Visualizing — Seeing and Creating A World, And the Fun You Can Have Doing That

Last week, my friend Richard asked me a really good question. He said, " When you're writing, how much do you visualize? Do you see the things happening in your mind, and how much do you know about what your characters look like?" This was a really great question, because even though I definitely do this, I hadn't really spent to much time contemplating how or why I visualize. So I started thinking about this, and of course, here's my blog post about it!

My answer to Richard was the I visualize differently for different things. For example, I know I pay a lot of attention to the way characters move and what they express in their body language. So I often find myself acting out hand movements or different expressions in my room, trying to break down just how to catpure that head tilt or hand gesture or facial expression in my text. But when it comes to the faces of the characters themselves, meaning what they look like exactly, it isn't quite the same for me.

Explaining this to Richard, I realized that while of course I know what my characters look like in terms of basic characteristics, general size, key descriptive markers, and all of their mannerisms, I don't have a crystal clear image of their face in my head. Mostly I know how they move. I see them acting out these situations, and in my mind I am often even looking at them head on, rather than just through their eyes. But still, the face isn't perfectly clear. Funny, right? I'm not sure. My characters aren't modeled after someone I know, and I don't work from a picture or prototype of sorts. So if I had to cast a person to play my character in a movie, I think I'd know when I found her. But right now, I am not quite positive exactly what she looks like.

Another thing I spend a lot of time visualizing is the surroundings. Not every detail of every part of the world, but all the immediate places that my character resides. For my current project, I have put a lot of time and description into making the library a real, tangible place for the reader, because as my characters go there again and again, I want the reader to feel as if he is right there with them — sitting on the seat cushion, climbing the stairs, admiring the enormous bookshelves with heavy, fancy books on them. Similarly, the city square becomes an important locale in my novel. So of course, I spent a lot of time visualizing just what it would look like, but beyond that also what it felt like. The smells, the sounds, how fast people walk, the feel of the cobblestones, the layout of the plaza. I guess I spend the most time visualizing place (in addition to body language), because to me, as a reader walks beside my character, I want him to feel as though he is actually beside her, understanding and taking in each new detail as she does.

Currently, as I am in the last stretch of writing my novel, my character has finally embarked on the journey the whole narrative has been leading up to (Yay!). As of last night, she's in the woods. Literally. So again, to evoke feeling, I want to spend a lot of time visualizing just what the woods looks like. Not necessarily every aspect of the woods, but the immediate details of how she visualizes
It's funny. Much like I don't exactly know what my character's faces look like, I don't fully know
It's like I'm in a tunnel, and all I can see is what is immediately around me. But that's okay. Those are the things I need. The sensory description that will put you right there with her.

Of course, I can jump out of said tunnel to look down over the landscape and know where everything is in relation to each other and how large the wood is (which I have done because I made extensive maps for this project before I started), but what I visualize, what I see when I am writing are only the details of the present moment.

And this can be fun. It's engrossing. The way my reader would be feeling present in the moment, so am I. Though I often change my mind and swap details that can perhaps change the setting substantially, I am still right there in it. Only now, instead of tall, looming trees, I am seeing shorter ones, with branches that stick out and pull your hair. Or, in the new town she's about to arrive in, the houses are clustered in a flat open area. They're actually situated right among the trees.

But that's okay. Because visualizing helped me realize what the most interesting setting looks like and the problems inherent in movement and place that I might not otherwise realize. Visualization is a key tool for novel writing, or any writing really. It may look different for you and me, or it may look different even within my own process. But it is important, and beyond that, it allows you the experience of being a reader to your own writing — throwing yourself so deeply into the world that it is almost as if you are just a traveller, there to take some pictures, and record your findings.

Finding the Belief Systems Within Your Fiction World

Today is Easter, and for those who celebrate it, I wish you the most joyful of days. This has been a big week for two of the major world religions. For the Jewish community, Passover was commemorated, and for the Christian community, Holy Week culminates in the celebration of Easter today. Each of these religious holidays have a large impact on our society at large. With school often canceled for Good Friday, and various rituals and traditons practiced by families and friends across the nation, this week served as a reminder for such how deeply these holidays are woven into the fabric of our society; of just how greatly these ideologies shape our lives.

