Pictures. I feel pictures deserve a mention all their own because especially with the rise in graphic designs lately, pictures play a very important role in online story-telling. So much so that it’s actually what got me hooked on web design and graphics, something I am now pursuing a degree in.
Why are pictures so inextricably linked to writing? There are entirely different but equally important reasons –one dealing more with writing, the other dealing more with marketing.
Let’s begin with the writing aspect. Pictures are visual and a majority of the people in the world are very optically-oriented. This is why movies are such a big deal; why art has never lost importance; why there are pictures in text books. When you can literally look at an image of something, it only helps to drive home the point. That said, pictures can be an extremely effective writing tool –even if no one ever sees them but you, the writer. You may not know this, but I have pictures of every single character in every single one of my chapter stories on this site, all organized into files for each story. What’s my process?
First, I first create a character. I name them; I see them in my head; I give them a personality; I write about them. Then, once I feel as though I have a nice, healthy understanding of them, I go in search of their picture (I have listed several good places to search at the bottom of this page). Sometimes I instantly find a picture and think, “Oh, that’s them. That’s Dean/Allison/Mary Sue.” Other times I spend hours, possibly even days looking for the picture that I feel captures not only the face I see in my head, but the body, the gait, the attitude, the personality, even the hobbies of the character. Are the pictures I find always exactly the way I’ve envisioned the character in my head? Well, no. There are instances where I settle for a picture of someone who looks similar enough that my brain doesn’t mind changing my mental character a bit, or there are instances where the picture doesn’t include the face of the character simply because I found the perfect photograph... except the face didn’t match. I’ll be honest, while in some areas it’s important that the picture be just the right one in terms of facial features, at other times it doesn’t matter in the least.
So what do I do with these pictures? I spend a good deal of my planning and brainstorming time creating what I call story boards. These aren’t the story boards you see in animation or film studios. They are simply a giant image in which I copy and paste all the collected pictures of the characters. Sometimes, particularly if I wait until several chapters in to create the board, it will undergo very few changes throughout the story. Other times, I’m constantly changing the pictures. Sometimes I get extremely artsy with the storyboard (example: If The Shoe Fits) while other times it is simply me quickly throwing a few pictures together (example: Hush, Little One). These story boards are all saved onto my hard drive, and every time I work on a story, I bring it up. Every time I feel myself hitting a wall, I look at the pictures –not because I’ve forgotten what the characters look like or because I’ve gotten them confused, but because the story board has the feel of the story seeping through every pixel. The same way those pictures in your text book help drive home theories and time periods, images concerning your story will boost your brain back into gear. Seeing images helps your brain refocus, and images of your characters in particular –whether it’s a face, a body, or a shot from behind– helps remind your brain what you’re trying to write about. It also helps me see characters side by side or face to face, which can often help with the flow of a scene I’m struggling with.
Having pictures of your characters on file also helps safeguard against two BIG problems. First off, it help you refrain from making your main character exactly like you. If you are the main character of your story, great; there’s your image. But if not, an image can help remind you that you’re two different people. Furthermore, images of your characters can also help you keep from making all your characters exactly alike. When I feel myself beginning to write main characters that all feel exactly the same, I look at their pictures until I have a grasp again on how very different they are.
However, images of characters are not the only images that come in handy and are also not for everyone. If you can’t find a picture that you feel is right for your character, and you know that having a slightly off image is going to mess you up, don’t settle. If images of characters aren’t going to work for you, try images of other things. Gorilla on the Bridge actually got its name while I was searching for pictures of African jungles (woah, I just gave away a big plot point! It’s your prize for reading this!). I had in my head, of course, all the stereotypical images of Hollywood African jungles, but I wanted some real deal pictures to look at. While searching, I found a picture someone had taken on a mission trip to the Congo, a picture of three small gorillas playing on a bridge. It gave me such a good idea for my story that it wound up becoming the title. Even if you’re writing about something, say a place or an object, that you know like you know the back of your hand, images can still be a good memory jogger or brain refocuser. Many of my stories take place in Texas or Oklahoma where I grew up, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have images of houses, of backyards, of landmarks, of landscapes. Again, if the image is carrying the feel of your story in it, it helps your writing by putting you in the right mood.
As with images of characters, images of places or generic peoples or events have an added bonus: they’re a visual fact checker. For instance, another reason for my search of pictures of the African jungle was because I want to know where they are, even if the readers are supposed to be left in the dark. To my dismay, I discovered that there are not many places left in the world where an entire camp such as theirs can be hidden within the jungle, miles away from civilization and cell phone signals. Because of this, it meant I had to look much harder and reconfigure some of the logistics of my story –for instance, I found a good place in Asia they could have gone, but the plane didn’t have enough fuel to make it that far. If you want to include something in your story but cannot find pictures of it, check to make sure it isn’t because you are misinformed about something.
