If a book has been made into a movie, I find it is impossible to read the next book in the series without visualizing those same stars. But what about new books? Do you need to create a visual for the character while you read? If so, who are your models?
One source I have for my visualizations is the cover art. If protagonists have been drawn on the cover, I will tend to imagine them that way. If a “role” in a book reminds me of a role in a movie, I might imagine the protagonist as that movie star.
It turns out authors are no different. Linda Gillard sent me some pictures of her characters to show me what she was visualizing as she was writing. If you look at a few of these male heros, you’ll see why her books have so much appeal!
This is what Linda had to say about the process of character visualization:
You might be interested to know that I tend to work from photos when I’m writing. Photos of anyone, it’s just the look of the person that matters. … Attached are pictures of my ideas of Marianne and Keir from my book Star Gazing. I wonder if they are anything like yours?” …
Linda attached pictures of several possibilities to represent Marianne. I show one of them, below.
Nell Newman
In the early days I was stuck with Star Gazing and couldn’t visualise the hero, Keir. (This was probably something to do with the fact that my heroine never sees him because she’s blind.) … The book was limping along with an enigmatic gap where Keir should be until one day I saw a photo in a magazine of Gerard Butler displaying the exact blend of virility and vulnerability that I’d envisaged for Keir. Once I’d discovered him, the book practically wrote itself. :-)
This is the role model she used in her head for the character of Keir in Star Gazing:
Scottish actor Gerard Butler
I arrived at this method because when I was writing Emotional Geology [Linda's first book], I kept visualising myself as Rose because, like her, I make quilts and have a troubled mental health history (though there the resemblance ends). I’d made Rose look very different from me in the book but I couldn’t really see her, and that was inhibiting my writing, so I looked through magazines until I found a photo of someone who looked like my idea of Rose. The character took off then. She was no longer me.
The male hero in Emotional Geology is named Calum. This is the picture Linda sent to show me how she was visualizing him.
British classical pianist Paul Lewis
What about you? Do you see stars :–) when you read books?!!
[Be sure to see my giveaway of Linda Gillard's Star Gazing on the accompanying post today!]
Filed under: Interview, Sunday Salon, books | Tagged: books, Interview, Sunday Salon
That’s so interesting! I almost never see actual people as characters, although they take their own form in my mind based on the author’s description. It’s a shadowy form, though; I don’t think I’m super-visual with my reading.
I do the same thing when I’m reading. If it doesn’t have a movie tie-in or a model on the cover, I use my imagination. I just don’t use another movie star or someone I know something about. A good magazine picture or ad on tv helps. Good question, good post.
Good Question.
It depends. If I have seen the movie or the cover art has pictures of actual people (not drawings). Then yes, I visualized the characters as they are on the cover or in the movie.
But if the cover is a drawing or has no characters than my mind makes up with they look like based on the authors description.
Denzel! Gerard Butler! Eye candy indeed.
I do sometimes visualize characters in the “Who would Play them?” way.
Yet, at times, once a movie has been made, it kind of spoils my imagination, even if I love the movie. Example: Harry Potter. Daniel Radcliffe is wonderful in the movies, but I have not held on to the pre-movie Harry I once had in my brain.
I visualize the characters using my imagination, and very rarely picture them as people in real life (like celebrities) unless I’ve already seen the movie version first. There are always exceptions to that though. Sometimes a character’s appearance will stump me if it’s not described in a way that I can easily picture it, and then I might try to think of a celebrity to fit.
One character it took me forever to imagine so that I thought she was perfect was Claire from the Outlander series. Jamie on the other hand, well I had no problems picturing him in my mind! ;)
Fascinating to read your comments.
I refused to see the film of COLD MOUNTAIN (even though I adored the book and am an admirer of Anthony Minghella’s work) because Jude Law just wasn’t anything like my idea of Inman. I couldn’t bear the thought of seeing someone so “wrong” playing that part.
I do visualize characters. If I read a book and then see the movie, a lot of times, I think the character doesn’t look right. If I see the movie first, I visualize the character as looking like the actor who portrayed them.
Great post! Yes, I always visualize the characters as I read. I do not read very many books that have a photo or a drawing of the title character on the cover. (I guess I don’t read romance novels). So I use my own imagination to picture the character. Once I see a movie with an actor playing the role I may get sidetracked into that person as the character (but not always – I am stubborn)! I agree with one of your readers – Jude Law – totally wrong! Matt Damon – Jason Bourne??? No, even though I like him!
I visualise the characters as I read – I don’t see “stars” and I often don’t like a film or TV version because the characters are “all wrong”. So I don’t want to see films of books when I’ve read the book first but if I see the film first that’s OK.
I had a lot to say about this in my own way a couple of months ago. I posted a review of THE RISK OF DARKNESS, but first I discussed what I “need” in a detective. If you’ve got the time and interest, check it out!
I totally get a picture in my head, but not usually of an actual person. Sometimes I have a really hard time watching the movie version of a book I’ve read because the actor for a certain role doesn’t match what I pictured at all. I would totally enjoy reading “Star Gazing” if it meant I got to picture Gerard Butler while I was reading!
Author butting in again…
The irony was, I didn’t need the visual equivalent for my heroine, I just needed it for me. Because my heroine was blind, her “picture” of him was multi-sensory, so when writing I had to think what he might sound, feel and smell like. (Hawthorn blossom, since you asked.)
It might sound tricky but actually it was mind-expanding and fun!
Very interesting discussion! I had not thought of an author using a picture to develop the character. I assumed it was the other way around. I am intrigued by this approach and understand how it could more easily develop a character.
I agree with the initial question/statement posed. Once you see the character you can’t move past that person. If you read the book without a picture in mind you can develop your own idea. My visualizations of characters are shadowy. I dwell more on the persona than the physical. However, Brad Pitt is now forever Louie in Ann Rice’s Vampire series – not how I visualized him.
I may try a new approach for next book which by the way I won on the blog so thank you!
Me again.
I teach writing workshops and use photopacks containing pictures cut from magazines of all sorts of people, all ages. Students use them as a basis for creating characters, quickly and spontaneously, by responding to the photos and answering Qs such as “Who/what does your character want?”, “What has s/he lost?”, “Give him/her a medical condition/an obsession/a secret.”
It’s really enjoyable and creative and beats sitting there trying to work out where your protagonist went to school or what he ate for breakfast. But we couldn’t do it if we didn’t first have the photos to respond to. The creative bit is *how* we respond to them – like the Rorschach inkblots.