Likewise, our fictional worlds must have these ideologies as well. While such traditions don't always have to be overt or a tremendously large part of our stories, it is undeniably important to understand just what beliefs lie behind the everyday life of our characters' worlds.

Ideologies, religious beliefs, superstitions, or whatever else you'd like to call them all inform the way our characters act. Although we may not spend virtually any of our story's real estate discussing the long standing history behind these beliefs, or even include a direct practice of a belief itself, the ideas that govern the greater society matter to the quality of your narrative. Your readers may not notice, particularly within contemporary, realistic stories in which the world you explain closely matches the culture of your reader's world, but regardless, you do have to have some kind of ideology within the story itself.

Beliefs are the back drop of every society. They dictate what characters do — and what they don't do. For example, religious traditions or areligious superstition might inform the gender norms of your story. Practices surrounding food might play a significant role, and even contribute to the conflict of your plot.  Your character might meet a friend whose beliefs are different than there own. She might even explore a new system of beliefs herself. Even for contemporary worlds like our own, communicating the tradtions remains important, because all of these things can be both character building and contribute to your plot.

Here are some questions to consider about when thinking about the beliefs of your fictional world:
• What holidays does the society celebrate? Do any of these holidays come into play within the narrative?
• Do superstitions play any role in the lives of your characters?
• Regardless of whether your character personally believes or not, are their religious beliefs held within the society that mandate certain behaviors, practices, or traditions in your character's society?
• How do your characters view nature? Are there any spiritual associations with the natural world?
• Are there various ideologies within the culture? Are they at odds or do they coexist peacefully?
• What does your protagonist personally believe? What do the characters around her belief?

Examine these questions within your current project. Perhaps contemplating belifs may open up a way to deepen characterization and complicate your plot. Also, think about these questions for a potential new project. Maybe you can even develop a whole new story idea from these questions!

Perfection Comes from Patience — Not in the First Draft

This week, I worked on one scene for quite some time — much longer than I can remember working on another singular scene in a quite a while. Although there were plenty of moments of sitting and thinking, or jumping ahead to get down the other ideas that popped into my mind for later scene, I kept coming back to this one scene: working and reworking it; contemplating what I wanted to say and the appropriate responses of the characters; balancing the need to give information while also trying to make sure it remained interesting and moving forward. It was quite a doozy. But when I started to think about why it was so hard, it became really clear to me. It wasn't just hard because I was having a writing-block moment. It was because it really mattered. And the scenes that really matter the most are often the hardest to write.

See, the part I was most stuck on is a portion of a scene in which my two characters discover some super important information that they've been looking for for quite some time now. So not only is it a typical scene where pacing must be right and interesting things have to happen, but it's also a time where their characterization is key, and their reactions must be believable, and the important information must be perfectly stated in just the right way to help all the pieces tie together. Oh yeah, and, they read it from a book. So of course, I have to write the text of that book with a distinct voice of its own. Lots of layers, right?

Most of the problem wasn't finding the words themselves, but actually figuring out what I needed to say in the right way. Within my novel, I've conceived this scene as one that plays a pivotal role in getting my protagonist closer to the mystery she is trying to solve. So I want the details to be perfect. And I want to make sure this isn't just another scene that gives some information, but that it is a scene that marks a shift between the first part of her journey and the second. With this new knowledge, she will be able to go out, to set forth into the quest she is destined for and become empowered to seek her goal. But the more I thought about how important I wanted this scene to be, and how each detail had to be right, the harder it became.

I brain-stormed. I talked to a friend about it. I wrote and deleted, moved things around, thought some more, brains-stormed some more, and continued writing. And I am happy to say that I got it to a place I am comfortable with. But it certainly was a struggle.

Sometimes, we put added pressure on scenes to make them right the first time, which is of course exactly what I described about. But while I think this is very important, especially within the most pivotal one or two scenes within your book, I also think it's important to remember that you, and I, still have time to work out all the kinks in revision. I mean, perhaps my later scenes will better help me understand my current scene. In fact, I am quite sure that it will — for when I can see the work as a complete whole, I will have a better view of all the pieces and how they fit together. And maybe later I'll change my mind about how I want my protagonist to react. Or the perfect bit of dialogue will pop in my head while I'm riding the T or working on a project at work.

