There's usually an image in my mind, long before any words hit the screen. I like to have postcards, maps [especially maps] cuttings... a whole collection of memory-joggers in a box or pinned to a board. Not to mention notebooks or scrapbooks. Sometimes, it can get a bit tricky even reaching the computer! I also like to sketch characters' faces, their shoes, hats or clothes. Nothing very artistic, and nobody but me to see them of course, but just a bit quicker than words in the early stages.
I think this photo, taken from the box at random, is actually of Looe. That narrow pavement between the tall houses, that slope, and the harbour below - well, it all helped on a writing morning when I was about as far from the tang of salt or the sound of the waves as can be in the British Isles.
