Yes, I often write the first part of my stories starting from an image I find on the internet.

But what about the other parts? I don’t want to re-use the same image, and I have to find something significative enough.

It’s a quest.

Sometimes I have to resort to create the images by myself, modifying images to get to an acceptable result.

Unbreakable Curse images

While “In All Possible Ways” had been a challenge already, because of the 11 parts I had to find suitable images for,”Unbreakable Curse” is really pushing me to the edge, regarding to this matter (remember I’m no graphic designer!).

It’s a long story (it may get past 11 parts, but it’s already longer than “In All Possible Ways”, now), hence I need lot of different images to use for each part. I can easily say, 10% of the time I put into a single part, is dedicated to searching and creating the post image.

The main issue is that there aren’t that many usable photos on the internet, depicting a ghost. Because ghost don’t actually exist, of course.

So… there are drawings, but I don’t want them: I want real people, I want naked skin, and thus I have to look carefully for photos that are both meaningful for the part I’m writing, and are easily enough modifiable.

In particular, I have usually to create the impression that the girl is not part of this world.

I call this process ghostification. That basically means I talk to myself (And yes, I do!)

I chose this image, for instance, because it has a plain background. This way. I could cut out the girl to reduce her opacity and change her brightness and contrast to some extent.

I chose this other image because of the repetitive heater behind the girl. It was pretty easy to cut it out, sync it with the rest, put it over her figure and make it transparent. The final effect is a girl’s body that is not completely solid.

So, that’s all for today’s slices of my author’s life.

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And you? Do you have any particular, strange task you have to do during your writing activities?