I know many people use charts and
other visual aids for plotting, but this one is new to me. It’s not a new
concept by any means, but my TBR stack of articles has been there for quite a
while and the printouts of Jennifer Crusie’s blogs just came to the top this
week. Take a look at these two:
When I read these, I realized I
had done this, somewhat, when writing my Neanderthal mystery. I needed a lot of
help visualizing the people for this novel. I wanted to keep in mind what they
looked like--that they were not modern humans, but not animals either. I found
the best pictures I could and even assigned some of the pictures to the
individuals.
I’ve never done so much research
for anything in my life. I wanted the story to be as accurate as I could make
it. I set it in North America 30,000 years ago, as the last Ice Age was
approaching and as the Neanderthals were living their last days on earth as a
separate group of people. The Mississippi River didn’t exist, so I had to know
what the terrain was like. I had to find out what an approaching glacier would
look like, since all of them are receding now. Plants, animals, climate,
housing, clothing, I had pictures of it all. Plus, I drew a map of the
settlement and the surroundings, after figuring out how far a bunch of people
could move in a day. Whew!
Fast forward to the FAT CAT
series I’m writing. I had to spend a few weeks away from it to finish up my
project for Barking Rain Press, and I was very worried about getting back into
it. Crusie claims that a collage is a cure for that. If it really is, I’m all
for it. As I read her articles, I thought, “This is great! It will solve my
problems.”
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Then another light bulb lit up! I
already have a bunch of pictorial helps--on Pinterest! I started some boards as
soon as I got the deal, just thinking they might do some good. I have a Dessert
Bar board and one for Fat Cats! If you glance at my boards (http://pinterest.com/kayegeorge/),
you’ll see they all relate to something I’m writing in some way. I’ll need one
on Minneapolis, or maybe Dinkeytown, the setting for the series. Or maybe I
should combine all of those for myself. Since Pinterest just announced the new
Secret Boards, I can experiment and see what I come up with. I’m looking
forward to this!
(Just found this: http://pinterest.com/volpane/for-collage-public-domain-images/)
However, I can’t find any
illustrations of collages. Oh well. Click on some of the fantastic ones on the
second Crusie link--they’re super duper!
Lightbulb & Glacier from Dreamstime
8 comments:
I feel the use of visual aids helps a lot. I found Pinterest useful for collecting pictures of Brownstones for one of my WIPs very helpful. Unfortunately, they are not so useful for my Martian WIP. JPL is much better.
Patg
I'm sure I've thought of this later than a lot of people, including you, Pat! What's JPL?
When I was writing "Mixed Messages," the first novel in my Malone mystery series, I took several photographs of the house and neighborhood which served as the inspiration for my series. I pinned them to the bulletin board above my desk. The novel takes place the week of Halloween and, since I was writing when the temperature outside was ninety degrees, the photos kept me in the season. I did the same thing for the sequel, "Unfinished Business," which takes place the week of Christmas. I love visual aids!
I've never been really intentional about it, but I can see that it would be so helpful. I'm trying a collage for my Fat Cat series, for sure.
I really hate doing research, but it's a necessary evil. As far as using visual aids, it would probably be helpful, but the only time I use them is when I'm almost through with a book and am looking for contents for the cover. I've been known to change a character's description to fit a particular photo I like, so it can be used for the cover.
Morgan Mandel
http://www.morganmandel.com
Morgan, that's genius to keep the cover in mind! I changed a character after I saw a proposed cover. Well, a pig, if that's a character. I had made him black with a white forehead star, but a white pig showed up so much better on the cover. And--doh--I had already named the pig Marshmallow. Of course, he should be white! I have zillions of pix of pot belly pigs, but am now happy to have him on a book cover (SMOKE).
I like this idea, Kaye. I never thought of using visual aids, but it makes sense. It might be another tool to use when I get stuck. Thanks for sharing.
You're welcome, Kathleen. I have a start on a secret Pinterest board, but it's not doing much for me yet. I'll keep going with it for awhile, but may have to do an actual collage
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