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I’ve mentioned before that another area of creativity I enjoy is drawing. During the summers my sister and I spent in Baton Rouge with my grandparents, I used to sit for hours watching my grandfather draw and paint. I loved the smell of oil paints and the way that the images would take form under his hand—like seeing a story happening before my very eyes. He taught me quite a lot about appreciating shapes and images. And while I do use a little help in the form of existing images and carbon paper, the time I spend with pencil and paper sketching characters is very relaxing—and a great outlet for thinking about my stories even when I have writer’s block.

So I thought I would share a few of those drawings here. Some of them are the original pencil drawings, while others are some that I colorized on the computer.

Ashley and Robert. These are my two main characters from the “story” I wrote for about ten years. Even though I haven’t returned to this unfinished, massive manuscript (more than 200,000 words!), I do still think about these characters quite often.

The Five Girls. As Ashley and Robert’s story was waning, I was already starting to develop these five characters—five friends who grew up together and were moving into their late 20s/early 30s. A couple of them married early, but two of them, Bekka (far right) and Hannah (second from the left) became the main characters of my first two completed manuscripts.

Bekka & Andrew. Bekka (of the Five Girls above) and Andrew are the main characters of my first completed novel, What Matters Most.

Hannah & Stefan. I have drawn more images of these two characters than any others I’ve ever written about. I’m not sure if it’s because Hannah is the character who is most like me or if it’s because even though the manuscript (The Best Laid Plans) is complete, I never felt like I finished their story.

Kevin & Zarah. These are the main characters of my third complete manuscript, Love Remains, which was inspired by a “what if” situation that arose in learning a guy I worked with had been in the Army and stationed at White Sands (where my dad worked) my senior year of high school. Here’s another sketch of them.

Eomer & Lothiriel. I’ve mentioned before that the only true fan-fic I’ve ever written is the romance of my favorite LOTR character, Eomer. So here’s my idea of what Lothiriel, mentioned only in the Appendix, looks like.

Julia, William, Charlotte, Collin & Susan, Mdsm. Charles Lott. I have so many sketches of these characters, mostly for costume study—not only does it give me a good chance to study the different pieces/construction of their garments, but it gives me a record of the clothing I’ve given them, such as these two dresses for Julia.

As promised, let’s do some brainstorming with some “random” images (random only in the fact that I’m hoping you’ve never seen them before).

What does this image make you feel? Who is this person? What year is it? What is she thinking? What emotion is portrayed in this image? Where is she? What is the weather like?

What is going on in this image? Who are these two men? Where are they? What is their relationship to each other? Now, imagine these two are characters in your story. What’s the setting? What is going on between them? What is being said as this “snapshot” was taken? What will happen immediately after this? Is one the good guy and one the bad guy? How will what’s happening in this moment influence the rest of the story?

What has just been said to her? What is she in the middle of saying? What emotion is she feeling? Where is she? What kind of person is she? What’s going to happen next?

Who is he? What is he in the middle of? What is he thinking about? What’s about to happen? Where is he? What kind of family does he have? Is he married? Does he have children? If so, what kind of relationship does he have with them?

I would love to know what you come up with!

Hopefully by answering some or all of those questions by looking at images of “random” RWTs, once you cast your characters, you will be able to find and use images of them to help you build your characters and brainstorm ideas for your story.

If you have any questions or additional information you’d like me to discuss on this subject, please leave me a comment!

(There are lots of links in this segment. You may want to right-click on them and choose to open them in a new window so you don’t have to keep navigating back to this page.)

Once you have cast your characters and begun the process of collecting images, you may find yourself thinking of scenes inspired by the images you see. Just like there are two ways to cast characters (see BYOCD: Introduction), I employ two methods of collecting images—those that seem to fit with the actions or emotions of scenes I’ve already written, and those that generate ideas for potential scenes.

A few weeks ago, when I was blocked with my writing but wanted to spend time in that world and with those characters, I started creating chapter-by-chapter storyboards, utilizing images of characters and settings to give a snapshot of each major scene in the chapter. With minor secondary characters, I stuck with their primary “headshot” image. For Julia, William, Sir Edward, Lady Witherington, and—to a lesser extent—Susan and Collin, I sought out images (or screen captured them from DVD) that conveyed the major driving emotion of the scene. Here is the post where I linked to the first three chapters’ storyboards with a brief synopsis of the chapter. (Side benefit to this exercise: a skeleton chapter-by-chapter synopsis ready to be filled in with a little more detail should an editor request it!)

