Writing and Images Karen CochraneNovember 2015

What is an Image?

▶ ‘ A physical likeness or representation of a person, animal or thing photographed, painted, sculpted or otherwise made visible’.

▶ Basically, anything and everything visual.

One of the greatest tools for writers, (apart from their own imagination) are images.

Visual aids come in many forms, from an inspirational sunset down to a collection of post-it notes used to formulate plot and timelines.

I hope to show you in the following presentation exactly how we can utilise images to aid your

▶ ‘Voice’▶ And characterisation

Why Do We Need ImagesInspiration

Description

Connecting emotionally with our character/voice

Set out a visual representation of your story

A visual aide mémoire

How To Use Images

▶ Story Board▶ Timelines▶ Blank Page Syndrome▶ Finding our emotional voice and characterisation ▶ Mood and Character Boards▶Mood Board

S T O R Y B O A R D S

Story BoardsHelp you to visualise your story.

Ensure a beginning, a middle and an end.

The storyboard does not have to be complex or pretty

– it is merely an aide-memoire.

TIME LINES

TIMELINESEND ON A HIGH

BLACKEST MOMENT

EPIPHANY

FIRST MAJOR SETBACK

HIGH POINT BEFORENEW PROBLEM PUTS THE

STORY LINE UNDER TENSION

Timeline: Highs and Lows

Epiphany

BLANK PAGE SYNDROME

Blank Page SyndromeCollect images from the internet, magazines and photographs which:

• Amuse

• Touch you

• Inspire you

• Make you think

Catch of the Day!

Vampire Apples????

Take a bite out of thembefore they take a bite out of you

Tonsilitus

or

Alien Revisited

Why: • Jealousy• Infidelity• Glass ceiling• Stalker

When: office hours

How: stiletto

Where: the office

Who: lover, wife, colleague

A Pretty Christmas SceneOr A Russian Troika pre 1918 Revolution

?Is a wolf chasing the troika?

For the more gory writers amongst us…..

Inspiration or Description

• Quality of light

• The crisp crunch of snow

• Hot sultry days in Venice

• Quality of the water

• Colours of the buildings

• Atmospheric

• Sense of stillness

Oh Dear!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nuff said!

JUST BLOODYINSPIRATIONAL

RomanticorClandestineorYoung LoveorAffair

You choose!

Romance

Mills and Boon

OFF TO WARThe beginning or the end

of the story!

BACK STORY&

CHARACTER MOOD BOARDS

Finding Your Emotional Voice

▶ Good writing resonates when it is written from a point of truth.

This does not mean it needs to be personal to the writer, (not every writer has killed) rather the writer must empathise to the point that they understand the background, emotions, even physicality - they need to get beneath the skin of their ‘voice’ the voice of their main character.

To do this you need to

a. Build a backstory – this is purely for the writer and may never appear on the page

b. Understand their physicality – bunions will make walking difficult, painful, they will dislike standing in queues, making them short tempered and irritable. This may not be reflected in the words they say but in the rhythm and manner of their speech. Sentences may be short, sharp and pithy.

a. Obesity can make the character, short of breath, slow to respond with short breathy laconic sentences.

b. However someone on drugs or drink may talk loud fast and falling over their words, losing the string of their thoughts

c. Understand the emotions behind their behavior then find a picture that puts you in that place, that makes you feel their emotion and your work will resonate with truth.

CHARACTER MOOD BOARD AND BACKSTORY

SIBERIA

бабушка

CHARACTER MOOD BOARD AND BACKSTORY

MOOD BOARDS

Mood Boards

▶ Mood Boards should be a collection of images which invoke a specific mood in yourself

▶ The purpose is to enable YOU to feel a specific emotion in order to bring truth to your writing

▶ Quotes and impressions of emotions are also valuable items on the mood board, they trigger ideas, confirm or challenge preconceptions.

Mood Boards should be a collection of images which invoke a specific mood in YOU

SORROW

J E A L O U S Y

CHARACTERISATION

To gain an insight into your chosen character find an image that relates loosely to your character

Preferably an image where you can look into their eyes

Imagine yourself with their emotions

What do they feel

Why

Do they like you

Do you like them

Are they afraid, aggressive, passive, happy, content, worried.

Feel their pain