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!

Tips on Tuesday: Old Dogs Teach New Tricks

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

So the husband’s out of town. I was wandering around the place and realized how much of my old “junk” is still in his closet. (We’ve only been married about two‑and‑a‑half years). On the floor was a large, heavy box wrapped in layers and layers of plastic wrap… my daughter’s doing the last time I moved some five or so years ago — Thank You! Wanting to know what was there, I cut a little slit in one end of the box, revealing a very full box of old magazines. I pulled the end one out, and left the rest. Ahh! My good old, trusty Writer’s Digest magazine — not even dusty.

The picture on the front sported a close up of Tom Clancy, “His Best Advice for Writers,” backed by a large piece of military equipment, sprouting guns: the January 2001 issue. And the really scary part is I have boxes out in the garage that could have some dating as far back as the mid – ‘70’s! Should I lighten the load, and dump all of them? I decided to check up on the magazine as a whole, and certainly the Clancy interview C after all, I’d loved his books!

The Table of Contests listed a number of topics:

50 Spots to Get Published —many, maybe even all, could be dead and gone.

Must‑Know Info on Fair Use and Copyright —I can only imagine how things have changed in 14 years.

Writing to a T: Crafting a Templated Article —I wonder how much of THAT translates to now? There could be something, but probably not much.

Find Freelance Work in Want Ads —many newspapers which carried “Want Ads” are dead now too.

Hot Book Marketing Tips —most didn’t have a clue about how marketing would morph back in ‘01!

I won’t go on. Most of this could easily be tossed —there are only a couple of pieces I’d glance through first.

Then “A Conversation with Tom Clancy” by Katie Struckel: I turned to p. 20, just to see. Clancy was standing in front of a full book case, with a quote beside him: “The one talent that is indispensable to a writer is persistence. You must write the book, else there is no book. It will not finish itself.”

Well, that much is still accurate. And someone (oh, yeah: that would have been moi!) had highlighted a few pearls in an aqua shade:

“Writing a book is an endurance contest and a war fought against yourself …”

“Try to keep it simple. Tell the d@#%*$ story.”

“… it’s necessary to describe the tools my characters use to lend verisimilitude to my work . . . [it] provides texture that adds to the richness and plausibility…”

After having seen a PBS presentation about Hitchcock and his films, Clancy opined: “Suspense is achieved by information control. What you know. What the reader knows. What the character knows . . . balance that properly, and you can really get the reader wound up.”

His advice to aspiring writers? “Keep at it! . . . Do not try to commit art. Just tell the d@#%*$ story… fundamentally writing a novel is telling a story.”

I still find Clancy’s advice to be completely viable. The technologies have changed, as has the publishing world itself. Now Clancy’s dead and gone. But his books are still around. The words in this interview still ring true. He sure made waves while he was “here” — and he can still show us something about how it’s done.

I’ll clip and keep articles that are interviews, or in some other way are still timeless. I mean, who wouldn’t want know what was on Charles Dickens mind about writing, or in Edgar Allen Poe’s brain, or, somewhat more recently, the prolific Isaac Asimov’s? Now there’s a man who left volumes and volumes of material C and it=s still relevant.

As I find more “gems,” I’ll pass them along. I can’t just toss out all that “old” stuff.

See you next for Thinkin’ on Thursday!