I'm creating a Trello board with pictures of the "Adventure" characters.
I've been wanting to do this for a long time. My Scrivener writing software has the ability to include photos of characters, but with over 800,000 words so far in the entire "Adventure" series, the file is just reaching the point where it takes a few moments to backup, rather than being instantaneous. A lot of images would add greatly to that burden, so I thought a Trello board would be more practical.
Not only do I like the images as references for myself, but my current idea is that I'll create a new Trello board for each story, from the original, going forward and make it accessible to the public. So, a reader could look at the board and see all the characters that are going to be in the story, whether ongoing or newly introduced. Ideally, they'll be able to click on the image to see the back, where I might include a few details about that character.
Of course, finding images after-the-fact comes with a variety of problems. One is that most photos that are googled -- regardless of description given -- are of celebrities, which the reader might recognize and therefore find difficult to associate with the character in the story. I might have to resort to some stock photos, but those cost money. Then there's the idea of aging. I chose a photo of the actor for Nick Starsky quite a few years after "Starsky's Brother" takes place, because I think it reflects his character's maturity -- in addition to having aged some ten years -- in the series. But for a child like little Melinda, I'll probably have to find multiple photos to reflect various ages.
Regardless of the image used, it's difficult finding anything that matches my own mental image of the character. In the above image of Flying Waters - "Bri" -- the facial markings are technically a star, a stripe, and a snip. In the story where she is born, I describe her as simply having a "blaze". For the layman, the chosen photo would surely work for a chestnut filly with a blaze; but for one familiar with equine markings, probably not. Still, I like the photo enough to keep it.
Going forward, I want to find images of new characters before introducing them in the text, so the text descriptions will match the photo, rather than having to do it the other way around.
Comments