A little inspiration?
I had high hopes of running all kinds of challenges this year, but alas, real life has been persistently time consuming over the last six months. However when katriona_s posted last week asking for inspiration, it made me wonder if perhaps there is something I could do to spark some creative endeavours.
Ever since I've kept a journal on LJ I've periodically posted quotes from books I'm reading that have struck me as being interesting, moving, thought provoking or funny, and quite often people have said "Hey that would make a great fic challenge!" In fact some of those quotes have taken on a life of their own and spawned fic challenges without any intervention on my part! Remember the Flowery Knicker Fic challenge that took not just following_sea but also perfect_duet by storm? That was a quote from Dudley Jarrett's seemingly innocuous book British Naval Dress.
Anyway, since I haven't got the bandwidth to run any "proper" challenges at the moment, I thought I would post a couple of quotes every fortnight in the hope that they might provide a little spark of inspiration for fics, art work, drabbles, or whatever. If nothing else, I hope they'll prove to be entertaining at the very least. Feel free to post favourite quotes of your own too, you never know who or what you might inspire!
To kick us off, here's a couple of quotes from Herman Melville's White-jacket or the World in a Man-of-War.
"Standing navies, as well as standing armies, serve to keep alive the spirit of war even in the meek heart of peace. In its very ember and smolderings they nourish that fatal fire, and half-pay officers as the priests of Mars, yet guard the temple, though no god be there."
"Half pay officers as priests of Mar" always makes me think of William Bush.
"The sins for which the cities of the plain were overthrown still linger in some of these wooden-walled Gomorrahs of the deep."
"Wooden walled Gomorrahs of the deep"?! Old Herman didn't half have a way with words :}
Ever since I've kept a journal on LJ I've periodically posted quotes from books I'm reading that have struck me as being interesting, moving, thought provoking or funny, and quite often people have said "Hey that would make a great fic challenge!" In fact some of those quotes have taken on a life of their own and spawned fic challenges without any intervention on my part! Remember the Flowery Knicker Fic challenge that took not just following_sea but also perfect_duet by storm? That was a quote from Dudley Jarrett's seemingly innocuous book British Naval Dress.
Anyway, since I haven't got the bandwidth to run any "proper" challenges at the moment, I thought I would post a couple of quotes every fortnight in the hope that they might provide a little spark of inspiration for fics, art work, drabbles, or whatever. If nothing else, I hope they'll prove to be entertaining at the very least. Feel free to post favourite quotes of your own too, you never know who or what you might inspire!
To kick us off, here's a couple of quotes from Herman Melville's White-jacket or the World in a Man-of-War.
"Standing navies, as well as standing armies, serve to keep alive the spirit of war even in the meek heart of peace. In its very ember and smolderings they nourish that fatal fire, and half-pay officers as the priests of Mars, yet guard the temple, though no god be there."
"Half pay officers as priests of Mar" always makes me think of William Bush.
"The sins for which the cities of the plain were overthrown still linger in some of these wooden-walled Gomorrahs of the deep."
"Wooden walled Gomorrahs of the deep"?! Old Herman didn't half have a way with words :}