Skip to main content

Old Eyes, New Place. New Eyes, Old Place.

By February 24, 2009How To

brooklyn

Image by Jeky

One of the things I love most about writing is the concept of laying my eyes on a familiar (to me) place, person or concept in a new way. But this week, I’m setting my old eyes on a new place or I’m setting my new eyes on an old place – depends how you look at it.

I’m in NYC, mostly Brooklyn. It’s by no means a new place to most people, but it is to me. And I find myself wanting to write about everything: the way the schools seem to sprout from the sidewalks – nestled between store fronts; the brownstones that look like they hold the most interesting people in the world; the way the drivers honk madly when your cab pulls over to let you out – even when they can easily get around you and be on their way; all of the people – every size, language, color, emotion, pace, relationship.

The newness is acting like a direct energy line to my brain, the creative part and the excited part. Besides wanting to write, this place makes me want to thrive, to move – fast. It’s an unexpected fount of inspiration – this melange of old and new, new and old. It makes me feel connected to the upward motion of our communities.

Where did your last unexpected inspiration flow come from?

Join the discussion 6 Comments

  • Great post, as usual.

    My latest inspiration flow came while I was sitting at a busy diner waiting for a friend to meet me for lunch.

    All of these ideas kept coming to me. I started dreaming about the characters sitting around me, the lives of the waitresses, how many times the tables had been wiped down over the past 20 years, and so on and so forth.

    When I left I made a decision to go back as soon as I could with a notepad and pen and just create!

    Hope you’re enjoying your trip – sounds like you are :)

    Jaime

  • Joely Black says:

    Oh! You’re an amazing writer. I can feel your sense of place through the words.

    Music brought me into Amnar again this week. I’ve been listening to Russian choral music, which is developing an image of a particular place and set of people within that world. Spinning magic out of nothing, as usual.

  • Michele says:

    Wow, what a beautiful post!!!! I love your passion and how you’ve described each event and the buildings. So glad I stopped by, Julie! Enjoy the rest of your trip. :-)

    *smiles*
    Michele

  • Julie Roads says:

    I love hearing what you’re doing for inspiration. Music gets me too…it’s that amygdala thing…

  • Hi Julie, what an exciting new thought. Looking at old things through new eyes and vice-versa. We should all make the effort to do that at least once every day.

  • Hi Julie! New York City, especially Brooklyn, is my second home. (I tell folks I can usually be found at either end of the Hudson River! Where in Brooklyn are you? I usually hang out in Park Slope.)

    My last unexpected inspiration came from a Rolex commercial. This was yesterday. I’m recovering from a concussion (Another great source of inspiration, sometimes you need a hit to the head to create new neural connections.) and was laying on the couch watching the TED talks on my iPhone. I have the seed of a short story/novel growing that has an interesting premise that I wasn’t sure was going to work; you can probably imagine my surprise when I saw it played out in a 30 second video designed to sell watches! Now that I’ve “seen” it, I can move forward. This might be the book I work on next after the current one is delivered.

    Enjoy New york!

Leave a Reply to Joely Black Cancel Reply