10-18-12

Bring Your Ideas to Life

Tonight I decided to start an image board for my book. I’ve had plenty of visions in my head of characters, locations, scenery, etc. But I’m finding it more difficult to create accurate, but entertaining and meaningful descriptions in writing. I want my descriptions to be understood by the readers. I don’t want them to be too confusing, or too detailed. I want to leave room for readers to have their own visions and interpretations.

I figured a tool that might aide me in describing people or places could be an image board. So I found a piece of foam display board tucked away in a closet and I started searching the internet for images.  I’ve found lots of great pictures of a particular type of house I’ve been envisioning, some great exterior shots with beautiful background scenery, along with various shots of different rooms inside the house. They may not even be part of the same house, but to me they fit together to represent what’s already built in my mind. Sort of like a TV show film set. Each locale squeezed together on the same stage, with cement floors and drywall in between. But the audience never realizes their proximity because of the way the show is filmed. This is also the job of the author. No need to describe every room in the house if your character never leaves the living room. But you may find it necessary to create doors, windows, or hallways as your story progresses.

So now at least I have a better, more concrete tool to reference when struggling with descriptions. When my vision starts to cloud, I can look at my image board and get a refresher. What I thought made this project particularly appropriate was when I pulled off the bar code label stuck to the back of the board. The sticker said, “Bring Your Ideas to Life”. So thank you foam board makers, I think that’s exactly what I’ll do.