Monday Questions: The Visual)
(Sorry I'm not interacting with these as much as I'd like; I have a book launch coming up, an assignment to write, and that's without even thinking about the day job. I hope to be around more actively come mid September).
Todays questions is on how you use the visual to aid your writing - and you can answer this in all kinds of ways. Do you draw your characters, or maybe cutout pictures of people you think resemble them from magazines? Do you picture the cover of your novel before you begin writing it? How about maps of your setting? Of coloured diagrams? Or tell us about anything else you use - or if you don't, would you consider it or does it just not work for you?
Hi Anna,
Good luck with the launch & the assignment.
Visual prompts are vital to what I write. I have photos of the locations - the views of a village and the surrounding area. I have drawn a plan of the house my main character lives in, so I can think about the way he moves around and where everything is. I have maps of the local area too.
One of the other characters in my story is an artist - losely based on a real character - so I have lots of pictures of the sculptures he made and his sketches and drawings. All of this is essential to really entering into the story and being able to describe elements in detail.
My story is after all a record of the pictures in my head.
That's awesome about your book launch!
And an excellent question. I (attempt to) draw my characters and draw maps if necessary, but I also have a large (pink) pinboard that I pin pictures up. I have my settings stuck onto it mostly, but also random notes like ACTIVE VOICE and WATCH YOUR WORDINESS up there with everything. I've never pictured the cover of anything I've been working on. although I do look for movie stars who could play my characters haha. Gerard Butler is my inspiration for one of my antagonists ;-)
I don't use visual aids in the sense of pictures or things like that, but I write lots and lots and LOTS of notes. Everywhere. On bits of paper. In the margins of chapters. In my notepad. On my scene cards. Whenever I get a thought when I'm writing I jot it down, because I know form experience that if I don't, I will forget it.
These make a great sort of picture of how the story grew and developed and changed as I write. I love going back post-project and reading through them.
I like to base my settings on places I have actually been, at least loosely. So the south american jungle looks a little like the NZ bush. Surprising isn't it?
As for people I tend to avoid using visuals and focus on one or two descriptive items throughout. Say big nose or looks like a rat or something.
I'm learning just how much my muse loves images. I've only just started to use them in conjunction with my writing. I much prefer to brainstorm ideas from images and I've done a collage around setting for one of my short stories. I'm definitely going to try to use them more as I progress through writing and revising my next story.