Days like today – visualizing & daydreaming

Sometimes the fastest way to find out about a character is to step away from your writing and take a daydream break.

For me, stories come faster & make more sense if I have a good visual of my characters. There are all kinds of character analysis worksheets (as close as Google!) and those worksheets — or a few detailed paragraphs per character — are great for finding out more about who you characters are. But, the easiest and most fun way for me to get to know my characters is to “see” them.

When I wrote XVI I actually had a visual of Nina (my main character) before I even knew what her story was. She popped into my head when I was daydreaming, complete with a scene that I eventually modified and put into the book.

An easy way to see a character if you are already working on a story is to visualize a scene that they are in. See it in your head like you’re watching a movie. As you allow your mind to envision the scene, that person will take on additional dimension and depth. Perhaps you were seeing them wrong & the scene makes it clear that they are shorter than you thought, and they have brown hair and are in that string-bean gawky stage of adolescence.  Or, you see the wrinkle in their eyes when they smile, the concern about their little sister as they grasp her hand, their confidence in taking the SATs, etc.

Some of the humor surrounding living with a writer mentions not disturbing them when they are gazing out the window, apparently doing nothing. But, it’s true. Those daydreaming, visualizing times are necessary in getting characters and stories to come out exactly as they should. Be sure, however, to keep pen and paper (or computer) close at hand to write down what you “see!”

Do you visualize your stories? Can you see them as movies, or scenes from movies? I’d love to know!