Writing Help and Shit

Using Polyvore to Create Characters

An uncomfortably large amount of my writing ideas and shit come from polyvore, so I'm going to add in a thing for polyvore. That came from polyvore. Word for word. I'm copy and pasting it. Everything below the link came from the site. All of it. I don't know who the fuck Sylvie is.

http://www.polyvore.com/using_polyvore_to_create_characters/set?id=74795150

  I'll be the first to admit it – Polyvore is the BEST place to go when you're trying to create a character. I love it to pieces – it's the most amazing thing ever. It's such a treasure trove of IDEAS, and people, and thoughts, and visuals, and stimulation, and inspiration . . . I use it all the time. Most of my latest character creations can credit themselves to Polyvore, at least in some sense or another. They all have something from here.

(you know, polyvore.com. Ever heard of it? ;))

The pictures, the text, the clothes . . . everything. Both my own sets and other peoples'. I love to browse through this site when I'm lacking in inspiration. Sometimes I'm just procrastinating (Sylvie's set on that here: ), but other times I'm actually getting something done. Making progress. And it WORKS.

Below are a whole bunch of ideas for how to use Polyvore to create characters and story ideas – places to look, and then ways to catalog and combine them. I hope you find them as useful as I do!

Places to look:

+read bios. Lots of bios. Don't steal whole bios – that's wrong. Try to avoid even stealing complete sentences. Just little words here and there. "Moon." "Ghost." "Tea." "Rain." Pretty quick, you have the beginnings of something.

+read Q&As. Lots of them. Again, don't steal full answers, and definitely don't take whole segments of one person's Q&A and turn it into a story. But little bits are fine! Use the questions AND the answers – I do. I saw one recently that asked "Do you shower facing the showerhead, or away?" That had never even occurred to me – I always face away from the showerhead, and I assumed everyone else did the same. I was writing up a character sketch a few days later, and guess which way the character faces when he showers?

+Pictures. Pictures. Pictures. Polyvore is FULL of pictures – take advantage of this huge resource! Some pictures just fall flat for you, and that's okay – different things speak to different people. But others spark your interest, and your imagination. Use those. What's the story of the girl with the bruised knees? The flowers in her hair? The torn cardigan? Why does that boy have paint all over his hands, all the way up to his elbows? Why's she sitting there with her guitar, but not playing? You can use the people in the picture themselves, or you can use the background, or the setting, or the idea, or the theme. The boy doesn't look like your character at all, but the way he's kissing that girl does. That bridge looks like a bridge in your story. Those mountains give you a great idea for your setting. Or maybe just the overall mood – solitude? Darkness? Wishes? Happiness?

+clothes. Everybody wears clothes, and clothes say a lot about the person in them. Does he or she value style over comfort? Or vice versa? Does she invest in clothes? Spend a lot of time on them? Care a lot about how she looks? What is she expecting her day to look like? Everybody has their own style, their own likes and dislikes. Look at other people's outfit combos, and then make a few of your own with your character in mind. What does she wear here and here and here? Would she like that dress? Would he like the way those shoes feel?

+words. There are so many awesome words and definitions on this site . . . use them! One word can define a story, start a story, create a story. Use them.

+picture titles. There are all kinds of awesome awesome awesome titles on pictures. Use them for inspiration! What do they make you think? Feel? See? How do they inspire you?

Cataloging Your Information:

+obviously, if you find something interesting enough, you're going to remember it. There are lines and pieces of information that float around my head all the time, and don't go anywhere. But you can't take for granted that something's going to stick. Write. It. Down. You will not regret it – what is there to regret? Put them in your writer's notebook, in a designated section (awesome tip on that here, also by Sylvie: (she makes the best sets ever)), or in an idea-collecting book. Word to the wise: don't write them on loose pieces of paper. Trust me. But write them down. All of them.

+you can categorize them, if you want. Some category ideas:
-boys/girls: which gender the idea is for
-specific story idea: do these words/ideas/pictures/etc. fit into a specific story idea? If they do, then mark them as such.
-theme: country, small-town, big-city, girly, sad, wistful – you name it. Categorizing by theme is not a bad idea, especially if you like working with emotion-oriented stuff.
-specific character: if you have a page for a specific character, write that character's specific info on that page.
It's okay to put things in more than one category, but try not to get too redundant if you can help it. Freshness is key. Our brains like freshness, yes?

+search for specific things. For example, if you know you're looking for ideas for one specific character, then by all means look for things that fit the bill. See what jumps out at you, what sounds like that character, what's just interesting to you, and think how you can incorporate it to fit into your character's personality, life, or story.

+go on a single-character rampage. If you find one thing that gets you started on a character, that starts to spark a character, look for a whole bunch of other things to go along with it. Make a set with a character bio underneath. Or just write it out on a page in your writer's notebook. Worry about coming up with a story later – for now, just get the character down! Even if you never use him or her, it's still a good exercise, and it's still FUN. And that's what writing's about, right? Having fun.

+keep a list of links. Seriously. Sets that inspire you. Pictures that inspire you. Don't just save them; write them down in your inspiration list. Just do it. Then you can go back later and work with them, or look at them, or whatever. Write them down.

Using Your Information:

+make a character sketch. I'm pretty addicted to these right now. There are lots of ways you can do this. My personal favorite is to write a little bit of narrative, often a page or two, from the character's point of view, in which he or she describes himself, his or her life, and goes off on a few tangents – it's pretty much train-of-thought. I often do a couple complimentary pieces of about the same length as well, in which he or she describes other parts of his or her life, or his or her dreams, or something else that matters. There are lots of other ways to do this, though. You can do it in third person. You can make it short, or long, or in verse. Gail Carson Levine has a great character questionnaire in her book "Writing Magic" that you can fill out – I've done many of those. Lists are awesome, too. Whatever suits you, and whatever suits your character.

+make lists. Lots of lists. I'm pretty addicted to making lists. I love making them sound pretty, playing with the order and the word choices to make one artistic unit. It affects the outcome, but I like it that way – it makes it all fit together. It gives it one soul, one feeling, and I really like that.

+make a set that fits your character! I did this the other day (without even meaning to – it just happened), and I know Sylvie's done it too. Then make some sort of text description to include in the set.

+make a collection, with a sentence under each picture.

+make a list or an abstract poem, and then write a one-paragraph basic story outline to go with it, below the list. A basic example of this one:

Moonlight
Swirly dresses
Too many cups of tea
Dewdrops
Spiderwebs
Cobblestones
Tangled hair
Cotton shift
Don'tfalldon'tfall

She's searching for her father, but she doesn't know where to find him. She's lost, and she only wishes she could be found. She's dancing, but she keeps missing her steps, just trying not to loose her balance on the uneven road . . . They laugh. They say there's something wrong, something broken inside her that can't be fixed. That she's twisted, lost, missing too many pieces that can't be filled in. Not quite right inside. But they're the ones that are wrong. She's okay inside, just hurting. Just trying to find the right way out. A little saturated, from too many cups of tea. A little blinded by the moonlight glinting off the dewdrops, maybe. But she knows where she's going. She just has to find her way. And then there's the boy . . .

That doesn't really give you a specific plot – you can do it that way instead. But it gives you a sense of where you're going. A sense of the purpose of the story. And a sense of the feeling.

+feeling is really important here. This is where you first start to lay out the mood of your story, and mood is really, really important. Especially when you're starting out. So set up your mood carefully. Take your time choosing your words. They're important.

This feels a little incomplete, but I'm not sure what else to add, so I'm going to leave it as it is, as of today. I hope this helps you, and gives you some ideas – good luck with your character-making!

Love,
Rosie <3


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