Instant inspiration from a world that’s all-too-real
Some people I know just love to pull in a photo of a character into a book project. Staring at that face helps them create a fictional one. Maybe it’s a star. Or, more interestingly perhaps, you could use a complete stranger and fictionalise the thing from scratch.
Here’s a new resource that may help: the mugshot gallery of Florida Today. Yes, if you get cop-snapped for something even as minor as contempt of court the chances are your face will end up on the web for the world to see.
With your home address too. I’m really not sure how this helps with the process of rehabilitation. Not a lot I’d guess. But any way you look at it there are quite a lot of interesting faces here. And, most important of all, a reminder in the variety of their sad, scared, resigned, blank, and occasionally smiling or aggressive expressions that the world we write about is all-too-real for some.
One Response to “Instant inspiration from a world that’s all-too-real”
Hey David, what a brilliant idea. I’m often trying to imagine my characters from faces in the street, but these faces have so much more than the average shopper in a mall! Thanks for sharing
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