{"id":214,"date":"2011-02-15T16:33:45","date_gmt":"2011-02-15T21:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/annangelwriter.com\/blog\/?p=214"},"modified":"2025-05-27T14:15:28","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T19:15:28","slug":"visual-practice-for-writing-a-novel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/annangelwriter.com\/blog\/visual-practice-for-writing-a-novel\/","title":{"rendered":"Visual practice for writing a novel"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>I’m getting ready for a mid-March novel revision retreat where I’ll be working on a novel that’s almost finished. Over the past week I’ve thought my primary character sounded dippy, I’ve thought my first drafts are really, really, really crappy and, yet, I’ve\u00a0made myself\u00a0sit down and work everyday until I found myself today thinking that, while not everything is\u00a0working, it feels a bit like I’m dancing with words.\u00a0I think that’s hopeful.<\/p>\n

Last week, I talked about creating a character collage to visualize your character. But often when I’m really stuck, I’ll take my characters shopping or we’ll go out sightseeing with a camera. I post my\u00a0photos and refer to them as I write. So here are a few that have made their way into this draft.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here is a\u00a0drawing of my first ideas for this novel, a contemporary urban tale reminiscient of Pan and\u00a0Echo’s story,\u00a0which is currently untitled:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Click on the link below\u00a0to see\u00a0Orianthi whose great video playing a gold electric guitar can be seen. That music captures\u2019s the scene before Echo loses her voice. http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=G7b-_YcACuQ<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0These are dresses and tops I picture Echo wearing. She\u2019d wear the tops with skinny jeans, brown suede boots and a brown leather motorcycle jacket. She\u2019d be barefoot in a dress like this or she\u2019d wear gladiator sandals. I would say she\u2019s a bit boho in her tastes while her friend Psyche is a bit more Milwaukee biker chick.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0 <\/a>\u00a0This is Psyche although she\u2019d be wearing Echo\u2019s top here. Psyche tends to dress in dark colors.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I’ve also looked at images and diagrams for settings:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\\<\/p>\n

This is the sort of lighthouse\u00a0where Pan and Echo practice music. It’s also the place where most of their friends party.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0This is the lantern room where Pan and Echo spend time alone.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0This is Wisconsin’s North Point lighthouse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you look back at my previous post, you’ll see a collage of Echo who, although she becomes Echo, begins the novel as Evie, a wild child guitar player and singer who is in love with Trevor Pan.<\/p>\n

I’ve got to get all of this down on posterboard for the retreat. But so much can change that I think I might just wait until the week before and create all new collages and images.\u00a0That’s the beauty about learning to trust process. Everything can change.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m getting ready for a mid-March novel revision retreat where I’ll be working on a novel that’s almost finished. Over the past week I’ve thought my primary character sounded dippy, I’ve thought my first drafts are really, really, really crappy and, yet, I’ve\u00a0made myself\u00a0sit down and work everyday until I found myself today thinking that, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":12,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/annangelwriter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/annangelwriter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/annangelwriter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annangelwriter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annangelwriter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/annangelwriter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1370,"href":"https:\/\/annangelwriter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions\/1370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/annangelwriter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annangelwriter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annangelwriter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}