When In Doubt, Draw It Out

When in doubt, draw it out.  Words to live by as a fiction writer. It doesn't matter if you're a lousy artist. The important thing is that the act of drawing employs more than just the imagination. Tactile and visual senses are involved as well, which implants the character deep into your memory banks. 

Speaking for myself, the better I can see a character in my mind's eye, the better I can describe him on the page. For instance, in the case of the forest dwelling wumpers, I started out with only a vague idea of what they looked like - round, bouncy, lots of eyes, sharp teeth - but the details were hazy. The wumper I outlined on paper didn't match the one in my head (and never will), but that's not the point. After I drew it a few times, the picture in my imagination sharpened, and my prose became more descriptive. As a writer, any exercise that can do that is worth doing. 

Below is my first sketch. Pathetic, but effective.    



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Excerpt from Galatians Arise, Chapter 6:

The elders said that the wumpers probably came from a distant star and had hitched a ride to Earth on a Celerun ship. In theory, that made them fascinating creatures, but right now Josie just wanted them leave.
    The wumper coming at her now looked like a beach ball on a slinky without all of the fun associations. This ball of flesh wasn’t colorful or cheerful. It looked like a densely packed gray tumbleweed covered with hundreds of glistening black eyes. Its beak jutted out like wedge of cheese filled gray shark teeth, constantly snapping in mindless pursuit of anything that moved.
    Its single leg scrunched on impact with the forest floor, and then expanded again like a spring, propelling it forward with great force. One moment it was there, the next moment it had bounced out of sight, to land with a wump a few yards away.

(My daughter said, "Your wumper looks like Big Bird with sharp teeth. Better stick with the writing, Mom.")


I'm still editing book one of Galatians Arise, but I'm pushing for a fall release date. If you would like to beta read or obtain a free reviewer's copy when it comes out, contact me at: 
cdeannaverhoff@yahoo.com