Last week I mentioned that my friend Betsy suggested a technique she learned in a writing class. Her teacher had told the class that he likes to draw out what is going to happen next in the book to orient himself within the new scene. Betsy said he was a pretty good artist so his drawings really came to life there in the class. I can’t draw well, but the idea intrigued me enough to want to give it a try.
I have to write a new scene for my Thursday night class, so yesterday I sat on my balcony and thought about the scene I wanted to write. As I began to picture it in my mind, I drew the things that came to me.
I knew there would be two SUVs with four people in the first one and two in the second, and they would stop by the side of the road, near the woods. I drew the road, the direction of travel, the two vehicles with the number of people in each, the woods and the possibility of a fence (see above). I decided the police would come later, so I drew the police cars farther away. After a while, I decided the building would be a big three-story building hidden beyond the trees with the main entrance from the parking lot and a helicopter landing pad on the roof.
As I looked over my awesome looking plot picture <grin> I could visualize what my kinds of things my characters would decide to do to break into the building, and what kinds of things could go wrong. For instance, I decided that there was only one entrance, and it was away from the road, but there are half a dozen fire exits. I liked the idea of the helicopter pad even though I don’t know if I’ll use it yet.
After musing about the options while staring half-focused on the drawing, I began to see what I wanted to write. I turned over the page and began. An hour or two later – voila! – a scene was born! :)
Have you ever used a plot picture to help you figure out what to write? Did it help?
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I’ve never done this but I can see how it would be of help. Though I only do stick figures!
I have only done this with one story that I see as becoming a series so I could orient myself to everything, but I could see how doing with with individual scenes would be wonderful. Knowing left from right isn’t a strong point of mine, and a drawing would keep it all right there in plain view. I think I’ll use this technique more often in the future.
Laura – look at my drawing, definitely stick figures! LOL!
Rebecca – that’s one of my reasons for doing it, too. I’d hate to write that they came in the door “here” and left “there” and for readers to catch it. And doing it to orient myself in a town in a series is something I’d forgotten I’d done before. Who knew it could be so useful on both large and small scales?
I’ve done this with scenes from the interior of a building. I think I’m convinced I should do it for outside scenes, as well. Thanks for the tip.
What a great idea! I’ve made diagrams of the houses or of important land or building features for a story, but I’ve never thought of drawing out a scene. I’ll have to try it.
I’ve never done this for a scene but I love to sketch out the scenery, floor plans, etc. for my novels. I love seeing the pictures in my head coming to life on paper in more ways that one! I think I’ll try this!
It’s funny how much it helped me! I’m glad you guys are going to try it, too. I’m definitely going to do more of it.
And welcome, Marvin!
My WIP includes an inn that hosts several of my scenes. To make sure I was consistent with how people moved, where they sat, etc., I drew a floorplan. The process of drawing the floorplan actually gave me additional ideas for my story, so it was definitely a good use of time.
I had also planned to do a layout drawing for a somewhat intricate scene that will be late in my book to make sure I keep the action straight.
Thanks to your tip I may expand my use of diagrams to “engage” more with the physicality of other scenes. It will probably help with adding sensory description to the scenes as well.
Thanks for sharing your diagram!
I do this sometimes but not as often as I should. Thanks for the reminder. I am going to sneak off into a room at school and draw a scene then write it. I think I will obliterate my word count goal for today. YEAH! Lets do this!
(favicons are pictures too :p)
Fun idea, Kitty. I’m going to try this.
And, favicon, favicon, favicon…feel the subliminal message yet? One day it will be a big surprise for Nintaikage!
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