October Novel Prep Challenge

My dreams tend to be vivid, but not where faces are concerned, for some reason. In the dream, everything feels very real and solid, but when remembering it afterwards I can only get an rough outline, no colours or faces, just a sense of body language and relative positioning. Similarly, I rarely remember exact words when I wake, but I remember the tone of voice, and the emotion of the conversations.

It's as if I dream the finished product, and wake up to rough outlines and garbled notes. Very frustrating. It does, however, give me a lot of freedom when it comes to eventually describing my characters. I know, for example, that Snagg is in his fifties, dresses soberly and is very controlled in his speech and movements. I don't know his height, weight, or colouring. And I don't really care - I tend to leave those details up to the reader anyway, unless they are relevant to the plot.

This longwinded ramble boils down to: I don't find character pictures particularly helpful, but I can understand people who do. If required to create a visual, I will use my weak art skills and lay down a stick-figure pose, or even a single line showing how they stand or sit. Once I did my whole cast's handwriting and signatures. But faces? Hardly ever.

Kell Willsen
** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only **
Thanks to my sponsor, ember_rain