Brainstorming with RWTs
It isn’t just after the fact that I put my RWTs to work for me. When I first started brainstorming this story and collecting images of Paul McGann for William, I came across two expressions that I screen capped. They became the inspiration for the first scene of the novel where William is introduced, simply from the subtle shift in his expression from one image to the other. By examining the RWT’s facial expression, I began wondering what William would be thinking if he wore that expression. Click here to see the images and read the results.

(This is really much easier to do in a classroom environment, but hopefully you’ll stick with me!)

Let’s look at some images I haven’t used but that have given me ideas and possibilities of emotion or action I can use.

Next time . . . a guided brainstorming session using RWTs.

(There are lots of links in this segment. You may want to right-click on them and choose to open them in a new window so you don’t have to keep navigating back to this page.)I realized that in the last post, I didn’t really explain my process of finding images of RWTs. So let me do that before I get into the storyboarding process. The best example I can give is by illustrating the process for the hero of my current WIP, the Ransome’s Quest trilogy.

The inspiration for this historical romance involving a Royal Navy captain and the spinster daughter of his admiral came through an actor in a secondary role in the A&E movies based on the Horatio Hornblower novels. While watching these movies, I became enamored with the somewhat stiff and stodgy—but loyal and good-hearted—Lt. William Bush, portrayed by an actor with the most amazing light-blue eyes I have ever seen. (I’m an eye-girl, what can I say?) After seeing the movies the first time, I knew I wanted to add several of the actors to my casting book. (Upon multiple viewings, I started focusing on Lt. Bush as inspiration for my Captain Ransome.)

So, I went to http://www.imdb.com/ and did a keyword search for Hornblower Mutiny. And I started adding names to the database and images to the image files.

So, how did I find all of the personal info on the RWTs? When I clicked on the link for the movie title I wanted, it gives the cast list. Each name is linked to the page about the actor. So, I clicked on Paul McGann. I see where he was born in 1959 in England. When I click on show more, I see that he is 5’8” tall. Okay, so he’s actually quite a bit older and a little shorter in real life than my character, but that’s okay. It’s not like I’m casting a movie, after all! When I go back to his main page, I see there are no photos of him available through IMDb. But that’s okay, because copying images from IMDb isn’t as easy as other methods.

Because I want as many images of him as I can find, I do a Google Image Search for Paul McGann. When I see one I think I want, I click on it and it takes me to a page where the image has been isolated. By clicking on the image in the top frame, it brings up the image alone. In Internet Explorer, I can right click on the image and copy it to then paste into the image file in PowerPoint. If I’m in Netscape I can either try to highlight the image by clicking and dragging the mouse over it, then right-click/copy or I can just right-click and save the image to my computer to later insert into PowerPoint. Now, if you aren’t going to keep your casting book electronically, you could just go ahead and print it at this point; but even for hard copies, I recommend the copy/paste into PPT method, as you can put multiple images onto one page and save paper.

Once I start developing a character, I like to have as many images as possible for study, so I start a new PPT document in my electronic file for the project entitled Characters. This becomes my repository for all of the RWTs I use in my novel—and I cast everyone! I also keep a cast listing file for quick reference, especially when I can’t remember a minor character’s name or physical description.

Where do I find my images? Google, obviously. On IMDb.com, when there are images available, it doesn’t allow the right-click/copy feature. But there is a way to capture the entire screen. On most PC keyboards, there is a key, usually at the top right, labeled PRINT SCREEN. Hit it and you’ve captured an image of what’s currently on your screen (so make sure the image is centered!). Now, you can paste it into PowerPoint. On the Drawing or Picture toolbar (Picture toolbar should pop up when you single click on the image), you can click on the Crop button and trim the image down to just what you want.

Other than online images, because 99% of the templates I use are actors/actresses, I get my hands on as many movies/DVDs of TV shows the template has been in. The DVD player on my computer lets me pause and capture the screen (unfortunately PRINT SCREEN does not work for DVDs) and save static images of the RTW. But I also like to watch them in action. I study how they walk, sit, stand, their facial expressions, tone of voice, etc. By watching an RWT in multiple roles/settings, I start picking up on the real person’s real mannerisms. Think about it—when you watch a Tom Hanks movie, you automatically know what his character is thinking/feeling with the briefest glance at Tom’s face. How? You’ve seen him in so many different roles, but deep down, he’s still Tom Hanks with a finite number of facial expressions and emotions. Once you can recognize those in your RWTs, you’ll have an easier time showing your character’s emotions through his actions, facial expressions, and body language . . . which is a lesson for another day!

