1. Create a book trailer. Check out this workshop to get you started.
2. Make a character collage. I did this for a costume design class I took in college. We used scraps of fabric, ribbons and other embellishments to create an abstract collage for each character. Think of what colors and textures fit your character. Is your character lace and floral patterns, or chocolate brown and corduroy? Don’t limit yourself to just fabric. You can incorporate foil, wire, buttons, pretty much anything that you can glue down onto your collage!
On a related note, Paperback Writer has a post on creating character crafts.
3. Make an ATC (Artist Trading Card) inspired by your fiction.
4. Walk a mile in your character’s shoes. If the protagonist of your medieval mystery is a blacksmith-detective, take a class in beginning blacksmithing. If your character likes to bake cakes when she’s upset, make a cheesecake or a tiramisu. If the hero of your romance is red-haired with an Irish brogue, buy a plane ticket to Dublin look at coffee-table books about Ireland.
5. Find some images of where your story takes place. Does your baker live in an ultra-modern minimalist loft in NYC or a rustic country cottage in Maine? Does your fantasy take place in a warm Mediterranean-esque country with olive trees or a cold tundra? What does your character see outside his window? This or this or this or something else entirely?
6. Speaking of Ireland (*wink*), find pictures of where your story takes place. Does your baker live in an ultra-modern minimalist loft in NYC or a rustic country cottage in Maine? Does your fantasy take place in a warm Mediterranean-like countrys or the tundra? What does your character see outside his window, tent, caravan, car? This or this or this or something else entirely?
7. Think of a material object important to one of your characters or your story. Describe it in words, draw it, make it.
8. Mindmap your story. Write your story name in the middle of a blank sheet of paper and write down whatever associated words come to you. This is a good way to uncover themes and recurring imagery.
9. Create a playlist for your novel.
Edited to fix the numbering, because I cannot count, apparently!
I need to stay away from ATC website. :goes and peeks again: I’m in LOVE. :itching to try it: Remind myself I have plenty else to do. :goes and peeks again: I LOVE it.
Thanks for sharing, Rabia. 🙂 I’m sure the other things are fun too, but that… Oh, it appeals to the graphic artist in me.
They look so cool, don’t they? I’d love to make some but I don’t even know where to begin! An artist, I am not.
Maybe we can do an ATC project together once we have more time. I’ll do one if you do one. 😀
There’s an idea! Let’s set a date: Clearly, too busy this month for moi. How about in May?
And what kind of project: do we each create a single original or a series? and then do we mail them to each other?
Hmm… :thinking:
I’ll leave it at that for the second. The timer on my break just went ding!
Why not create the cover page for the novel instead of a ATC? Or three or four cover pages, including either the characters or props or scenery?
Now you have me thinking of ways to show the characters with background of the planet!
Reminder to myself: No, I have to finish HTRYN and repeat process on old first drafts! 🙂
Ah! The hidden artist lives of writers!
I think I’m going to do a graphical ATC and post in on website. Not right away, but one per story would be fun. :grins: They can be sort of like covers, but not really.
Diane,
By cover pages you mean book jackets, yes? That would be a fun exercise, but I find ATCs to be less intimidating. *grin*
Megs,
Maybe we could do ATCs in May? It’d be fun to swap them, too! Let’s go for it!
You’re on!
Great! I sent you an message through your website. Hope you’re having a good weekend.
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