Visualization, Focus, Camera Angles: Keys to Unlocking Writer’s Block?

If you're looking for my lesson on historical fiction, that's the post below this one. 

Ever have one of those days where you suddenly have a fantastic idea, and then you sit for hours staring at a blank page unsure of where to start?  Maybe you know how you want your story to begin and end, but you’re not quite sure how to get from A to B?  Or maybe your writing just feels like something is missing, but you just don’t quite know what? 

There are multiple effective strategies for writer’s block, and different strategies may work well for different writers or different situations.  But adding another key to your key-ring of strategies for unlocking the block never hurts.  The topic for today is not just one of my favorite strategies for writers’ block, but also a useful strategy for adding visual details, coming up with plot ideas, gaining perspective, and even getting to know your characters better.  The strategy?  Visualization. 

Sure, we all know that visual details are important and you need to say something about how your characters look, and maybe something about what the room looks like.  I don’t want to bore you with the basics.  As a writing strategy, visualization has so much more to offer than just adding visual details.

When writing, I like to first visualize the scene.  Every little detail.  How the characters are dressed, the lamp on the table, the rug on the floor, the clock on the wall.  But so far, that is all just stationary.  A still photograph.  Next, set the scene in motion! 

How do your characters interact with one another?  How do they sound when speaking?  What do they do during a typical day at work or at home?  Follow them around for a while.  Even listen to the traffic going past and the ticking clock on the wall.  The more you put yourself into the scene, the more of these little details you will notice.  And the more realistic the scene will be for your readers.

Of course you aren’t going to put every single insignificant little detail into your writing, that would overwhelm your reader with unimportant details.  But visualizing the details of the scene makes it more real to you, which will make it more real to your reader.  You may notice important details while visualizing that you would not have noticed otherwise. 

When visualizing in motion, it is also useful and important to consider the perspective from which events are being viewed.  Just like a video camera, you can zoom in and out, move the focus around the room, and “cut” from one scene to another.  Sometimes things can even get between the “camera” and the action.  For example, one mystery I read built up the action towards a fight scene at the end when the culprit was apprehended.  The fight scene turned out to be about three sentences long, one of which was a sentence stating that the two fighting men fell behind the counter.  Worst. Fight. Scene. EVER.  The author apparently had no idea how to write an actual fight scene.  However, it was a demonstration of how the reader’s ability to visualize the scene can be blocked, since the fight took place behind the counter where no details were “visible” to the reader. 

Ok, now that we’ve gone over visualization in motion and what I mean by “camera angles” in writing, let’s get back to how this technique looks in practice, and how it can be used to help with issues like writers’ block or lifeless-feeling scenes. 

To make the explanation a little easier to follow, I am going to walk you through the process I used to write a certain short story for a science fiction creative writing class in college, as this particular story would have been nearly impossible to write without visualization and careful attention to “camera angles.”

The assignment:  Write something in the “New Weird” genre approximately 5-8 pages in length.

The ideas I started with:

            Setting:  A sort of 1930s steampunk New York City overgrown with jungle (to meet the genre requirement)

            Problem:  A series of gruesome murders

            Apparently unrelated subplot (which actually had everything to do with it):   The ancient theft of an ancient religious artifact

            Main Characters:  Two detectives sharing an office, one older and better at problem solving, the other younger and more “street smart” but also not a very nice person

            Summary of Main Plot: Detectives hired to solve murders, the mayor did it and was trying to blame a minority group in the city, the mayor had also stolen the religious artifact

That was basically all of what I came up with during a preliminary brainstorming session.  And then I got stuck.  I knew how it would start and how it would end, but what happened in between gave me a bit of a problem.  The solution?  Visualization! 

So I started by writing the first few pages introducing the problem and the setting, and then I got to the point where I needed to introduce the two detectives.  But I really didn’t know too much about them.  I hadn’t yet “met” them.  So I stepped into their office and observed them at work.  What were they doing?  That would tell me a lot about who they were and how they thought.  I looked around the office and saw the older detective, Malwan, sitting at his desk.  Appearance-wise, he is a little old gray-haired man with sharp gray eyes.  His desk was neat and well-cared for.  This indicates that he is organized and pays attention to details.  But he couldn’t just be sitting there staring at the ceiling, he needed something to do.  I saw him typing on a typewriter.  What was he typing, and why?  He had a lot of newspaper clippings all over his desk, some old and some recent.  But he thinks they are all somehow related.  Backstory, an unsolved case, some sort of hobby or obsession?  Malwan just became a much more interesting character.  Did I know any of this before I stepped into the office and watched him at work? Nope. 

