THE CLIP FILE (Every Writer’s Best Friend and Secret Weapon)

 

by Ruth Harris

The clip file.

Remember those?

Gone are the days of messy, torn-out newspaper and magazine articles jammed into over-flowing, disorganized files. Those ancient artifacts have been replaced now by their neat and spiffy digital counterparts. Writers are readers and what we read is (or should be) a rich mine of ideas. Here in our daily reading of magazines and newspapers is where we find the whack jobs, heroes, heroines, and leaders (influencers) good and bad.

Whether it’s an article with details about how to knit a cozy winter scarf or change the oil on a passenger jet, news items or magazine articles that grab your attention are a valuable resource.

• Write crime? Here you can find the deets about heists and hold-ups.
• Write mystery? Mix and match the perp from story A with the cop from story B
• Romance? Engagement announcements and wedding coverage give all the yummy details. (It’s up to you to add the adorable meet-cute, the make-ups, break-ups and sigh-inducing romantic reconciliations as your plot requires.)

Mean Girls and Happy Hookers.

Whether you’re writing about cops or perps, Mean Girls or do-gooders, happy housewives or happy hookers, scholars or secretaries, a well-maintained clip file can (and should) contain lurid headlines about misbehaving celebs, adoring features about the latest heart throb sex symbol, and/or serious think pieces about the classical acting style and up-from-the-mean-streets background of a dark-horse Oscar-contender.

• Are we talking park bench or Park Avenue?
• Or juicy gossip overheard in the ladies’ room?

A clip file is also the perfect place for those interesting odds and ends that might not really fit in anywhere (at least right now), or perhaps serve to fill out a newspaper page or pad a magazine article.

• They are those off-beat, can-you-believe-this?items emblazoned in the tabloids.
• The holy cow! items lurking in the dusty corners of the internet.
• They might also be your own scribbled notes detailing office rumors, random tidbits overheard on the bus, commuter train, or subway, in the ladies’ room, men’s room, or at a party.
• We’re talking about a whole range of human behaviors from mundane everyday details (hair spray or hair piece?) to breath-taking show stoppers.

Bottom line, we mean anything that grabs your attention for almost any reason.

It can range from observing the attendant refilling the soap dispensers in a rest room at a sports stadium while obliviously blabbing away on his/her cell phone as the home team comes from behind to win The Big One in a thrilling, last-minute finish.

There’s also the stuff that stops you in your tracks like the gas station attendant (remember those?) refilling your tank with a lighted cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth. Saw it years ago and can’t get the image out of my mind.

Whatever causes you to exclaim holy cow!

No matter what the subject, no matter whether you encounter it on TV, in the tabs or at lunch or a party, we’re talking about whatever you find intriguing/ridiculous/memorable/outrageous no matter how, when or where you stumble across it.

Newspaper Articles, Magazine Features, and Celeb Profiles.

Apart from your own scribbled notes as you go about your day, a well-maintained clip file will also contain newspaper articles, magazine features, and celeb profiles.

High quality clips will keep your scenes and characters fresh and original, anchor your settings with specific, credible details, add authentic dialogue, and contribute high quality descriptions of characters and settings.

In addition, good clip file maintenance will save you research time, spark new ideas, and serve to keep your scenes, settings, and characters fresh and original.

When you read or skim newspapers and magazines, be on the lookout for:

• The vivid and creative use of verbs on the sports pages.
• Descriptions of the arcane details of high-end tailoring on the fashion pages.
• Gardening tips and home-décor tidbits add the just-right details to help your reader visualize the settings against which the action takes place.
• High finance jargon on the business pages makes your tycoon, corporate con man, or on-the-make striver sound and feel realistic.

Men’s Magazines and the Women’s Pages.

Features offering tips about how to be well-dressed and well-groomed in men’s magazines will add details to descriptions of your hero’s looks and wardrobe, as well as indicate his status and income level.

• Is he to-the-manor-born?
• Or is he a slick and sleazy Tom Ridley making his way up in society and status?

Mix and match the crook from Story A and the cop from Story B and you have framework for a plot.

Insider beauty tips from highly-paid celebrity makeup artists on the women’s pages are a good source of ideas for describing your heroine.

• Is she a natural beauty? Or does her skillful use of lotions and potions merely create the illusion?
• Is she a beauty or a beast?
• Or a little of both?
• Is she high maintenance? If so, tell us the details.

Diet tips and exercise routines.

• Low cal?
• Or just low life?
• Hair styles and hair-breath escapes from the Bad Guys.
• Is she a tomboy in pigtails who’d never be caught dead in a beauty salon? Until she is.
• Or is she a High Maintenance PITA who never passes a mirror or shop window without taking an admiring peak?

Until she does.

And thereby causes the down-at-the-heels-but-sexy PI who’s been assigned to follow her to lose her — and his high-paying client. Just as the rent for his crummy office is due and his thuggish landlord is making ominous threats.

And right there are a few ideas to kick off a mystery.

Or maybe a romance.

Or both?

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And don’t forget that Anne will be appearing next week with TV actress Mara Purl and friends at VoP bookstore in Los Osos, CA