Yes, This Will Be On the Test

Writing, Reading, Laughing

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Q is for QUARRIES


Welcome to Yes, This Will Be On the Test.
Waving to visitors, new followers, and fellow A to Z participants. I’m sending virtual hugs to you all for taking a moment to stop by.

I’ll be sharing my “take-aways.” All those snigglets, golden nuggets, and lessons learned from other creative sources.

Scroll down this link to find other wonderful A to Z participants.



I'm a big fat cheater today. This is a repeat post from a former A to Z. When I was trying to come up with a fresh Q, my mind locked on quinoa or Queen Victoria and wouldn't budge. 

In the musical Floyd Collins, which I recently enjoyed (My F post), The Riddle Song uses quarry as one of its challenges. It reminded me of my fascination for quarries. So enjoy an oldie, but a goodie post.



I need visuals when I world build. It doesn't matter if it's a real place or one in a galaxy far far away.

My number one "go to" is the annual National Geographic week by week calendar. I have used their amazing photos as springboards not just for settings, but also details. There are some strange and wonderful flowers, plants, and animals in this world.


My second "go to" is the playground, Google Images. That's where I caught quarry fever while randomly searching odd locations. Quarries are the places where anything from salt to marble is dug from the earth. The magic comes when the digging is finished and an altered landscape is born.


As a kid I swam in quarries that had been converted to public pools. They always had an "other worldly" quality to them, and were quite beautiful.

TAKE AWAY:
Sometimes a whole new world is right under your nose.

Where is your "go to" when you are looking for visual inspiration in your writing?

16 comments:

  1. Lovely photos Leslie and nice word for Q. For visual inspiration I always sit near the window and look out.

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  2. I don't recall hearing the word until I came to Ghana, and then people started mentioning rock quarries. Interesting. Now the word and I are old friends.
    Nana Prah

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  3. Q is definitely a tough letter. I think many of us will have to recycle that one! What's funny is, we play the alphabet game on road trips...you have to name things you see that correspond to the alphabet letter in order (A for asphalt, b for building, c for car, etc.) We always get stuck on Q, but my husband knows all the signs for Quznos and Qdoba, as well as the quarries, are on the drive from here to his mom's house--a trip we take frequently!

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  4. Swimming in one would be wild. Bet some are really deep.

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  5. There's an abandoned quarry next to my folk's place! :)

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  6. Pinterest has an abundance of photos for inspiration. I have an "abandoned spaces" and a photography board that I could sit for hours, pretending to be present in those stunning pictures:)

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  7. I like to google images or flip through pinterest and then close my eyes and merge different aspects of what I've seen into one. Or when the weather participates, I might take a walk.

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  8. I tend to research online, looking for images to help me envision my world. Before I would search through encyclopedias, my parents' National Geographic magazines (I think they had all of them from the 1960s on when I was growing up. At least I think it was the 60's.) I've found Pinterest to be a good place, if you can pick among the other people's pins to find beautiful scenery and gorgeous flowers. I've even found hairstyles that fit what I wanted for a character.

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  9. Cheater! Cheater cheater cheater! I will...tell the teacher!

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  10. I think everyone should get at least one cheat, as part of surviving the month of April. You know, like using your lifeline on a game show ;) I LOVE Google Images - it IS such a playground. And I've always felt the same way about quarries; I don't know why, but they do seem otherworldly.

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  11. What a great post- glad you got to cheat. :)

    Quarries are beautiful and so interesting. I have never gotten to swim in one- but I think it is great that you have!

    I love to look at pictures to help inspire me when I am writing. I often look at pictures I have taken and look for the beauty in them. Drawing also helps me to get a feel for the scene I want to create.
    ~Jess

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  12. Thank you for tolerating my Q cheat! I do admit the quarries I swam in did always involve chlorine.

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  13. Interesting post for someone like me who've never been to a quarry!

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  14. I love National Geographic. They're a source for information.

    I might have to repost for X next year. It's so hard to find something for that letter.

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  15. I love Google images for research. I used it yesterday for an amusement park in Finland where a scene takes place.

    I think I went to a quarry in England when I was a kid.

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