Photos and Words: The New Ekphrasis

Thank the goddess for Zite, my news aggregator of choice these days.  (Although it does piss me off a touch that we think it's cool to misspell even German words these days.)  Just yesterday, over the last of my morning coffee, scrolling through my aggregated pieces on classical music and bicycling and chess and photography and, primarily, books and writing, I tapped to read "A Thousand Words:  Writing from Photographs," a blog entry by Casey N. Cep in The New Yorker.  

In a fascinating turn toward the digital age, Casey tells us she "...gave up writing hurried descriptions of people on the subway...and scribbling down bits of phrases overheard at restaurants and cafes."  She actually stopped even carrying her notebook.

So, what is she doing now to supply her writing habit?  Easy, her phone/camera, taking shots of everything from urban scenes to unique stones to odd characters to books or paintings she likes or wants to explore further.  "Photography" she says "has changed not only the way that I make notes but also the way that I write.  Like an endless series of prompts, the photographs are a record of half-formed ideas to which I hope to return."

Wow!

Leverage and Magic

How would you like to have a system for your writing that freed you to concentrate on your brilliant ideas and render them consistently in that magnificent prose you hear in your dreams and in the shower?

How would you like to have a system for your writing where you could easily and consistently and instantly make reference to any and all of your research, including videos and pdf’s and website url’s, and hang any of them, so to speak, right by your manuscript as you work, inspiring you and keeping you on track effortlessly?  (Okay, nothing is really effortless, but hang in there!)

How would you like a system where you could integrate as detailed a planning outline or index card view right into your manuscript and yet see it only when needed?

How would you like a system where you could easily break your manuscript into as many, or as few, pieces as you like—major parts, chapters, or even scenes within chapters—and where you could easily and instantly shift the order of those chapters or scenes, along with their place in your outline, to see how that progression might strengthen your masterpiece?