But I have to realize that just because it's hard, and just because it comes at this exact point in my story doesn't mean I have to have it all together now. There are many drafts to come. So perhaps I can just ease up a bit, knowing that I've got something down that already had a lot of thought behind it.

I may have a detailed outline now, but remembering that my novel, as a first draft, is fluid and has the time and space to change is important both to the success of the novel, and to my sanity. So while I fully believe in working hard and writing intentionally in the first draft, I need to remember that perfect doesn't have to happen today; and that all great novels and finished products were not so great at the get-go. They come with time. They come with patience.

So as I move onto the next scene, let's all take a deep breath, and trust that we did our best, and still have a whole lot of great work in front of us. We can do it. I am sure we can. Happy Writing!

The Unspoken Emotions — Movement and Dialogue

This week, while working on a particular tension-filled scene, I found myself stressing over my characters' dialogue. I found myself thinking questions like, "Would she really say it like that?" and, "how can I reveal his discomfort without having him just say it?" When there is so much that needs to be said, but only so much a character would actually voice, I felt the pressure of wanting to capture the weight of the moment accurately with each line a character spoke.

The thing about dialogue is that while characters can say a lot about themselves, there are equally as many things they won't say. Like every person, there is a distinction between a character's thoughts and what he will actually voice. So in writing a scene that so heavily depends on dialogue, you have to be careful to maintain the line between thoughts and speech. Of course, you want your characters to be realistic and only speak dialogue that is authentic to their nature, but then, how do you accurately describe their state of mind, and the tension of the moment, if having them directly state it just doesn't work?

The answer is through a description of their physical movements — all the small ticks and habits and body language that reveals so much about a character. This is what I spent a lot of my week doing, visualizing the thing going on between and around the dialogue. In my scene, which relies so heavily upon dialogue because of the static nature of the office where it takes place, I realized that the physical expression of those words mattered just as much as the words themselves. Although you cannot detail every inflection and tone of a character's voice, well-placed descriptions of how a character looks, or what a character does, can make all the difference.

Visualizing the physical element of dialogue allows you to realize that it is not just about the words that are said, but also how they are said. Because we are limited to the words we put on the page, and cannot insert stage directions or whisper each and every emphasis into the reader's ear, the description of a character's actions becomes vital. In the absence of such stage directions, the expression of a character's subtle movements and tweaks become the guide that allows us to reveal just how a character's dialogue can be read. It gives the reader insight into the tension of the moment, and all the ways we envisioned the scene to come alive.

In my particular scene, my protagonist finds himself in the guidance counselor's office, where they are later joined by his mother. Unlike the previous scene that takes place on the soccer field, there is little movement happening. Everyone sits in chairs. No one is gesticulating wildly. But yet, the way the guidance counselor leans across her desk to portray empathy, and the way he slouches, totally uninterested in her words, and the way his mother fiddles with the clasp on her purse — these are all so important to understanding the scene. They show you what's going on below the surface. They show you how people feel.

You have to be creative about the movements you choose, because you don't want to venture into the cliche. I mean, your character can't sigh every time he feels exasperated, right? And your other impatient character can't just loudly tap her foot throughout the entire book. So you have to ask yourself,  if she tilts her head to the side, what does that say? And, what would it mean he if purposely dropped something to the floor just to lean over and get a break from the gaze of his teacher? Scenes that are full of tension, or whatever emotion that lay just below the surface, need the physical description in order to come to life. Yes, the words of the dialogue themselves are so important, and cannot be underestimated, but the things going on around the dialogue are just as important, too.

When further limited by the first-person narration like my story is, you only have that moment to work with. What your characters sees and how he perceives things is all you have. With a distant third person or a third person omniscient, things might be easier. But when you only have that one scene, you need to bring it to life. And life is full of physical movement. So why not use it? It might just tell part of the story for you.