It’s just one of those days.
Cold. Grey. Damp.
Not quite raining, but drizzling every now and then. The sort that makes you want to curl up under a blanket with a cup of coffee and a good book, though you know you should be writing. So you stuff the book under a pillow out of reach and pull out your laptop … only to find yourself staring at a blinking cursor on a blank page with no idea how to get the words out of your head and into the story.
Ever had one of those days?
When I find it hard to write, it’s usually because there’s something holding me back.
Fear.
Fear that I’ll ruin what I think should be a good story. Fear that I’m a failure before I even get started. Fear that my story is terrible … and I’ll just make it worse.
In fact, I wrote a whole blog post about it once: When My Pen Runs Dry.
One thing that I’ve found helps me when I hit a dry spot in my writing, is to go back through my story and reread my favorite parts. This time, I decided to take it a little farther and designed a “quotes graphic” for each of the main characters to use as inspiration while I write.
I’m not a graphics designer by any means … it’s one of my many non-talents … but I had fun making these and they serve their purpose such as it is!
First, I settled on a color for the graphic. I tend to associate certain characters with specific colors even as I write. I knew automatically that Ceridwen would be a burned-to-the-embers fire red. Ronan on the other hand was a smoky blue, like the sea on a misty morning.
I love this idea! I've made a few character quote graphics. I'm by no means a professional, but it is a hobby of mine.
~Sarah Faulkner
http://www.inklinedwriters.blogspot.com
They're so much fun to make, aren't they?
Great idea! I might try that for a few of my characters sometime.
I'd love to see them if you do!
I'm definitely going to do this. Thanks! (:
:)
I recently found a blog called "Doll Divine" where you can design people–clothing, facial expressions, skin color, etc. I used this site to make my fictional characters visible! Their facial expressions, hair, and clothing showed their inner character–from sad, to fiery, to sweet.
It's in the same vein of writing character quotes to define, even for yourself, who your characters are, so I thought I'd share it with you! And yours is a good idea as well! I might very well try it sometime!
(If you use Doll Divine, some of the best "games" for designing characters that I've found so far, are the LotR and Hobbit game; the Game of Thrones; and the Tudors game.)
Ooh, that sounds really neat. What fun! I'll have to look into that.