Before we get into using these images to help you in developing your characters, you need to know where to find them! As of today, I have almost 950 Real World Templates in my casting book. This has been a 20 year project, so I do have a little bit of a head start.

Always be on the lookout for images of people who strike a creative nerve inside you.

• Go online to clothing sellers such as Land’s End, LL Bean, J Crew, Eddie Bauer, etc., and request to receive their mailed-out catalogs.
• Buy magazines such as People or other publications that focus more on photos of people and less on articles. (Entertainment- and fashion-focused mags work best.)
• Watch for actors in movies – especially those in secondary roles – and find out their names by watching the credits or looking the movie up on IMDb.com (Internet Movie Database). Then do a Google Image Search for the actor/actress.
• You can also use real people, and in this day and age of camera phones it’s easier to capture an image of someone you happen to see who strikes that creative nerve, but just make sure that you aren’t describing someone whose features are so unique they’ll be able to pick themselves out.

There are two decisions you now need to make: how you want to store and organize your Casting Book.

For storage, you can:

• paste/tape photos, pictures, images you print from the computer onto notebook paper and keep them in a 3-ring binder.
• cut/print them out and store them in file folders.
• store digital images (scanned or downloaded) electronically on your computer.
• or choose the storage system that works best for you and is easily accessible and updatable.

For organization, you can:

• sort images by feature: ethnicity, age, hair color, eye color, or whatever feature you tend to look for when you’re casting your character.
• store images alphabetically by the real world name of your Real World Template. This is the system I use. If it’s a model I cannot find a name of, I use the name of the catalog or magazine where I found them as their last name.
• or, again, choose a system that works for you.
  

I believe I’ve mentioned on this blog before that I am 50/50 right-left brained, so this is where my left-brain organization comes in handy. Because I’m extremely weird, I like to know a lot of information about the real world templates I use, including their ethnicity, real age, and height, all of which can usually be found on IMDb. I include hair/eye color for when I’m looking for something specific, and where I first noticed the person so I can call to mind a mental image of the person without having to look him/her up. I keep all of this information in an Excel spreadsheet for two main reasons: I happen to like Excel, and Excel gives me the ability to sort by the criteria in each column, allowing me to narrow down my casting process without having to search through all 950 names.

Because I love my blog readers so much, I’m going to put you 20 years ahead of the game by sharing my casting book. In this version, they’re sorted in alphabetical order. But if you’re familiar with Excel, you can see I have it set up with auto filters—which means I can easily narrow it down to a certain year born, certain height, certain ethnicity, or even certain eye color. Granted, Real World Templates are for REFERENCE ONLY, but because I am so visually oriented, it’s hard for me to use a template who doesn’t share most of his major physical traits with my character.

Now, I also keep electronic files of images of my RWTs—in PowerPoint. Again, for two main reasons: PowerPoint is my favorite program, and PowerPoint gives me an easy way to store, move, organize, and view my images. Here is a screen capture of the Mac-Mc.ppt file from my casting “book.”

Here is a close-up of the first page (of several) of the RWT for my character William Ransome, Paul McGann. Because this is just a working file, I don’t worry if the pictures overlap one another. When I’m ready to use them, I can move them around and pick out the ones I really want to use. The DVD player on my computer came with a software program (Power DVD) that allows me to do screen captures, which is where several of these images came from. This is great especially if you’re like me and you’re drawn to secondary characters who might not be well known.

Okay, great. Paul McGann is in my casting book. But let’s take it a step further. Do you use a physical storyboard when you write? Pictures of houses, floor plans, etc? Next time, I’ll show how I use my casting book to create files and storyboards for my novels.

Last time, I gave a list of descriptors to use to write a few sentences about a character. The general terms I gave (brown hair, brown eyes, medium build) is the kind of generic description that most people can give when they’ve witnessed a crime. This is why police have witnesses work with sketch artists so they can have a concrete image to go from.Back in the “olden days” when posting images or photos on the internet or through e-mail wasn’t very easy, if you were going to meet up with someone you’d only chatted with online, you might have to rely on the same type of generic description—and maybe a specific piece of clothing or something to look for. I remember at the first ACRW conference in 2002 that there were so many people I thought I knew well because I’d gotten to know them through the e-mail list, but when I met them face to face I felt like I didn’t know them because they didn’t look anything like the mental image I’d formed of them.

