Movies may be more visual than books, but that doesn’t mean authors don’t need visual images when writing books. Pictures can be invaluable when writing descriptions. Photographs not only help clarify details, but they also help to keep things consistent, which is critical when writing a series. If an author writes that a character drives a red car in the first book of a series, they will need to remember that in book six of the series. Also, there are so many different shades of red. Is the car candy apple red (orange red) or closer to maroon. Does it matter? Maybe. You might not know at the beginning of a series what could be critical later on. Nothing helps to keep things straight like pictures.
Much of the time, I use real life places to help make writing easier. For example, the Mystery Bookshop Mystery series is set on the shores of Lake Michigan in the fictional city of North Harbor, Michigan.
North Harbor may not be a real place, but it is based on a real place, Benton Harbor,Michigan. Benton Harbor is a place I know well because I lived there for several years. Samantha Washington’s bookstore, Market Street Mysteries, is a fictional place based on a building I once dreamed about buying. I have a visual image in my head which I draw on whenever I write.
However, not all of the things and the places that I write about are real. Sometimes, I make them up. Pulling descriptions for cars, houses, dogs out of my head can be challenging sometimes. One thing which makes it easier, is finding images. So, here’s a bit of inside information for readers. I recently started to create storyboards on Pinterest with visuals for my books.
WARNING! I’m not the most social media savvy author, so sometimes recipes have been pinned to the wrong boards because…well, I got hungry (writing can be hard work, don’t judge). However, if you want a look in my head (enter at your own risk, it can be very scary in there), then check out Pinterest. Here’s a link to the Pinterest board I created for, The Puppy Who Knew Too Much, the second book in the Dog Club Mystery Series.
The Puppy Who Knew Too Much is currently available for preorder and releases on February 12, 2019. Amazon Barnes and Noble Books-A-Million KOBO