Callidus

Another week, another update! I wish it were this way all the time, I really do. So, while I’ve managed to escape vanilla-life for a few moments, let me invite you to explore the benefits afforded by a Traditional Education. Then, read on for my director’s commentary.

As I discussed last time, I’ve amassed quite a collection of one-off images from Tumblr over the last year and I’m beginning to produce finished pieces from all that raw material. The biggest negative to the pics I’ve located on Tumblr is the fact that they tend to be relatively low resolution. I often plug pictures into various image search engines to try and locate the originals, but very often I cannot. So, while working with low-res material does present some challenges, its well-worth the effort when the source image is as good as this one.

I love when inspiration does the heavy-lifting for me. For this picture, I just started writing and had the entire story finished in probably ten or fifteen minutes. Now, given that what I write is quite brief compared to short fiction, that might not seem noteworthy. But, its rare that a narrative that I actually like comes out that quickly. Often I write a first draft that quickly, but then spend hours re-writing it until I’m happy.

Various little details of the image always play on my imagination and work their way into the story. Sometimes those story-bits serve the function of explaining away some piece of the image that might fall outside of the tale I’m weaving. Here, I wanted to address the lovely fishnet stockings the model is wearing and establish that as being part of her uniform rather than inferring someone put those on her.

Sometimes the inspiration is less-transparent. In this case, that circular rug beneath the chair is what inspired the moment where our heroine succumbs to a cup of drugged tea. When I looked at the pattern on that rug, my mind jumped to a moment where she was seeing the close up detail of a rug as she passed out. I didn’t end up writing that moment exactly that way, as I didn’t want to infer that her programming was taking place in the same office she was drugged in. But, it is interesting to look back and see how seemingly unconnected things led to moments of inspiration that completed the puzzle.

I hope you enjoyed and, as always, your comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome.