Day 139: Audrey Niffenegger's graphic novel

The other night I was lucky enough to see Audrey Niffenegger, who wrote The Time Traveler’s Wife. It’s one of my favourite books and she even signed it for me (so cool!)

One of the things I love about her is how imaginative her stories are. Her newest book is actually a graphic novel called, The Night Book Mobile.

It’s about a women who goes onto a book mobile (which is a mobile library) in the middle of the night. The thing about this book mobile is all the books are ones she’s read. Even books she never finished are in there, accept they’re not complete. Only the pages she actually read are in the book. The rest of the book is blank pages.

This (of course) got me thinking...what would my book mobile be like? I’ve read loads of books, magazines, newspapers, plays, kids books...and not finished some of them. They’ll be books in there I don’t even remember reading, books I'm ashamed to have read, books I'm proud to have read...but my collection wouldn’t be very big. I’m pretty new to all this writing, reading stuff, but its growing all the time, which is exciting.

What would yours be like...?

What if there was one for all the music you listened to, or the art you’d seen...?

Audrey Niffenegger is a practising artist too. She said, ‘Writing is just a hobby. A side project.’ Isn’t that amazing? She’s one of my favourite writers and it’s her hobby! It’s great to think what we could achieve with our hobbies and interests outside what we have to do. Maybe you have to go to school, college or work, but is that it? Well, if Audrey Niffenegger is anything to go by, then no way!

What’s your thing, your hobby, the creative activity you love? Whatever it is, stick at it and maybe one day (after a lot of hard work) you can be as successful as Audrey Niffenegger.

Here’s to hopin’!

Day 27: A picture says 1000 words!

The next time you open a magazine, be it fashion, cars, computers, the big issue...find two random pictures which don't seem to have anything to do with each other. How do they link? How could you make a story/a scene/a dance piece/a painting using these two pictures?

It can be any aspect of the pictures that you chose to use. It's really up to you. Use it as a starting point...

To give you an example (which I so often like to do) take these two pictures:

I have taken them from this month's 'Marie Claire' Magazine. Is the girl - lets call her Sadie - looking at the sign? Is this where she is destined to go? Is this (the sign) what she wants her life to be? Is she an undercover detective, investigating the scene of a murder? Is she the murderer? Is she the next victim...or are they two separate things in the story all together?

Now, I am a writer, so naturally edge towards creating a story from these two images, but do whatever you like with them. Create lyrics, use the colours to inform your painting. Maybe it inspires your own fashion ideas?

Whatever you do with it, be creative. Find your own pictures and let them inspire you own creativity.

Go...