Visualising characters

As well as writing chapter three of Wyrd Dreams and continuing to write Honourkeeper (my second dwarf novel), I've also got a short story in the pipeline. It's a bit of a departure for me, being of a science fiction background - in this case, Warhammer 40,000 - and although I've got a couple of pretty solid plots to pitch, I was struggling to visualise my protagonists.

I have some characters in mind, their personalities, history, relationship to the other characters etc but I couldn't picture them. So, inspired in part by the author David Bishop and the characterisation process a lot of video games go through, I decided to try and find a cinematic counterpart, someone who, aesthetically, best summed up a particular character for me.

In the end I came up with seven characters 'faces' as it were (some obscure, some not so) and this visual connection has really helped the protagonists come alive for me. It's a process I would recommend to anyone who's trying to write a cast of characters. These visual cues are a great way to get going or, in my case, cement what you've already got.

Now, when I'm writing the story, I'll print out the head shots of these actors (try and find images that are most appropriate to your story and the characterisation you have in mind) to refer to.

It's not something that I've done before (I usually stick to landscapes and stirring music to provide the atmospheric content), so I'll let you know how I get on. And, of course, I'll release more details about the upcoming short when I know more and am actually writing on it (this is just the preparation phase).