{"id":5258,"date":"2014-06-25T13:12:11","date_gmt":"2014-06-25T18:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/?p=5258"},"modified":"2014-06-25T15:48:20","modified_gmt":"2014-06-25T20:48:20","slug":"making-writing-visual","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/2014\/06\/25\/making-writing-visual\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Writing Visual"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"Sneak peek at Christopher Gronlund's A Magic Life\" src=\"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/images\/aml1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"367\" \/>I have always admired artists. They can hold up their work and, in an instant, an audience can tell if they like it or not.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve talked about it before: when it comes to a properly formatted manuscript &#8212; physically &#8212; they all look the same.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"550\" height=\"309\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eDCbUrew6kg?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">(Man, that&#8217;s a shoddy video! But&#8230;it&#8217;s how one learns!)<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Story Art<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The old books I own, even many novels, contain illustrations. Sometimes it&#8217;s just a plate or two, but other times, each chapter has an illustration at the beginning and a smaller illustration at the end. I don&#8217;t see that much anymore. Unless it&#8217;s a collector&#8217;s edition, novels are generally devoid of art. And I do like that; I like my imagination deciding what things in a story look like.<\/p>\n<p>Still, outside of a book&#8217;s cover (which, more and more, is just a stock photo altered in Photoshop), there are very few visual things associated with fiction. And in a time when the Internet is where so much word of mouth and sharing occur &#8212; and we know images and video get more attention than blocks of text &#8212; the challenge for so many is how to make the life of a writer a visual thing.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"The Dollar Watch Illustration\" src=\"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/images\/dollarwatch.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"256\" \/><\/p>\n<h2><strong>How To Make Writing Visual<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Off the top of my head, some ways to make writing visual.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Share the Process<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It can be as simple as a photo of a notebook or a section of text from a screen capture like the header image of this entry.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 550px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"  \" title=\"Writing in a notebook\" src=\"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/wp-content\/upLoads\/coffees.jpg\" alt=\"Writing in a notebook\" width=\"550\" height=\"362\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">My Wife and I Sometimes Have Brainstorming Sessions at a Restaurant We Like (Back When I Drank Coffee)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It can even be a process video, showing how you work:<br \/>\n<center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"550\" height=\"309\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dVU-EhEX0JQ?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Sharing one&#8217;s process comes with a certain confidence. It says to people, &#8220;I don&#8217;t feel a need to hide what I know &#8212; this is what I do, and maybe it will help you.&#8221; It also tells people who work with you that you not only share, but that you&#8217;re able to explain things concisely in several different ways.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">If you&#8217;re selling books, that&#8217;s a great skill to have!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Share Your Space<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Looking around the desk where I write, this is what I see:<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 550px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"My Great Grandfather (My Father's Father's Father)\" src=\"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/images\/gggronlund.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"733\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">My Father&#39;s Father&#39;s Father<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure style=\"width: 550px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Top of the Hutch on My Desk\" src=\"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/images\/hutchtop.jpg\" alt=\"Top of the Hutch on My Desk\" width=\"550\" height=\"413\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Top of the Hutch on My Desk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure style=\"width: 550px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Esao Andrews \u201cJoyride to Nettles Summit\u201d\" src=\"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/images\/deathandmaiden.jpg\" alt=\"Esao Andrews \u201cJoyride to Nettles Summit\u201d\" width=\"550\" height=\"446\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u201cJoyride to Nettles Summit\u201d by Esao Andrews - Print<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Since we&#8217;re in a one-bedroom apartment, there&#8217;s not room to store old family photos in a closet&#8230;so they hang on the walls in the study. Originally, it&#8217;s not what I intended when my wife suggested hanging the photos, but it&#8217;s come to remind me every single day I sit down at my desk that there were people from Denmark, Sweden, and Italy who came to America with very little to give their families better opportunities. How can I <em>not<\/em> look at these images and be inspired to work hard?<\/p>\n<p>The figures on the top of my desk were both bought in Andersonville, in Chicago (Swedish neighborhood). My parents bought the wooden troll when they were married; I&#8217;ve loved it since I was a kid. When my father died in 1991, it became mine. The pewter clown is the only clown I&#8217;ve ever liked. My father bought it for me on a visit back home to Chicago when I was 17. My father loved that I juggled, so he bought a little juggler figurine for me.<\/p>\n<p>The print, by <a title=\"Esao Andrews's website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.esao.net\/index.php\">Esao Andrews<\/a>, is something I loved the moment I saw the piece. It was part of a <a title=\"Death and the Maiden at Roq la Rue Gallery\" href=\"http:\/\/deathroq12.blogspot.com\/\">Death and the Maiden art show<\/a>. The theme of Death and the Maiden runs throughout <a title=\"A Magic Life\" href=\"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/amagiclife\/\">what I&#8217;m currently working on<\/a>. It&#8217;s another reminder that my time alive is not a set thing and if I want to get work out there, I must stay busy.