One of my favorite things Mindy Hardwick shared in her Creative Spaces interview was that she keeps a picture of her childhood room near her desk. What a great idea for inspiration! It reminded me of this photo my parents emailed earlier this year when they saw a present-day photo of the cluttered floor of my office. (Which I was in the middle of organizing, to be fair. But to be even more fair, I am perpetually in the middle of organizing something so I guess it often looks like that.)
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| This was me “cleaning my room”. I think it may have looked better before I started. |
This photo must look like an insignificant mess to anyone else, but so many memories are represented here. Tigger slippers, artwork, Keds, a stuffed dog my brother won for me at a carnival game (which I never would have remembered without seeing it in the back corner of this pic), letters to or from pen pals, a multi-color changing pen, photo albums and notebooks, our cute cat Gizmo. . .
I’m zapped right back in time looking at this photo. What a useful tool when you’re trying to put yourself in the mindset of a child or teenager! I’m also reminded of how important specific details are to characterization. That list of items in the above paragraph probably gives you a much better idea of what I was like as a kid than if I’d simply said “my bedroom floor was often cluttered” or even “cluttered with papers and stuffed animals”. The specifics provide clues to my interests, personality, and the time period.
What was (or is) your childhood room like?
Gizmo was an adorable kitten! I still "clean" by making piles of stuff all over the floor. It still doesn't work very well.
Thanks for this insightful post. I can't wait to pass along this character-writing advice to everyone doing the #PBDummy challenge.
I am totally a piler! I often have things piled in categories that make sense to me, even if they don't to others. When I was a brand-new mom we were interviewing cleaning services and one woman told me she was also a professional organizer. She demonstrated this before I had a chance to stop her by sweeping all my piles on the kitchen counter and moving them into one teetering stack. And then she said, "Oh wait, were those separated for a reason?" hehe 🙂
Ugh. I would never want to look back to my room because it is an utter mess. I hope I'm not as disorganized when I get my own space and have actual room to walk around in my room. I still have stuffed animals believe it or not on shelves all around my room. My room looks so childish and girly. I want that cat O__0