Haha!! This is my own confession, and what I LOVE about confessions is not only the feedback from fellow readers that can relate, but getting some awesome insight from authors about that very confession. And this is one of those!
A few days ago… I confessed on Facebook:
Maryse: Confession: Whenever a beautiful dress is described in a book (especially wedding dresses), I google the intricate details given (material, color etc…) so I can try and “see it”… or at least as close as “it” can be. I LOVE doing that. This is the one closest to the one described in the book I’m reading now… beautiful!!!
Frannie: Its gorgeous
Allyson: what book? This is stunning
Maryse: Tarryn Fisher’s latest: Atheists Who Kneel and Pray: a romance novel
Amanda: I do too! And cars. If a car is mentioned, I HAVE to look it up.
Maryse: I do it for old “bad boy” muscle car descriptions. I know nothing about them…
Amanda: Or the new fancy ones!!! Lol
Meagan: I do the same almost for everything described in books. Clothing, cars, homes, apartments, and even hair, certain features LOL.
Maryse: I do it for hair!!! YES!!!
Frannie: Lol same. The first time I googled book details were with Gideon’s and Eva’s rings they got each other with the XX lol love it
June Stevens Westerfield: Confession: When I’m writing a beautiful dress (or a particular outfit) for a scene, I spend hours searching the internet for JUST THE RIGHT dress and use the picture to describe it, rather than use my imagination, which is fashion challenged. I also spend hours looking at houses and apartments online when creating where my characters live.
Alicia: Me too!!
Melanie Samples As an author, when I describe a particular dress, it’s taken directly from something I’ve seen, so it’s likely you’ll find the dress and can see exactly what I’ve described. 😉
Marzena: I do too!
Tara Sivec: I have a Pinterest board for all of my books where I pin outfits the characters wore. I’m obsessed with this!
Lori Meckley I always love describing anything I can when I write. I myself love to picture what I’m reading so I have to share it when I write.
Sabrina: I do locations too. I may or may not have looked up ‘uncircumcised ‘ years ago because it was a big deal in the book I was reading.
Teri: Me too!
Joy: I do the same thing. Author Christina Ross described the most amazing dresses in her Annihilate Me series that her character Blackwell purchased for Jennifer from Bergdorf Goodman, that I kept the store web page open to search for the dresses as I read the books! Now it’s become a habit to search online for the clothes that are worn by book characters.
How about you guys? Do you look stuff up? Any memorable finds that made the story that much more real?
LOL! And here I thought I was one of the few that did this…I have googled from cars to description of people. I may or may not have a board on Pinterest with people who resemble characters from books…
Have you read “The Dressmaker” by Rosalie Ham? It’s all about haute couture fashions from the 1950’s.There’s a movie from 2015 staring Kate Winslet so you don’t have to look them up, you can just watch the movie.
Marden I HAVE that book I think!!! But I haven’t read it yet. Oh I TOTALLY should. I would crazy “investigating” the clothes.
At least I’m not alone!! I even download songs mentioned in books.
Yes. I have listened to songs, read poems, looked up recipes, Google images of places like the fairy pools of Scotland.
I use Google translate when there is dialogue in another language. I have to know straight away what is being said
I do that all the time. Anything visual that I’m not sure of, I google. It’s the only way I can “see” things in my head.
I love these confessions because then I know I’m not alone. I have to Google dresses all the time to get a better picture.
My confession is I have to Google cars. Lately it seems in books people drive cars I’ve never heard of. Probably because I can only dream of owning them. No man is trying a Camry…lol
LOL Erin!!!! 😛
I google the shoes!!!
Love them!!!!
Oh yeah I do this sometimes too. And occasionally I don’t know what an actual item of (US) clothing is so I google it. I didn’t know what a wifebeater is (I think it’s what we call a ‘bluey’) and I also had to check to see what a Henley is (duh) but it’s not a term I’ve heard in Australia.
If the H calls her a pet name in another language or says a phrase in another language I always look it up.
I agree, I actually go on Goodreads to see what some of the book characters look like too
Oh my God, me too! I thought I was the only one, who gets so obsessed with a story… 🙂
Ps: Love your blog, Maryse! Even though this is the first time I’ve commented, I’ve relied on your book news for years 😉 Thank you for writing it!
I’m SO glad you’re here, Amalea!!!!!! <3 😀
Oh gosh I do the same thing! Clothes, cars, architecture/houses, locations… pretty much everything! I loooove how Penelope Douglas has her pinterest boards for her books. I remember using that a lot when I was reading Corrupt – like some of the pins have the chapters in the comment so you can follow along haha.
Omg, I do the same things including looking up fantasy castings in case books are made into movies. I like to have a better picture in my head of what the characters look like.