Although I haven’t come across it recently, there have been times when I’ve read a book where the character is described one way in the beginning (with green eyes) and then later in the book has a different appearance (with brown eyes). Most of the times, this is a continuity problem an editor will catch, but also something that can mean the difference between a contract and a rejection.

I have used Real World Templates for my characters for as long as I’ve been writing. The romance genre, probably more so than any other, requires specific and detailed physical descriptions of the characters. Because I’m visually oriented, I find it much easier to remember what my characters look like if I have a picture—or series of pictures—to go from. That way, I can be sure that my character descriptions remain consistent.

In a later session, I will get into how having multiple images of the character can help with developing the character, but in this lesson, let’s look just at how having an image can inspire ideas for a character.

Look at the sentences you wrote last time. Now, click on this link. Now write a new paragraph and focus on the physical characteristics while also including emotion and personality.

What is the difference between your two paragraphs? Was it easier to describe him physically from the list of characteristics or from the photo? Did the photo give you ideas for what he might be thinking or what his personality might be like that is different from what you wrote in the first exercise?

Now you may be thinking, Yeah? So what? It’s easy to come up with a physical description from a photo.

Once you start to build your casting book, if you’re as obsessive as I am, you’ll be able to find images of your RWTs that can help define your characters’ . . . well character.

Stick around, because next time I’ll discuss creating a casting book of your RWTs and how and where to find and store images!

I’m hoping that I can in written form relay the information from a workshop I’ve taught a few times.

Do you have pictures hanging off the sides of your computer monitor? Maybe tacked to a bulletin board? In a notebook or folder? Or (like me) electronically stored on your computer? Let’s talk about how to use those images for deeper character development and inspiration for our writing.

First, what are characters? I came up with three definitions:

• People: real, whole, and alive
• The tool a writer uses within his or her story to connect with the reader
• The “active” part of the story

Now, there are a few terms you’ll need to be familiar with:

• Visually Oriented Writer—someone who is visually oriented learns best and is inspired by visual stimulation (that’s me!)
• Visually Oriented Character Casting (what this discussion is all about)
• Real World Template – the picture of that actress, actor, model, singer, athlete, or whoever, you have taped to the side of your monitor because that’s “your character”
• Casting Book – your collection of images of RWTs for your current work and for anything you might possibly write in the future

Why worry about the physical attributes?
We’re writing, not casting a movie or a play—so why worry about what the characters look like?

• Have you ever been frustrated when reading a published book because you want to know what the characters look like?
• In the semesters of critical research I did on Jane Austen’s work as an undergraduate student, I realized that unless a character was greatly self-involved (e.g., Frank Churchill in Emma), she never describes what her characters look like in detail except for generalities (tall, short, slender, plain). Picture Mr. Darcy in your head. What does he look like? Tall, slightly frumpy, curly brown hair, brown eyes, a little jowly? Or is that just because we’ve so identified Collin Firth with a character that isn’t even given that much description in the book?
• Visually oriented people want to know what a character looks like, and it helps to distinguish them in your reader’s mind. If the character is well-described, the reader can immediately call to mind a visual image of the character and be grounded in your story.

But keep in mind—describing what your characters look like is not the same thing as character development. It’s just the gift wrap. You want your readers to be pleased at the external wrapping but eager to rip through it to see what’s on the inside.

Two types of Visually Oriented Character Casting

Pre-casting visualization (Inside-Out)

• You’ve pictured the character in your mind so that you have already developed a clear, detailed mental image of the person and are looking for a RWT that comes close so that you have a visual reference as you write and don’t lose that image.

Casting from RWTs (Outside-In)

• As soon as the idea for a character comes to mind, you go straight to your casting book to find a RWT to develop the character from.
• Or you see an actor/actress/model, etc., who instantly becomes a character in your mind and a story begins to form around that template as that character.

I have used both techniques in the same story—including Ransome’s Honor which is what I’ll be using as my examples for this series.

Now, a writing exercise. Write a 2-3 sentence character description (within narrative) utilizing the following information—and try not to use any of these words directly:

• Male, mid-30s
• Brown Hair
• Brown Eyes
• Average height, build

If you don’t post your sentences in the comments, hang on to them, because you’ll need to refer to them in the assignment I’ll give next time . . .

A couple of days ago, I wrote about using visuals for creating my characters and getting inspiration for scenes. I wanted to share the storyboards I’ve been working on for Ransome’s Honor to give an example of what I’m talking about. Each image includes a background of the setting as well as major characters who have named/active appearances in the scene.

