Actors sometimes acquire souvenirs from various roles that they have played: costumes that they have worn in movies, a horse from a part in a Western, a pistol from playing Hedda Gabler in the theatre, etc.
I was wondering if any of you use special objects---talismans, if you like---to help you in your writing: maybe actual pictures (as opposed to mental ideas) of characters that you keep on your desk or stuck on your wall, or do you perhaps keep nearby some physical object(s) that your characters might use (swords, guns, clothing, cars, smoking pipes, knitting needles, cooking utensils, crystal balls, books of magic spells, etc.).
One example: Tom Hanks sometimes wore an actual cowboy hat in the studio while he was recording the dialog for the movie, Toy Story.
I was wondering if any of you use special objects---talismans, if you like---to help you in your writing: maybe actual pictures (as opposed to mental ideas) of characters that you keep on your desk or stuck on your wall, or do you perhaps keep nearby some physical object(s) that your characters might use (swords, guns, clothing, cars, smoking pipes, knitting needles, cooking utensils, crystal balls, books of magic spells, etc.).
One example: Tom Hanks sometimes wore an actual cowboy hat in the studio while he was recording the dialog for the movie, Toy Story.