{"id":535,"date":"2010-04-24T21:57:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-25T02:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chloeneill.com\/?p=535"},"modified":"2010-04-24T21:57:00","modified_gmt":"2010-04-25T02:57:00","slug":"take-a-walk-then-get-specific","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.chloeneill.com\/?p=535","title":{"rendered":"Take a walk…then get specific"},"content":{"rendered":"

In preparation for travel tomorrow, my house is clean and unusually quiet, and I don’t have any current emergencies to deal with. That meant I had time to go on a nice walk around the neighborhood. I had forgotten how nice it was just to be outside, much less to have a few minutes just to let my brain roll around a little. <\/p>\n

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I had my iPod and a favorite set of songs (including a couple by Radiohead and Smashing Pumpkins), so as they played, I let my mind wander to Chicago and the events in Chicagoland Vampires 4, which I’m currently brainstorming. As the bassline thumped, I got a fabulous idea for fleshing out a scene. <\/div>\n
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It was a great reminder that sometimes the best way to write is to get away from the writing, and give your mind a little room to roam. <\/div>\n
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* * *<\/p>\n
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Once that walk is done, give yourself 10 or 15 minutes for a brainstorming exercise: <\/div>\n
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1. Pick one of your characters–any character.<\/div>\n
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2. Imagine their “key” surrounding. Is it an office?* A car?** A kitchen?*** <\/div>\n
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3. Once you’ve made your selection, make a list of the kind of things in that special space, then do a little Googling. If it’s a kitchen, decide which stove they’d use, which type of plates and mixing bowls, the kinds of things in the refrigerator. Be specific, and find pictures. <\/div>\n
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4. Put together a collage or Photoshop an image<\/a> of the pics you’ve found. <\/div>\n
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5. Congratulations! You’ve now given yourself a visual model for your next writing session. Use that collage\/image to <\/div>\n
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* – Ethan, Chicagoland Vampires Novels, Chloe Neill<\/span><\/div>\n
** – Joanna, Weather Wardens, Rachel Caine<\/span><\/div>\n
*** – Rachel Morgan, The Hollows, Kim Harrison<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In preparation for travel tomorrow, my house is clean and unusually quiet, and I don’t have any current emergencies to deal with. That meant I had time to go on a nice walk around the neighborhood. I had forgotten how nice it was just to be outside, much less to have a few minutes just[…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[357,58],"class_list":["post-535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-chicagoland-vampires","tag-writing-exercise"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chloeneill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chloeneill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chloeneill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chloeneill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chloeneill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.chloeneill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chloeneill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chloeneill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chloeneill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}