I’m working on a new book idea. And this time, I’m doing more upfront planning such as outlining and character development. I’m also reading more craft books. In Lisa Cron’s Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel, she includes an anecdote about elementary schoolers trying to write by throwing everything they can think of into a single plot prompt. She refers to it as “drawing with every crayon in the box.”
Which got me thinking…
Which crayons do my characters have to color with, and how does that affect the way I draw them on the page?
Let’s follow the metaphor further. Imagine that each character starts with a new box of 64 crayons. Over time, based on experience, circumstances, and choices, individual crayons will be sharpened, dulled, broken, or lost completely.
By the time our story begins, these characters can only color with the crayons they have left. So even though they may be given the same blank pictures, their outcomes will look vastly different.
Here’s a sneak peek:
LOST & FOUND (working title) features dual POVs and timelines of a young couple navigating their lives after a one-night stand.
Benji seeks a life without commitment, thus (in his mind), avoiding the heartache of love and loss. His world is colored with self-preservation and fear, which I envision as brick red and gray, as well as the raw sienna of yearning for something just out of reach.
Sumner grew up in the safety and support of her close-knit family, but faces a difficult decision: what to tell her son about his birth father. She colors with protection and love as well as fear and doubt - so add shades of goldenrod and spring green to to the gray of fear and the sepia of doubt.
I’m sure others have made this analogy before (file this under the “things I didn’t know I didn’t know” portion of my DIY writing education) but it’s opened up an access point to storylines and emotional stakes I’d not previously considered.
Now when I start writing, the pages will no longer be blank. All the exercises and pre-work I’ve done will have created outlines and shapes. What remains is for me to color them in with the unique crayons each of my characters are bringing to the story I want to tell.