#they both require equal measure of I don't care about your meltdown I have a job to do

[ardeawritten]

Writing references:

In university art and illustration classes, a big part of any big project was the reference library for it. We had to present a collection of visual references and inspirations that went into the final piece. Could be anything from sidewalk leaves to museum classics, but we had to have our refs in-hand and acknowledged. For writing, it’s still a large part of the process. None of us writes in a vacuum free of external influence, and the greater your reference base, the richer your writing will be.

Since Physics of the Crowbar is what I have finished, I’m using that one as an example :P here’s what went into it, that I can identify offhand at least!

-Aside from the actual source material itself and the experience of playing it, which is 99% of it naturally

-Gordon R. Dickson’s Danger--Human short story

-Philip K. Dick’s short stories for almost nonchalant treatment of background/fridge horror

-That one Asimov story I can’t find now about the crew who needs 1 self-sacrificial person to do a thing to free them, and the guy who is willing to risk himself is the guy who just really wants to go home

-Star Wars:NJO’s Yuuzhan Vong series with its focus on living/integrated technology and genetic manipulation as technological advancement

-Beautiful Mind & Imitation Game films for socially inept yet brilliant and driven scientists (and a lot of life lived with an equally brilliant and equally socially inept scientist in the house)

-My own experience with sudden wound pain, chronic internal pain, and getting sick from painkillers 

-Firefighting & triage training for “it’s not my job to save them, it’s my job to live” 

-Food services & incident recorder training for “it’s not my job to have an emotion, it’s my job to get this done right”

-Artworks of Joseph Grigely, communication as filtered through handwritten text on paper

-That one comic I mentioned about the body being a pet you didn’t want but now are stuck taking care of (I am still looking for it)

-Observing and participating in taking & butchering animals, lots of experience with fresh blood and dismantling carcasses (Disclaimer: purely for food, as part of controlled take or as part of routine farm life) ((insert obligatory authors / murderers joke))

-Biblical teaching referring to the body as both an amazing machine and a fallible mortal object in contrast to an immortal intellect

And I’m sure that isn’t all of them! And this is just for a fanfic I wrote because I liked the game and wanted the challenge. For my “takes it seriously” writing, there’s a lot more intention behind the references. It’s not derivative to use inspiration and resources; it broadens your literary horizons and enriches your language base and every single author out there does it.

#writing references #writing refs #writers library #read a ton from varied sources and seek things outside your own experience and viewpoint #I am not a published author I'm just a writer who likes to write #but I have seen a lot of authors' libraries and believe me they did not write in absence of other writers #also the similarity between attitude in food services and in emergency incident response is hilarious #they both require equal measure of I don't care about your meltdown I have a job to do #text post #long text post