Mood Boards/ Scrap Books

I always wondered whether I was the only one that had the following problem:

You're sitting at your desk. You are writing a story or a poem and you reach a dramatic, climatic scene and you know exactly what your protagonist feels. And then, when you're trying to put the words onto paper, or onto the computer, you don't know. How does a sad or ecstatic or happy face look? You simply ca't visualize it.

A different situation:

You're still sitting at your desk and your protagonist reaches the top of the hill and gasps as he see the beautiful landscape before him. But how does that beautiful landscape look? How does the mystical ruin in the middle of a big something look?

I have had these problems many times and have gotten so sick with them. Before I have to write it down I imagine the most wonderful castles, with hidden stairs and high towers. What I decided to do was make mood boards or scrap books.

 These are my two major ones, focusing on human expression, landscape and ruins. I haven't finished yet. In 5 years I'll probably have BOOKS filled with these things. I get most of my pictures from the National Geographic. I try to keep "celebrities" out of my scarp books/mood boards, because there is no way I can be inspired by a botoxed, hypocrite person. Did that sound bitter?


My favourite is probably the one with all the faces. It's such a mash up and I really enjoy doing it. The "face" I like the most is of the woman in the second "row" that is looking to the left. She looks like she's on the edge of despair. Her story is quite remarkable as well. She is/was one of the many people that is homeless in Moscow during the winter. I cut her baby out of the picture, which made me feel quite bad. But her face is stunning. The man below her, on the right, was in the same picture and I assumed he was her husband. He looks literally battered and simply defeated by destiny.

In the one below I'm a big fan of the picture below on the left. It's from Afghanistan and I simply loved the idea of building houses inside (!) of a mountain. I know this isn't something that only happened in Afghanistan, but it does look amazing.

Random fact: A couple of weeks ago I found out what the name Pakistan actually means. For those who don't know, Pakistan belonged to India, but became a separate state at its independence in 1947. It is a Muslim state and was created thus, so that the Muslims in India had their own state. It was the biggest human migration inside a country ever. Anyways, the Muslims came from all different corners of India, the Punjab, Afghania (The south of Afghanistan used to belong to Pakistan), Kashmir and India. -stan means 'the home of'. Maybe you have guessed it by now. The name Pakistan means ''The home of the Punjab people, the Afghan people, the Kashmir people and the Indian people'.
That was a completely random fact that I had to share with you!

What do you do when you run out of inspiration?