See It, Think It

I am a visual girl. Meaning, I am drawn to pictures and often inspired by things I see. I’ve been told that my writing has a very cinematic style of imagery, and that’s probably because in my own head, I’m watching all my stories on the big screen.

Insuring Your Idea

It’s now November, which means that as you read this post, I’m pounding away at the keys, cranking out my next novel (#NaNoWriMo). Fortunately, I didn’t enter National Novel Writing Month blindly or unprepared. I spent the last several months prewriting my novel before I ever started Chapter One. If you’re new to prewriting (heaven forbid, get thee to an outline pronto!), it’s the process of planning and preparation that gives your novel a skeleton before you form flesh and breathe life into it. It includes character descriptions, story questions, plot arcs, synopses, and all the nitty-gritty stuff that ensures you have a functioning novel before you dedicate hours (days, weeks, months) of your life writing the thing. A prewritten package for a story is like insurance against writer’s block. It helps keep that spark of an idea tries to fizzle out, you have somewhere to turn.

Chiseling Out Characters

Back in October when I was working on character descriptions, I got a bit stumped. I needed some inspiration, and wasn’t in the mood to steal personalities from any of my friends or family. (Which, by the way, is a viable place to find them, in case you’re looking – just don’t name the character after that person without consenting the real one first. Consider this your friendly reminder not to tick off your loved ones.) Then a thought hit me. I remembered that the Bonus Features* of my previous novels included head shots of individuals who look like the characters. So I jumped onto the Internet and started surfing for look-alikes. At that point in the game, my vision of my characters was still hazy enough that searching through actor and model images actually helped define what they looked like. And since so much starts on the visual level for me, studying that photo of my main character helped me flesh out the details of his personality.

On Location

I also did a good amount of searching for images once I knew the primary location of the story was Chicago (with a few scenes in Kansas City as well). Gateway to Reality (working title) revolves around several major sculptures in the two cities, so part of my research was collecting photos that will come in handy when I’m describing those scenes. Also, I find that just looking at pictures of neat places sometimes brings stories to mind.

If I needed a new project right now (which I don’t), browsing images of cool landscapes or other interesting places would be a great way to start. So far I’ve just done the image search on Google, but I have a feeling Pinterest would be another great place to look. I better not think about that too much, though, because I can’t afford to waste any time right now.

*While my novels may not be in DVD form yet, they do come with special perks for my valuable beta readers.

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Unlocking the Mysteries of Your Characters

Creative Challenge: People Watching

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