You can’t draw, you say? Well…you just might be better than you think you are!
Go and get a sheet of typing paper, get two—and tape them together. Now you’ll have two blocks of your little imaginary town or ‘real’ town. Stick figures are not so hard to draw. With a ruler you can draw the middle street just by tracing either side of the utensil.
Don’t tell me you can’t draw a house or other buildings! Yes, you can! Take that ruler and trace a line about three inches above the top and bottom of the page from—the middle ruler line. For my book, Body on the Tracks, I taped 20-25 paper sheets together and had them all around my dining room table. Since it’s a train book, I drew in railroad tracks instead of a road. Where your buildings are, draw a vertical line down to the sidewalk or street. Do you see? It’s all drawn with a ruler.
How many store fronts do you need? Pencil in the store name or if it’s a neighborhood, the family name. Afterwards, decorate. Get to know if this business or home has flowers. Trees? Swingsets? This may mean children.
Now you’ll meet your characters on their own playing field. In Body on the Tracks, I placed Victory Gardens along the way and mentioned towns and news about the Zephyrettes and how they assisted the women and children.
I wouldn’t have been able to get the time zones correct or the people in the cars without the use of my drawings.
Now you know what to do and how to get started on getting to know your settings and characters better.
Have fun!
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Happy writing!
Barb
