Things for inspiration

For everything I write, I have a small collection of items that I relate to the book. For one novel, a medieval fantasy, I made a mockup of my main character's sword, collected rocks similar to the ones another character needed for his magic, and drew map after map of the world. When I get stuck on something while writing, I go and handle the things I've collected to remind me of the book. It often helps a lot. 

The advantage to writing something historical was that I didn't have to make much of what I needed. I just needed to get creative with scavenging for things in the family attic. Here are the things for Weather. 

The books in the background are two volumes of Wood's Household Medicine. It's from the 1870s, about twenty years too late for the events of Weather, but it was enormously helpful in getting an idea of the approach people would take toward medicine in the period. My main character, Julian, is...well, accident prone. Very accident prone. 

Next down is an inkwell my aunt gave to me several Christmasses ago. Writing with a fountain pen is, I still think, the only acceptable way to write a letter, and I feel rather ill-behaved if I send a letter to one of my pen pals written in boring, everyday pen. 

The fan at the bottom right was from my grandmother. It is perhaps the most useful of all of these things, as the main character uses a fan extensively in the novel. This fan is by far my favorite, and lives at home. I have a few other fans in my apartment at school, so I can stomp around and figure out exactly what the main character would do with his fan to cast various spells (I'd be more specific, but spoilers!). I have yet to alarm the housemates, which says more flattering things about the housemates than about me. 

The pair of golden spectacles I picked up at an antique store in Maine while visiting the same aunt who was responsible for the inkwell. I found them after I had written the first draft of the novel and was absolutely enchanted because they perfectly fit my mental image of another character's spectacles. They also fit me, which was even better. Even if they made me look like someone's grandmother. 

The fat watch in the corner is a turnip watch. Though a bit later in make than the events of the novel, it gave me a good idea of how heavy a gentleman's watch would have been (seriously it weighs more than my cell phone. I can check email on my cell phone. It really puts modern technology in perspective!).