There are several things that feed my soul:
1. Literally food. Which is bad, because it means my soul is all fat and satisfied and filled with chocolate, but it also means my ass is fat and satisfied and filled with chocolate.
2. Films/television shows. Not only do they feed my soul, they also feed my stories. Images from film, particularly the films I loved as a child, are my single biggest writing influence. And yeah, I know it should probably be books, but it's just not. When I write about a lonely soldier on an outpost on some planet, falling for an android in the middle of a monster attack, it's the movie Aliens I'm seeing behind my eyes. The iconography of that film has stayed with me all these years: the visceral look of the creatures, the action beats played out perfectly, the interpersonal conflict, the distinct but raw sketching of the marines...it's all echoing through me currently. Just as Labyrinth echoed through me for Tigerlily, and Secretary echoed through me for Power Play.
3. Books. Films are the driving passion behind my writing; books are the reason I can write.
4. My Husband's silly ways. Nothing gives my exhausted, battered soul more succour than Husband's little daft comments, his strange attempts at comfort, his random hugs, his steady love. He is my Sunday best and my daily bread, and I eat the soul food he provides greedily.
I think I'd pretty much starve, without.
Hey Charlotte,
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you mentioned your husband. It's sometimes so easy to forget the ones who are always there for us - because they're constant, part of the setting.
I feel the same way.
Having a Main Squeeze or Significant Other definitely adds quality to a life! However, I'm wondering if none of the spouses of the writers here on the Grip ever complain about having to compete with the Muse. :)
ReplyDeleteInteresting that you are influenced by films/visual media more than books, Charlotte. I suspect you're not alone. (Film & television technology has improved a lot since my childhood, when I got hooked on books.)
Lisabet - oh God yeah. I'm so grateful for Husband's loving, steadying presence! Easily as much as I am for anything else.
ReplyDeleteJean - I don't know about anyone else, but Husband never complains about the time I take for writing. He doesn't even complain that it makes me nocturnal. Like he says - I don't come to him at work and demand his time in the middle of a meeting. So it would be weird if he was constantly trying to demand mine while I'm writing a book. It's my full time job, now, and he sees it as such!
As for the film thing - don't get me wrong. I love love love books, too. But certain films have just influenced me more. The visceral impact of the visual, maybe...I dunno.