Sunday, November 19, 2006

Getting Real, Getting Faces, Getting Going

I haven't written much in the last four days due to a boatload of migraines (gone now, thank God!).

Today, I split off my "story bible" from the mondo story file. It was getting too unwieldy. So now my total word count for the story is more accurate. I have about 1300 words in the bible, so those are now subtracted from my progress meter. This fantasy novel really needs one (a bible, that is) - foreign words and places and all are going to require an appendix, too, so, lots of material for a bible.

I did, though, finish something that's fun and kind of important to my forward progress. I've found "faces" for all my MCs (and some needed child and adult faces; Kailia needed three: child, adult, old).

This may seem strange, but I am very visual, and need photos to help me "see" my characters. What I do, after creating the characters and getting to know them, is to do web searches for actors/models/regular-people headshots. When I find one that really strikes me as "Character X", I copy and paste it into my story bible.

Sometimes, having the face even helps me flesh out the characters. Brakkus, for example, even as a child, has a section of hair two-inches wide that's white as snow. And there's a story behind that that I didn't know before I found his picture. [g]

Question: Anybody else do this picture thing, or am I the only weirdo?

Question: Do you use a "bible"? If so, what goes in yours? Enquiring minds want to know. [s]

I'm having a good month, compared to last, with over 2,000 additional words so far, so I want to keep the momentum going and aim for at least 5,000 by the end of the month. (I have some time off next week). I can tell since I haven't been doing my little TRACKING thingo at the end of my posts, that I have let myself slack quite a bit more, so I'm going to re-institute that starting today.

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TRACKING...

Yesterday's Big Accomplishment:
Discovered how and why Kailia is going to leave Falcon's place alone.

Today's Target:
Write the scene (above).
Update reverse-outline. (Don't worry, I know what I mean, and that's what's important. [g])

On the Percolator:
Need to read MARU through from beginning so as not to lose the reins on the timetable before I go any further.
Also need to read through the western and start figuring out how to fill in the holes.

3 comments:

Cindy said...

I do the face thing, too! I find it really helpful.

Um, I'm at work. Should go.

Cindy

Mrs. Mitty said...

Cool! GMTA, yes? [g]

Do you have any celebrities or do you usually choose unknowns? Just by coincidence, each of my stories has one famous person and all the rest mystery people.

Cindy said...

Mainly celebrities. It helps me get a fix on a person. I don't choose, really, I usually have a character first, and then I'll see a picture and think "Ah! It's Juniper!"