Your Monday mote

With a song in your heart and Jadite on the shelf

I received an email from Tumblr. Remember them, the microblogging site?

Back in the day, I’d use Tumblr as a depositary for ideas when around a decade and change ago, I was writing my script, Best Woman.

The script is about a dramedy about a single woman who is chosen to give three Best Woman speeches at various weddings. She turns to stand up comedy to help her with public speaking and that leads to a rash affair and many adventures.

Those Tumblr photos, thought snippets and diary entries - long forgotten but still alive on the internet - took me back to that time in California, when I was trying to create a credible world for my main character, Geri.

She worked in an antique shop with her Uncle Oscar and loved Jadite, so I’d post photos of Jadite I’d found scouring thrift shops (see above).

I also posted a pot of Vintage Coty, which is seen when Geri sits down at the antique dresser to put her make-up on before one of her friend’s wedding. Oscar drives an old Buick and there’s a photo of that too.

A soundtrack existed too. I’d listen to Going Nowhere, sung by Lena Zavaroni (but written by Neil Sedaka) over and over, as it evoked the emotional tone I was searching for.

Since then, I’ve always found a song to accompany a script I was writing.

And I mention this because yesterday, listening to Stuart Maconie on 6 Music, he played The Happy Man, by Thomas Lang.

Oh my goodness, what memories that brought back. I haven’t heard it played anywhere in years. But guess what, I’ve requisitioned it for my novel which is set in the late eighties, and is now on repeat.

These audio and visual cues are so useful when creating a world.

I realise that I now use my phone and various notebooks to do that same.

These magpie moments are second nature, so while I don’t actively use Tumblr, and haven’t for years, the act of collating creative bits and bobs stuck. Its spirit lives on.

Do you do anything similar?

Lisa