I was talking to some fellow writers the other day when I mentioned one of my methods for developing characters. At the time, I didn’t think my method was anything out of the ordinary. Yet a couple of writers thought it was a unique idea, very “outside the box” thinking, they said.
So, since they found this method unique and possibly beneficial, I thought I’d share it with you as well.
Besides answering an extensive list of questions to help develop my characters, I’ve recently started using Pinterest as a visual aid as well.
Below is a screenshot of one of a board I created for one of my novels. I always make my character boards secret, so I can keep the characters to myself, at least until I share the story with the world. Within the board, I pin pictures of people I find around the interwebs, as well as places, to help visualize characters and scenery.
I find by having a clear picture of a character or place, I’m better able to describe them. It also helps me feel more organized in the sometimes crazy process of writing a novel.
As you can see, many of my characters are molded after famous people. This happens to be the case for this novel; sometimes I grab pictures of non-famous people from around the webs as well.
More often than not, though, for me, famous people work better because I mostly write with the idea of hopefully having THE actor I used as inspiration to play the character when the movie is made.
Yes, that’s a bit presumptuous, but I think if you’re going to dream, you might as well dream big, right?
So there you have it. Another method for you to put into your writing arsenal.
Until next time…
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