By Jill Williamson
When creating your characters, it helps to be able to look at them. This is why I create a character board for each novel I write. I like to have my characters out where I can see them. I have a sandwich board sign that I use for book signings, but the rest of the time, it’s covered with the characters from my recent work in progress.
You could also create a notebook for your characters or pin them up on the wall or a bulletin board.
Pictured is my character inspiration for Captives, the dystopian novel I’m writing for Zonderkidz. When I look for images of my characters, I have the tendency to pick famous people who pop into my head and are easy to find pictures for. Sometimes I spend a lot of time on iStockPhoto or Shutterstock looking for characters. FYI, you don’t have to pay for images you print out and look at in your home. You only have to pay for images you are going to put on a product and sell. You also have to be careful putting images on your blog.
So what do you think of my character board? Click here to view a bigger image that you can click on and zoom in to see and read.
I try to find a few pictures of each main character with different expressions. Have you ever made a character board? Do you find them helpful? If you have a blog, post a link to one of your characters.