its provenance is thought to include M. Twain, W.
Wilson, and the Marquis de Sade. Handle with care, not to be
administered more than one drop at a time. Silence is golden, but
too much will kill you. (blurb by Willow Holster)

By Tess

from unexpected places - alex jochim

If you're looking for a story trigger exercise not based on starter
lines or single images, use these photo collages by Alex Jochim,
which could be twisted and turned to conform to any genre.

What do a palm tree, a raccoon, a man dancing by himself at
night, and a crowd of spectators have to do with one another?

from unexpected places - pretend vintage magic

These photos - whether real, photoshopped, or manipulated in
some way - are stunning, capturing a vague and compelling
feeling of magic.  Rapunzel, the borrowers, tinker bell, wizards
and witches.  It's interesting to see magical images caught in
photographs instead of illustrations for a change, photos
treated to feign being fished out of your grandmother's attic.
Maybe one of these could inspire a story - what magic and
whimsy is being glimpsed here?

I think, at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother
to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

By Charles B. Carma

By Joanna Pallaris

from unexpected places - kate fichard

I've mentioned this before, and I'm doing it again because I
think it's a fun exercise....  If your character had to be
represented through a series of objects, what would they be?
These photos by Fichard are fun examples of the exercise -
a person represented by things.

SUZY
This is my record player.  It works with batteries.  Actually,
it belongs to my little brother Lionel.  I left him a note.  Do
you like music?..  This is my favorite record album.  My
godmother gave it to me for my birthday.  She lives in France.
These are my books.  I like stories with magic powers in them.
either in kingdoms on earth or on foreign planets.  Also, time
travel, if they make it realistic.  Usually, I prefer a girl hero,
but not always.  I couldn't bring all of them because it got too
heavy.  You can borrow any you want.  I also brought my
lefty scissors because I'm left-handed, my toothbrush, some
rubber bands, extra batteries, and my binoculars, as you know.
I forgot my comb.

SAM
That's it?  No mess kit?  no flashlight?  No canteen?

- Moonrise Kingdom, Screenplay by Wes Anderson

from unexpected places - vintage stamps

What stories can be found in the opening of a letter, the sealing
of one, the placing of the stamp, ink on fingers, pen and paper
left on desk, the walk to the mailbox... These are from the
stamp club pool on flickr.  How many different tales can you
brainstorm from these miniature pieces of art?

The contents of this letter threw Elizabeth into a flutter of
spirits in which it was difficult to determine whether pleasure
or pain bore the greatest share.
- Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

from unexpected places - mutter museum

The Mutter Museum in Philadelphia houses all sorts of odd
skeletons, molds of bodily stigmas, photographs of patients of
interest, x-rays, even slides of Einstein's brains.  The associated
book about the museum says in its forward, "While these bodies
may be ugly, there is a terrifying beauty in the spirits of those
forced to endure these afflictions."  They are also dark
inspirations and someday, stories.

What is important is the story. Because when we are all dust and
teeth and kicked-up bits of skin - when we're dancing with our
own skeletons - our words might be all that's left of us.
- Alexandra Fuller, Scribbling The Cat

from unexpected places - toy stories

Some amazing stories are centered around toys - The Velveteen 
Rabbit, the Toy Story franchise, even The Dollhouse Murders,
if you want to go a darker route.  In this series, Much Loved, by
Mark Nixon, teddy bears are the main characters.  Nixon took
photographs of old and much loved bears and collected the
stories behind them.  Have a look at the photos and anecdotes
and walk down memory lane with your own teddies or polly
pockets or gigapets, and so on.

You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen
often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who
have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real,
most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and
you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't
matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except
to people who don't understand.

- Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

Teddy (age 22)

Teddy Tingley (age 45)

from unexpected places - dioramas and miniatures

It's possible that a big story could be inspired by something small or
miniature...  These artists offer intriguing scenes born from the stews
of horror, childhood lolling, science fiction, and adventure fantasies
involving giant octopi and mutant bunnies.  Dioramas fascinate
children the world over.  They don't even have to be about something
fantastical; they just are fantastical by nature - little worlds to carry in
an old bottle or shoe box.  What inspired us then can inspire us now..
Have a look.

Never would I allow my size to define me. Instead I would define it.
- Melanie Benjamin, The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb: A Novel

There's a great power of imagination about these little children, and
a creative fancy and belief that is very curious to watch.  I am
determined that Anny shall have a very extensive and instructive
store of learning in Tom Thumbs, Jack-the-Giant-Killers, etc.
- William Makepeace Thackeray

Jonah Samson

By Erin Tyner

from unexpected places - ania cywinska's collages

I stumbled upon these by Ania Cywinska.  Most are from a series
entitled, "Snow Queen".  They're not all the way illustration nor all
the way photography, but what I love is that they definitely give
an impression of a story - one about a psychopathic empress on a
remote planet decades into its dystopia maybe, and the two girls that
tried to challenge her.  Each collage reeks of mood, builds it with
every positioning, combination, and tint.  So congrats to Ania.
And our stories should do the same.

