Thinkin’ on Thursday: Picture This!

Easy as A, B, C . . . from BB

At times in the past, I have modeled characters’ looks, fashion sense, even personality on unknown models in magazines. I’ve even cut them out and then built characteristics for that person on the same page or on a 4×6 card. Or I’ve envisioned an old time actor (or a current one, for that matter) as my “hero,” “villain,” “sidekick,” or whomever.

I’m going to suggest another way to utilize pictures of unknowns from magazines or books to help your writing (and the above paragraph has some good ideas too: if you’ve never tried it, give it a go and see what you think). Look through a magazine or illustrated book, preferably one you haven’t read already, or an old one you’ve forgotten all about. Find a picture with at least two main “characters” on it. THINK of these two as major characters in a story you haven’t yet thought through.

Just allow them to begin interacting with each other. Don’t “plan” ahead (this will be a good one for all of us ‘pantsers’), because this is designed to give us practice in a more “organic” method of plot construction. Just start “recording” the story’s events and let them spin out in front of you. Pay attention to other props or objects that appear in the ad or picture. If there are other people in the picture, ignore them for the moment. See how or why the two might interact with the props, objects, bits of scenery, in the picture with them. Record items and events as faithfully as possible without thinking about the “rules” of story plot structure.

Once you’ve recorded the scene, note whether your characters interacted with or used any of the props, etc., given them by the picture. What did they do with items there? Twiddle nervously with papers on a desk? Pick up a coffee cup and look for a refill? Grab a hammer or bucket of paint, intending to use it as a weapon?

How did your characters interact with each other? Were they friends or strangers at the start? What relationship was forged during the scene: adversarial? Conciliatory? Pleading? Helpful? and so on.

Go ahead. This is just a writer’s PLAY ground. Have FUN in it ! ! !

(And, at the end, is there anything salvageable there? Can it be incorporated in your current WIP? Is it the beginning of a short story? An article? An editorial? A children’s book? Even a brand‑new novel?)

See you next for Saturday’s Spellbinder!

Wednesday’s WIPs: or Wednesday’s . . . Whatever’s!

EASY AS A, B, C . . . from BB

Got looking back over our past Works in Progress, and realized we’ve probably messed up more often on Wednesdays than any other day of the week.  With the basic four of us, and every-other-day publication, we each only have to write about our WIP every other month or so.  That’s long enough that we’ve forgotten, made it up, got over-excited and published it one day early (on a Tuesday!), and put substitute “WIPs” in (which weren’t about our writing at all) for each other in a pinch.

I’ll try to do better.

And, of course, I’m off to a bad start: my stated Work in Progress was to have turned back to my historical.  At this point, I’m hoping it will be out sometime within the next millennium.  The “ghost writer” for said work will be me: I’ll be dead and gone by then, with my husband trying to figure out what the !@#$% (that’s pronounced “buzz” in Brenda-speak) I meant with all the notes, high-lighted reference books, and partial chapters I left him.

Meanwhile, I’m getting ready for Writers and Illustrators for Young Readers (WIFYR).  I have a deadline of tonight at midnight to send in my 20 pages which have me struggling in the “murky middles” (or is that “murkie”?). That means I can’t just turn in the first 20 pages.  So I’ve been comparing old versions with new versions for hours.  I also need to write a 1-3 sentence-per-chapter synopsis.  When you’ve got the murky middles, you don’t KNOW where it’s going to end.  Well, you sort of do, but you can’t seem to cross the bridge to get there.

I wrote a new single-page set up (NOT a synopsis), and I think that has tamed some POV and “Who the heck is saying that line” problems.  I actually even have 95 pages done, in 13 chapters.  I like the new character I introduced in the set-up—and she will reappear.  The Hero and the Heroine will have to  struggle to find each other—of course.  I love the Hero’s despicable brothers.  And I’m crazy about the idea that I’m finally writing a mash-up of a couple of old favorite fairy tales—as I’ve thought of doing for years. I like the creepy old woman—a lot—who actually has a heart of . . . Oooooops!  Spoiler alert.  Never mind, I won’t say.  Could be a heart of gold, or the heart of a snake, or the bloody heart of the hero, or worse.  You’ll find out when you read my Work No Longer In Progress, but my WIP—WORK IN PRINT!

See you day-after-tomorrow for Friday’s Friends!