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;d love a more ideal office, but even with limited space, I can have physical reminders to stay busy and share what I see (and how those things affect me) with others.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Share Your Research<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the section of <a title=\"A Magic Life\" href=\"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/amagiclife\/\">A Magic Life<\/a> I&#8217;m writing right now, this is where the main character lives:<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 550px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"A Shanty in Ragtown\" src=\"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/images\/ragtown.jpg\" alt=\"A SHanty in Ragtown\" width=\"550\" height=\"382\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Ragtown Shanty Near Boulder Dam<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Well, not in that <em>exact<\/em> shanty, but in a shanty in Ragtown. Ragtown was a settlement in the early days of the construction of Hoover Dam (originally called Boulder Dam). June lives there for a couple months in the summer of 1931, one of the hottest summers in that part of the country.<\/p>\n<p>By sharing research, writers can give readers a sense of where things take place. Combined with excerpts, it has the power to bring scenes to life.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Share Your Life<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re comfortable with it, share who you are and what makes you tick when you&#8217;re not writing.<\/p>\n<p>People know I juggle:<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"550\" height=\"309\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OTIQkpJ6pbk?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p>A couple nights ago, my wife played fiddle while I played ukulele:<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 550px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ukulele and Fiddle Night\" src=\"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/images\/ukefiddle.jpg\" alt=\"Ukulele and Fiddle Night\" width=\"550\" height=\"413\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">It Was a Nice Way to Spend an Evening (Beer Was Also Consumed)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I freely share who I am on my <a title=\"Christopher Gronlund's Twitter feed\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/cgronlund\/\">Twitter<\/a> and <a title=\"My Google Plus feed\" href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/+ChristopherGronlund\/\">Google Plus<\/a> feeds.<\/p>\n<p>While my favorite writers really don&#8217;t use social media, I follow plenty of writers who have mastered Instagram, Twitter, and Vine. Seeing snippets of their lives away from a writing desk make me like them even more.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Make Art<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Austin Kleon's website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.austinkleon.com\">Austin Kleon<\/a> works with words. He came to be known for digging through newspaper pages for words telling a story in sort of odd poems hidden away in all that text. What he didn&#8217;t use, he blacked out. It led to <a title=\"Newspaper Blackout Poems\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Newspaper-Blackout-Austin-Kleon\/dp\/0061732974\/\">a book deal<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Eventually, he made prints:<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 550px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Austin Kleon Print\" src=\"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/images\/austinkleonprint.jpg\" alt=\"Austin Kleon Print\" width=\"550\" height=\"747\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">You Can Do Worse Things with Your Time Than Visiting austinkleon.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>And then sold <a title=\"Steal Like an Artist, by Austin Kleon\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Steal-Like-Artist-Things-Creative\/dp\/0761169253\">this book<\/a> and <a title=\"Show Your Work by Austin Kleon\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Show-Your-Work-Creativity-Discovered\/dp\/076117897X\">this book<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Clive Barker is not the only writer who <a title=\"Clive Barker Art\" href=\"http:\/\/www.clivebarker.info\/artindex.html\">draws and paints<\/a> to add to his written world. Some novelists are making the leap to comic books and graphic novels, where there is never a shortage of imagery to share.<\/p>\n<p>Even if it&#8217;s just a snapshot of a map or a timeline in a notebook, readers love to see a physical representation of an author&#8217;s world through their own hands.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Visualizing a Writing Life<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>It can seem daunting: with all the time spent writing, trying to get that writing seen. But by sharing content online, I&#8217;m able to see myself in the same manner people who don&#8217;t know me get to see me. Most new writers I follow have an online presence, and what they share is very visual (maybe even more visual content than their writing). In a scan of their blogs or social media feeds, I get a feel for who they are &#8212; and I&#8217;ve found it makes me more loyal to writers I might have never read.<\/p>\n<p>And because I follow writers who share who they are and what they do in a visual manner, when I open a new book they&#8217;ve written&#8230;I&#8217;m already hooked (before reading the hook)!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have always admired artists. They can hold up their work and, in an instant, an audience can tell if they like it or not. I&#8217;ve talked about it before: when it comes to a properly formatted manuscript &#8212; physically &#8212; they all look the same. (Man, that&#8217;s a shoddy video! But&#8230;it&#8217;s how one learns!) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[62,24,7,32,30,59],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5258"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5258"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5283,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5258\/revisions\/5283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}