Writers Story Board

Purchasing an Apple iPad was life changing for me. I rarely leave home without it. The amount of apps that are designed with writers in mind, the quality of the layout and development is truly stellar. I have loaded hundreds of apps on mine and I can honestly say that I utilize a majority of them on a daily basis.

I’m a fan of creating story boards or as I call them emotional thought boards when I am writing or thinking about potential ideas that I may want to explore within a book or series. When I held a place of residence I dedicated a wall in my office to place all my ideas and thoughts. Given I was in the process of altering my lifestyle to becoming a migrating gypsy I no longer possessed the luxury of being able to develop the storyboard on a fixed wall. This is what drove me to go searching for an app. I tried a few and settled on one called Corkulous Pro.

You can see from the snapshot below through this app I have been afforded the ability to add images, pin notes, write tags, utilize capture cards and so much more. I find being able to leverage off this application to add information whenever I held a thought became an invaluable tool. Its ease of use and attractive visual display of my ideas quickly made it a go-to favorite of mine.

Storyboard created for Illuminarium – Book 1 in the Soliloquy’s Labyrinth Series

This is the virtual board I put together while writing Illuminarium.

This is the virtual board I put together while writing Illuminarium.

The next series of images are close ups of sections of the board shown above. I wanted to give you a breakdown of what I tend to do as part of my writing process. I feel it’s important as a creative artist to share, explore and learn from one another. Hence, I am taking the time to give you a little insight into my approach to writing.

Illuminarium has a portion of the story set in the 1920 /30’s. I searched online to find some images capturing the fashion of the era so I could have a visual reference to look at when I needed to describe the way a person looked and dressed. The same concept was used when I was required to describe the enchantment of the forest, the lavender fields, and an owl. I stared at the images I had pinned on the board until I could feel the owl returning my gaze, held the warmth of the dappled sunlight through the shaded forest canopy on my skin and breathed in the scent of the lavender perfume. Once I am present to the experience I can write about it with ease. I personally find it adds authenticity because I am so connected to what I am creating that I am able to allow micro details to flourish.

Method to my madness

Method to my madness

** Please note all the images that are pinned on the board are sourced from the internet and remain the property of the original copyright owners. 

The same principles described above apply for this section of the emotional thought board. The only addition is the post-it notes that I have marked against each of the images I pinned to the board. What I did here is slightly different because the portion of the story I needed to write around an asylum was not a pleasant one. Hence, I used post-it notes to mark the key emotions evoked within me when I looked the images. The variance in what I felt and wrote was purely dependant on my approach to the assessment of the person within the image. What I mean to say here is that some of the images were assessed as an outsider looking in – me judging and making assumptions about them while others I needed to assess how I felt being the person.

This aids in my ability to relate to the characters that are being born from my creativity.

Photo 20-05-2015 5 51 42 pm

** Please note all the images that are pinned on the board are sourced from the internet and remain the property of the original copyright owners. 

 

This last snap-shot below are thoughts I compile together to assist those people who are interested in going behind the scenes of what they are reading to know more regarding my stimulus for the books creation. Often people who are executing blog tours or want to interview me will request some background information to assist them in compiling a structure for the session. I find providing them with the emotional thought board complete with the notes I took at the time I was writing the novel assists them in appreciating who I am a little more and allows them to go deeper than the standard questions asked of an author.

The other factor is that once I have completed a novel and taken a tiny break I am onto writing the next book. If you have written a novel or even read one that you really enjoy then you can appreciate that it is all-consuming, at least it is that way for me. Hence, these notes also work to assist in triggering my memory about what I was thinking at the time.

Ideas, explanations, to provide insight around my thoughts while creating a novel.

Ideas, explanations, to provide insight around my thoughts while creating a novel.

Blessings – Truth

www.truthdevour.com

Devour thy own truth ~ Quote By Truth Devour

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