Chapter One—In the first half of the chapter, which takes place on HMS Alexandra, we meet captain William Ransome, several of his crew, and the Northrops, whom he must transport from Yarmouth to Portsmouth. In the second half, at her family’s townhouse in Portsmouth, we meet Julia Witherington and her father, Admiral Sir Edward Witherington

Chapter Two—William stops in to see his best friend and learns that he is still at sea. He does visit with his friend’s wife, Mrs. Susan Yates. That same evening, Julia, her father, and mother attend a card party where she meets Admiral and Mrs. Hinds. Later that evening at home, she gets nostalgic over letters from her twin brother lost at sea almost fifteen years before.

Chapter Three—William returns to the Alexandra and informs his officers they will be on leave for a month while the ship is refit so they can then go to Jamaica. The next morning, after taking care of some household business, Julia pays a visit to her dear friend, Susan Yates. While there, the man Julia despises most in the world, William Ransome, arrives.

I have storyboarded through the chapters I’ve written, and in the process cast several minor characters (such as Fawkes, and all three Northrops), and because of that was able to go back and tweak the narrative descriptions of them to make them more specific. Here’s a link to a (huge) file that comprises the detailed storyboards for chapters 1-20. (Sorry if it takes a while to load–the server where it’s saved is unusually slow!)

Enjoy!

In case you’re new to my blog or haven’t heard me teach or talk about it before, I am a visually oriented person. What this means is that in addition to doing my strongest learning by reading or seeing something in action, as a writer, I am constantly on the lookout for images that inspire my writing.

My stories are always character driven, and those characters come to me in a variety of ways, most especially through the “what if” process—what if I ran into a member of one of the popular boy-bands of the eighties. I would never recognize him because I did not listen to that kind of music nor did we have cable/MTV. Thus begins the premise of a novel involving a former boy-band member and an opera diva. Another major source of characters for me is from secondary characters in movies and/or TV shows that intrigue me (which I’ve written about in recent posts).

No matter where my characters come from, they all have something in common—I have to “cast” them before I can start writing about them. In fact, this is what I did my teaching session on for grad school: using Real World Templates to help build characters. I use mostly actors/actresses as they are easiest to find images of (or to harvest screen captures of from DVDs). Because I am drawn to secondary characters, I tend to use templates who are not extremely well known nor would they be easily recognizable through the physical descriptions I give of them in my writing.

In addition to my two main characters in the Ransome trilogy, the templates for several other major secondary characters come from movies set during the time period I’m writing, which has been wonderful when it comes to describing their clothing in addition to their physical appearance. The DVD player on my computer allows me to do screen captures, so I am able to capture a multitude of facial expressions and body language of my templates to use in building how my characters move and emote. I also get ideas for scenes from screen captures that show the template in certain situations. I would never plagiarize a scene from someone else’s work, but I sure do get inspiration from them!

With the proliferation of movie versions of Jane Austen’s novels, the Horatio Hornblower series, and the movie Master and Commander, I have been able to pull a plethora of images that help inspire me in my writing. Because of the research I have done independently from these, I know when something is a little off in the film (such as Darcy not wearing gloves at the Netherfield Ball in the newest version of P&P or the fact that Col. Fitzwilliam is wearing a naval uniform instead of an army uniform in the same movie). But they give me important insights into the backdrops of formal balls, dinners, life aboard ship, interaction between sailors and their superiors, or Georgian wedding ceremonies I would not get from any other research materials I have.

I can then also take the images of my templates—who have only been in one film together but did not play opposite each other—and use a photo publisher program on my computer to Frankenstein-together pictures of my characters in scenes from MY story.

I realized something rather profound (to me anyway) last night, when instead of writing, I started putting together in PowerPoint a chapter-by-chapter “storyboard” of each character who appears—or at least who is named and has a speaking part. Growing up, I played with Barbie dolls until my early teens. Then, when I put those aside and started writing down those made up stories instead, I collected pictures of my characters out of magazines, very much like paper dolls. I did not play with them so much as cut them out and put them on backdrops, but they served the same purpose as the Barbies—the visual expression of what was going on inside my head. Now, thanks to one-touch scanners, Google Image search, and DVD screen capture ability, I have Virtual Barbies and Paper Dolls to use as the visual expression and inspiration of my story.

And you know, they’re more fun now than they were twenty years ago!