I mentioned in the beginning that images have a very different importance in the online writing community specifically. This is because banners and book cover have taken a sharp rise in popularity in recent years. On my site, I have been making actual book covers for all my stories from the very beginning –an idea I actually stole from a fanfiction site (my apologies that I do not recall the name of the site at the moment). Similarly, I have created banners and/or buttons for my stories to advertise them on message boards, listings, or e-mail signatures. Using graphical art to draw the reader in is nothing new and is just as difficult and important as using a good title.
However, I would like to correct something that has been ingrained in our brains from day one. You know that saying, that age-old advice, “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover”? It is a piece of CRAP advice to a writer. To a reader? Maybe in some scenarios it applies. As an avid cover-art-judge who will by-pass a book simply because the cover art is corny or over/underdone, it’s highly possible that I have bypassed works of pure genius simply because of an artistic blunder.
Hence why it is SO important as a writer to be careful about your graphics. Especially on the internet where we are daily bombarded with dozens of stories wanting readers, if your banner or cover art is poorly done, you can be sure that at least one person is going to skip your story because of it. Though most people will not confess to it, this prejudice against ugly artwork is simply our brains putting two and two together. Even if you aren’t the one that made your graphics, you’ve chosen to use them. So if you have a graphic that’s poorly put together, images that are poorly selected, or a banner that has absolutely nothing to do with your story, all you’re doing is making it look like you either don’t know what you’re doing or simply don’t care. This might be the furthest from the truth, but it’s what people will think. And when it comes to advertisement, that’s what it all boils down to, right? What people will think when they look.
“Getting a good one,” however, may not rest entirely on you. Most people I know in the online world are either graphical artists or writers, not both. If you are a writer but have no idea what to do when it comes to graphics, it’s okay. If that’s something you want to learn, practice practice practice, and maybe hold off making your own graphics until you know what you’re doing. If you don’t care about making graphics but would still like one, ask around. If this is the case, there are several things that you, as the writer, should keep in mind.
1.) First off, choose your images wisely. Neither cover art or banners have to give mug-shot pictures of all your characters. Think back to book covers you’ve seen in the library –or even the cover art you’ve seen in my library. Sometimes there is a character on the front. Sometimes there’s a landscape. Sometimes a design or an object or maybe a combination of several things. Sometimes the work goes for minimilism and there are only a few colors and words. All of these are perfectly fine artistic choices. All are also much more effective than mug-shots of all characters (unless your story is actually about a bunch of your characters getting mugshots, in which case that would be pretty clever cover art). The images you choose should match your story, whether it’s literarily or simply the feel of your story. Also, keep in mind that whoever is doing your graphic might not be able to fit every single image in. This brings me to my next point:
2.) Work with your designer. Understand that they cannot read your mind. Be as specific as you can with what you ask for, but not too specific. And don’t flip out if it’s not exact. Coming from a designer’s standpoint, it is so difficult when someone will send me fifty pictures and want them all included. Often the resulting graphic is hideous and I ask them not to give me credit. The deal is that you should be selecting a designer whose taste in graphics you trust. Look at their other creations. See what their style is. Then trust them. If they’re very involved in designing, they know how to make a good graphic, or you shouldn’t be soliciting them. So tell them your guidelines and then trust them to do their job, even if it means leaving out forty-four if your fifty images.
3.) However, that being said, also don’t give in. Compromising is perfectly fine if you’re wanting to tweak fonts or layouts, etc. Collaboration is good. When it comes down to it, though, the graphic is representing your story. If you are just entirely unhappy with the resulting design and simply cannot fathom attaching it to your story, don’t. Thank the designer for their time and find a new one. Don’t settle for an ugly image because you feel bad (trust me, I would rather someone tell me they’ve changed their mind and don’t wish to use my graphic anymore than to use one they hate). This all comes down to collaboration, a life-skill everyone should develop.
The importance of images in writing, both for the writer and the audience, is advancing more and more every day. Soon, ignoring graphics will simply not be a possibility. So use it to your advantage and please be careful. Done right, you can find yourself in possession of an image to both represent your story and hook your readers. Done wrong, you can alienate possible readers or sell your writing short.
Now, for some good places to search for images:
Also, just as a sidenote and a bit of advertisement: I do make coverart and banners for people. If you are interested, check out my Graphics section to see if you’re interested, and then feel free to contact me.
Questions? Comments? Feel free to e-mail me.
Everything, unless otherwise stated, copyright Shiloh, 2007
Google.com
Photobucket.com
Webshots.com
Flickr.com
Those are the best I have found. You can also try stock images, but most stock sites will not grant watermark-free images without membership or a fee.