Next I looked at the other detective, Fayder.  I knew I wanted him to be a bit of a rat, but I wasn’t quite sure how I would indicate that without directly saying so.  I also knew he wouldn’t be staring at the ceiling either; he also needed something to do, but he is not exactly the industrious hard-working type.  When I looked at him, he had his feet up on the desk and was reading a newspaper.  His desk was all scratched up and full of coffee stains.  But this does not make him a bad person, he just doesn’t value appearances as much as Malwan.  What is he reading in the newspaper?  He is not very interested in news that doesn’t concern him, sentimental human-interest stories, boring stock reports, obituaries, or updates from the local ladies knitting guild.  What else is there?  Comics, weather, or sports scores?  Sport scores maybe, but that wouldn’t keep him interested long enough to put his feet up on the desk. 

And then the “camera angle” in my mind shifted, as if I stepped around behind Fayder and looked over his shoulder at the newspaper.  And I had a strange “Ah, I wish I thought of that – oh wait, I did” sort of moment.  It turns out Fayder wasn’t reading a newspaper at all.  He was only using it to hide a naughty magazine.  And BINGO – it is a bit more obvious that this character is a rat, and I didn’t have to outright say so.  Looking at naughty magazines with his feet up on the desk in the middle of the workday.  Shame on him!  Did I know that before I stepped into the office and visualized the scene?  Nope.  (I had so much fun writing that character!  Does anyone else ever have way too much fun writing “bad” characters?)

So that little bit of visualization took care of a huge portion of character development.  And several pages worth of content.

But I was still having a problem connecting the beginning and the ending.  How would the detectives actually solve the mystery? 

So I followed Fayder while he left the office and went out investigating.  Step by step as he betrayed innocent people for a few hundred bucks, practically stumbled over a few clues related to the case, got a bit too curious, and got himself killed.  And then I followed Malwan step by step as he put the pieces together, avoided the trouble that Fayder caused him, cleared the innocent and brought charges against the guilty.   By visualizing each step in the sequence of events, one step after the other, brought me to the resolution before I knew it. 

Another funny note about visualization and “camera angles” in this story: Starting on the first page, I “zoomed out” to give an overview of the city and “zoomed in” on the characters who hired the detectives.  I stepped into the office with them, and then followed Fayder out of the office and on his investigations.  I didn’t realize it while writing the story, but my first 10 pages, about half the story, was almost one continuous scene! 

And by the time I got done with that story, I had 20 pages.  (Original requirement 5-8. I just can’t seem to write a short story that is actually short!)  And I had an A.  And I had a lot of fun writing it. I might try to publish that story someday…

Good visualization is a skill that takes practice.  Just keep going.  The more you do it, the better you will get at it, and also the more fun you will have with it.  I must admit that I have been visualizing scenes longer than I have been writing them.  Way back in fourth grade, a friend shared with me a secret to falling asleep fast at night: “Just make up stories in your head.”  I’ve been doing that every night since.  (And yes, it does help me fall asleep faster.)  I don’t just make up stories, I live them in my mind.  Night time isn’t the only time skill comes in handy.  Waiting rooms, long red lights, on hold on the phone?  No problem.  I’m never bored.  I carry my own private universe with me wherever I go, and adventures are never lacking.

Group Activity:

Let’s each pick a character.  Maybe one from a story you’re working on. Maybe one from another piece of fiction.  Any character.   What job does your character have?  Farmer?  Police? Marine biologist? Musician? Housewife? Comedian?  Detective?  Cook? Meteorologist? (Note: If you pick a character with an unusual or unfamiliar occupation, that might take some research.)  Now imagine following your character around during a typical workday.  What do they do?  More importantly, how do they do it?  Why do they do their work the way they do?  What does that say about them? 

You can share your writing experiment if you want.  But let’s also talk about the visualization process.  Did you learn anything new or surprising about the character?  Was this a helpful activity?