I am a very visual person, and though possessed with a strong gaze (my friend hated it sometimes!), I really am absorbing information from whatever I am looking at.
For me, to gaze upon something is to read it like a book. Ironic, I guess!
So I’m sure you can see where I am going with this, as per the title…
Seeing is not believing when you’re an author
Let me first begin with this: I hate copying.
By that, I mean, I hate the idea of copying what someone else has done. It contradicts something within me, and ultimately I can’t call it my own if I have done this.
Now, I will come back to this, but for now lets do an experiment.
A clang of steel reverberated as a few Farother men dropped their weapons, trying to flee, but their remaining, and now stone-faced brethren, blocked their path. A tendril of strange darkness pierced the heart of one who had tried to save himself, his screams seemingly existing outside of his body as he became limp and fell the floor; more and more tendrils absorbing what must have been the souls of the remaining men.
Behind the mage who had unleased whatever manner of evil, a shadow of giant proportions propagated ever upwards, like a convulsing mire of oil, growing stronger on the screams of the souls that fed it. Turning to face whatever he had unleashed, he opened his arms in perhaps some perverted admiration. Either way, he did not expect to be grabbed by the scaled hand in black, screaming no as it crushed him like a snowberry, the creature emitting a horrific howl as it sucked away his soul as well.
The above is from my first book, Arising, and details the moment the Farother men unleash something they thought they could control. This aside, what did you visualise?
How did this creature appear to you, and the scene as a whole?
You probably have an idea, I’m sure, and if you’re also a writer you no doubt can visually your scene.
But for me, it was also satisfying to find something with which I could also represent it to others:
Finding the good stuff
The image above is PERFECT, and thanks to Pinterest I was able to find it.
But here’s the thing, I only search for images after I have written the scene; I find something to represent it, and not create it.
Everything I write, I want to be from my own mind, and not a copy of someone else’s work.
Aren’t mood boards meant to inspire though?
Yes, and some images are fine for this:
It will always be a work in progress
For me, there is a real joy in finding a great image, one that really helps represent what you mean with words.
It helps you bring people on board because everyone learns differently; some of us are visual after all (and partly why I like to be descriptive for mental imagery).
So, have a look at the below and see how they compare. Is it not just as, if not more, inspiring?
Dawn of Eternity 