In general, I'm a fast writer. A fast reader. A fast talker. And a lazy procrastinator. So, my writing projects in the past have typically fallen into one of two categories: 1. A paper due in under 24 hours, and 2. NaNoWriMo. In both cases, the goal is to write quickly and efficiently, and never look back, and it's always worked pretty well for me.
Now, though, I'm writing at a different pace, over a longer stretch of time, and my old habits don't work for me any more. Despite my detailed storyline and character notes, I find myself going back to read things I wrote weeks ago to ensure I'm getting little details correct, like the color of a character's eyes, the correct spelling of a last name, or if I designated a certain street as running north-south or east-west. It's a pain.
On Jennifer Crusie's blog, Argh Ink, she recommends making a collage to have a snapshot view of your story. Crusie gives a lot of great writing advice on her site, but the collage idea always seemed a little stupid to me until recently. I'm past the point in my life where popsicle sticks, poster paint, and pipe cleaners are a part of my daily existence. Now, though, I see the appeal.
To that end, I spent a few hours online this week gathering links to pictures and maps; things that are close to the way I am imagining my characters and scenes in my mind. I'm still not entirely on board the collage train, but I'm willing to put a few pennies on the tracks. Just having the links organized on my laptop in a virtual binder (until I figure out a better system) will be a big help. I'd love to be able to make a foam core model of my town, with little models of my characters that I can move around at will from scene-to-scene. My inner procrastinator knows, however, that while I could probably justify a full-scale diorama pretty convincely, it would just be a means of avoiding actual writing.
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