[Editor’s Note: This is John McNichol’s first column for our Catholic Fiction Saturdays.  John blogs at Young Chesterton Chronicles, and is the author of The Tripods Attack and The Emperor of North America, both now available in e-book format at AmazonHe is currently working on the third installment in the series.]

            
     Remember Health class? When they talked about social skills and the image you were projecting? Back in 1982 I was in the 7th Grade at Darcy McGee School in Toronto, Canada. Then, Mr. Tierney told us that something like 90% of all communication was non-verbal, and most of that 90% was visual.
            Humans are basically visual creatures. It’s part of the reason the Catholic faith has such a beautiful tradition in the visual arts, and I think it’s why God chose to give His mercy through seven tangible means that all have visual as well as material and spoken components.
            For me, as a right-brained male, it’s part of the reason I use something else I learned from Mr. Tierney’s class.           
            Mr. Tierney taught me more about creative writing than any teacher before or since. And one of his most important lessons came from an ancient filmstrip with a wobbly-voiced narration tape. One frame and one sentence of this film encouraged us aspiring writers to find pictures of the people they were writing about, so that details would be clear to us and thus, clearer to the reader.
            True, it isn’t 100% necessary to have a photo lineup to write a compelling story. I’ve just finished reading my third novel in a row by Michael Crichton (State of Fear, then Rising Sun, and Timeline), and while he writes compelling and thought-provoking novels, as far as description his main characters are as interchangeable as Barbie and Ken dolls.
            For me, though, a clear picture of the character is essential. You can find samples of pictures I’ve used for my published characters in the June 24th, 2011 post of my blog, www.youngchestertonchronicles.com, titled Ideas, Tricks, Tips.  Just as artists will often use a live model for a painting, a photo helps me visualize a character’s actions, expressions, speech and other important aspects. Jimmy, for example, the linguistic genius in the prologue of The Tripods Attack, wears a black bowler hat, needs a shave and has a missing front tooth. For dashing, wanna-be ladies man Herb Wells, I found a still of a young Jude Law with short hair, piercing eyes and a strong jaw. Most of us have seen someone like this either on TV or in real life. Adding just a few details like this, the kind your mind may forget but a picture can provide, allows the reader to fill in the gaps for themselves. 
     Sometimes it can take a while. I made many Google Image Search runs before I found the ‘right’ one for my villainess in Emperor, but eventually I did. I knew the character I was writing had long, dark hair, and had an evil streak that at times made the Joker look like a kiddie-party clown act. Eventually, I found the one that hit the right tone, and it stuck like no other picture did.
     Later, I’ll put that pic up on my blog.
                 For now, you Catholic writers go find yours. And enjoy.
  
           

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Jennifer Fitz is the author of The How-to Book of Evangelization: Everything You Need to Know But No One Ever Taught You from Our Sunday Visitor and Classroom Management for Catechists from Liguori Publications. She writes about all things evangelization and discipleship at jenniferfitz.substack.com. For updates on where else to find her, visit JenniferFitz.com.

3 Replies to “Picture It! by John McNichol”

  1. …One other bit of good news: The Emperor of North America is now available in paperback form from Amazon as well.

    For those who buy it or the Kindle, I'd welcome feedback, along with a few five-star reviews, for those who feel called to write them… 😉

    And please pray as I write the 3rd installment titled "Where The Red Sands Fly." I'm enjoying it, but I always want to be certain that it does the job ultimately that I think all art *ought* to do, which is to point the way to Christ.

    God bless,

    JDM

  2. THanks, Veronica! And thanks to the CWG for having me here. THis is a wonderful group, and I'm looking forward to a long a fruitful friendship here. 🙂

    God bless,

    JDM

  3. (Oops. Let me post the comment again!) Welcome to the blog, John!

    I like your tip about using pictures. I was just reading about the late John Hughes and how he wrote movies with Molly Ringwald's photo taped to his computer, thinking about her as the main character. So, pictures definitely help as props.

    I use pictures of thing when I write. I whip out my mobile and take photos of clothes, houses, buildings, etc. to use in my novel. (I'm at work on it.) Recently, on a seaside walk with my family, we passed a house that looked perfect for one of my characters. I saved the photo as the main character's home. 🙂 Love having picture prompts!

    Thanks for your post. And happy writing!

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