My writers' group started doing collage workshops as a way to let our subconscious loose, to let ideas surface. An article in the Romance Writers Report gave Pam Callow the idea to hold a collage session ourselves, and she's done them three times so far.
The article was by Jennifer Crusie - you can read about creating a book collage HERE.
I've got three collages for three of my works in progress, and I gaze at them from time to time when I need to disappear into the world of my story.
I thought I'd share them with you as a glimpse into what I'm thinking about as I write. As someone who went to film school, I'm a highly visual person, and I really need to see what's going on in my head. I need to hear the voices of the characters speak when possible. I just listen to the actor whom I've cast as the character when I need to do that. Luckily, they've all done similar scenes to ones I'm writing, meaning the characters they portray hit similar emotional notes, and when I need to hear my own characters, I often play scenes from their films or TV shows to feed my inner muse.
The first collage I did is for the novel I'm working on right now - my gardener story. Here's the full collage:
Here's a few close-up panels:
Here's the second collage I made, of my vampire story:
A few close-up panels:
The most recent collage was done at our last writers' meeting a few weeks ago. This is my Scorpius collage, the dark fantasy:
A few close-up panels:
Kim Richardson says Oh, what a wonderful idea!! These are great!
Jeeves says Lovely images!
Kelly Boyce says They look great as always!
Oh, what a wonderful idea!! These are great! Happy and peaceful summer to you!
ReplyDeleteWonderful. Lovely images!
ReplyDeleteThey look great as always!
ReplyDeleteKim - Hope your busy schedule still has time for summer fun.
ReplyDeleteJeeves - Thanks!
Kelly - Thanks!
These are really excellent, Julia. You inspire me to give it a try.
ReplyDeleteSandy - Cool!
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I've never thought of doing something like this.
ReplyDeleteI've done collages too for my writing. I find it very interesting that yours feature almost exclusively people. I did see alot of *richard Armitage* there!!! When I did mine, I had forests and magical creatures and shells and images of places. Interesting isn't it, how our minds work? I really find yours fascinating. Plus the Richard photos, of course!! would he be the template for a few heroes???
ReplyDeleteYour collages are great. Lots of inspiration in them.
ReplyDeleteI don't exactly do collages but I do cast actors as characters in my stories and do make story boards.
I think collages or storyboards are great tools in writing. Especially for us visual types.