WDC Frontliners Novel Review forum

Hey Novelists!
Aaron asked me to post this idea I ran across so we could chat about it if you feel compelled. My Mom recently sent me the "You Can Write a Novel Kit," by James V. Smith, Jr. The book that comes with it explains all sorts of worksheet that come in the box. At any rate, one of the ideas Mr. Smith had was to take all of your old magazines that you are done reading and cut out all of the pictures of people you can find. You are to save all of these pictures in a file. When you are ready to start a novel, you are to go through the pictures and pick "people" to be your characters.

I thought this was an odd idea, but decided to give it a try. I clipped out people from articles, people from sidebars, people from advertisements. I didn't think I'd really use them (sometimes I'm a skeptic, but I try new things anyway). Well, lo and behold, now that I've started this, I think it's a great idea! I have a few pictures that I have taped to notes, such as, "Well, this guy definitely killed this girl" or, "So, this chick from the Viagra ad, I'm sure, has a problem with this chick from the gardening article I read last week." I know, I'm kind of a dork, but this really works for me. Then I found another reason that these pictures are helpful (or a couple reasons, actually).

I do not outline. I'm a storyboard-er. When I find a picture that "is" one of my characters, I put it on my storyboard, which hangs right above my computer. As I add characters, I can put their pic where they come into the story. For one, this gives me an actual picture of the character. Even when I can "see" them in my head, it's not the same as having an actual picture of him or her in front of me. I can even feel free to use pictures of Brett Favre or Tiger Woods (as long as I don't confuse their public persona with who my character actually is). For two, every time I walk past my computer, these people are starring at me from my storyboard, begging me to finish their story. It adds an element of realism to my characters... and a constant motivation that I may not otherwise have.

So, that's a cool idea I ran across and wanted to share. Let me know what you think!
Thanks,
Beckie







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