It was an evil doom that set her in his path. For she is a fair maiden,
fairest lady of a house of queens. And yet I know not how I should
speak of her. When I first looked on her and perceived her
unhappiness, it seemed to me that I saw a white flower standing
straight and proud, shapely as a lily and yet knew that it was hard, as
if wrought by elf-wrights out of steel.
- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

from unexpected places - beauty photography

We all know the skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair 
as black as ebony.  Appearances are powerful, even the glittering
ways they can be described, and some rise to icon status like that of
Snow White.  Of course, a character's appearance doesn't have to be
described in such a sharp way, but sometimes doing this can serve a
story.  So what amazing things mark your characters, fantastical,
science fiction-style, or human?  Does he or she have silver at the
inner edges of their eyes?  Gold eyelashes?  Ever-puckered lips?

She seemed, in the drenching light, to be made of gold, honey,
cornsilk; bees, drawn to her scent, clung to the fat braid down her
back.  She covered her face with her hands and shook her head
violently.  Drops of gold fell between her fingers.

- Patricia A. McKillup, In the Forests of Serre

By Boris Ovini, Dahse Mag

Vogue Nippon

from unexpected places - movie poster design

These minimalist movie posters sum up key moods and plot points
in a single simple image.  What silhouette and color palatte would
belong to your story?  (Via DesignInspiration.net)

from unexpected places - vintage astronomy prints

These are from Etsy's Antique Print Store.  What kind of characters
would own them?  What kind lived through some of these spectacles,
lives forever changed by wonder?  Are any of these characters yours?

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.
- Carl Sagan

Ziva Comet, 1858

Comet Nuclei, 1940's

from unexpected places - peculiar objects

Each of these has a story...  the first could be the house of a traveling gnome,
the second the shoes of a futuristic mistress in an urban fantasy, then tagging
rings in a science fiction adventure, an enigmatic instrument that is the
subject of a historical fiction piece similar to The Red Violin, then a head
dress in a hybrid science fiction/fantasy, an instrument of a culture long
extinct, and last, a wicked witch's disguise or a robot's masquerade attire.

Or whatever else you dream up.

Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.

- Albert Einstein

Gnome house, a blogger called it

Designed by Aoi Kotsuhiroi

from unexpected places - strange houses

The old woman who lived in a shoe, James and the giant peach, the seven
large trees, each with a hole in its hollow trunk as large as a boy, which are
the entrances to the Lost Boys' underground home - these are just a few of
the strange houses in literature.

What about these?  What stories do they hold? (via HouseLogic)

Portugal

Alaska

from unexpected places - venezuela

For 140 to 160 nights out of the year, for 10 hours at a time, the sky above
where the Catatumbo River flows into Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela the
river is pierced by almost constant lightning, producing as many as 280
strikes per hour.  Known as the "Relampago del Catatumbo," this lightning
storm has been raging, on and off, for as long a people can remember.
(via Atlas Obscura)

Sounds like the location for a great story.

By Gustavo Durán

from unexpected places - character round up

I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters that I am not.
I write to explore all the things I'm afraid of.

- Joss Whedon

Do any of these characters belong to you?

Via Mr. Newton

Via Dulceida

from unexpected places - cartier collections

One piece in each of these photos is actually a Cartier Jeweler creation.
And any could offer up a story...  Is one a robot among the real?
A witch's magicked pet?  A princess' pin breathed to life?
A self-aware museum artifact wishing to be like all the other flowers?

Via Trendland

from unexpected places - flower guides

If you're ever writing a forest scene, or about a garden, a fairy with purple flowers
in her hair, a forlorn bride picking apart her bouquet, or a retelling of the Narcissus
legend and you need a dose of visual inspiration, stop by weddingchicks to see
their flower guides, organized by color.

from unexpected places - on writing - unique photography

Photos have the potential to give us ideas on how to describe moments in our stories.
Maybe the action is intensely on a main character, the rest of the details fade at a sharp
slope from there - friends, circumstances, location.  Perhaps it is from above, searching,
mentioning all kinds of details with equal care before diving into something specific.
Or it may be on a strange detail like the way of a character's lips, the look of a mole on
his noise, the startling color of his eyes.

Fisheye, wide-angle, monochrome, black and white, macro, micro, tilt-shift.
What is your story saying?

By Seleznev A.

By soberanglophile (expired)

By Herb Ritts