stories with or without pictures

[old bob]

Hey everybody.

In my comments to " Discuss Bardeara's Winter Anthology story, "Right Up Until the Very End", I wrote :

"A suggestion for all writers : put illustrations (photos and/or drawings) in your stories

A suggestion for all editors : suggest illustrations (photos and/or drawings) to the writers of the stories you are editing.

A suggestion for site programmers : You did fine by creating the gallery(as a first step ) . Would it be possible for readers to select and put pictures as illustrations in the stories they like (after consent of the writer) ? "

Now I remember that Dan put a lot of nice pictures of US Navy ships in his story "Do Over". IIRC, BICBW, he is the only writer who did it. The other example is Kitty posting nice pictures while editing in the story above.

so my poll .

Old bob

[Graeme]

Tragic Rabbit across at Aweseomedude has done the same for several of his short stories -- Lucky Strike Hit Parade 1941, Der Cowboy and The Sacred Band of Thebes being only a few examples.

 

I think it's up to the author to a large extent. For me, if something appropriate came along I would incorporate it, but I wouldn't do it because I thought I had to. It's one of those things that should be used sparingly, in my opinion, which is why I voted for "Why not". You don't want the pictures to be a distraction from the story.

[Dio]

I personally feel that many pictures don't always agree with the images imagination can create. I suppose it depends how they're used though. I didn't mind the pictures in DK's Do over, but I get annoyed when I'm reading a story and have a clear mental picture of a character, and suddenly the author puts in a photo that doesn't agree with my mental picture. The believability of the story gets put into doubt.

 

If you want pictures, go read kids books. They're there for a reason.

[C James]

I can see a use for them in SOME cases, but in the main I agree with Dio.

 

I might put a few in a gallery for my current story, such as a picture of what a washed-out onld mining road really looks like (many people have never seen one, so imagining driving on one, even with descriptions, is hard) and a picture of a vehicle model if is significant.

[Bondwriter]

I write illustrated fiction working with an artist. It is tons of fun to do, if only for the team work; it does also bring the problems of teamwork, but the pros outweigh the cons. And yes, it is aimed at a young audience too. It is quite different from a novel with just words. Otherwise a nice photograph (on the cover) of the setting does improve the reading experience if it matches the atmosphere of the book closely.

[Camy]

As has been said, your imagination can get a good kicking if the picture doesn't agree. Also file size. Some of us are still on dial up. VAST graphics are a pain, as are small graphics, badly compressed, with large file sizes.

 

Any chance of a preview, Bondwriter? Are you talking about picture novels, or comics?

 

Camy

[JamesSavik]

Yes, maybe. But make sure that the picture is congruent with the story. This is far trickier than you might think and a topic with hidden dimensions.

 

I once had an excellent picture of a red-winged blackbird that I wanted to use but it did nothing for the story nor did the story suggest its use. be careful not to fall in love with an image and decide to use it come hell or high-water.

 

Some authors want to use pictures of people, actors or models to give their story a "face". I don't think this is a very good idea. First- that picture belongs to someone- which may cause a legal problem over the rights to that photo. Second, that picture of a person; someone who might object to being linked to the story or its content. Finally- if the author has done his work, the reader's imagination will do a far better job of giving the story a "face".

 

If you do use a picture, consider using a landscape or building to give the story flavor or context and contributes to the setting. This is a very deep well with many tricks & traps. Consider the following:

 

 

OK- this house is just plain creepy. It's the Bates house from the "Psyco" movies. It would still be creepy despite its links to the Psyco movies because of some subtlties- sharp angles, shadows and so forth. Would you really be surprised if one of Com's vampires lived there?

 

 

 

The image of sand dunes can mean a lot to people- happy memories from vacations, desolation, natural beauty and so on.

Deserts are a very complex symbol with all sorts of possible meanings. To some it may be primordial and unspoiled. To others it can be stark and sterile.

 

 

Contrast the jungle to the desert. When the gears turn in your mind, what do you see? Lush, green beauty or danger lurking in the strangeness?

 

When you decide to use a picture to illustrate a story, it becomes a part of the story and requires as much thought as any other part of the writing process. Using images adds another dynamic that authors are usually unfamiliar with- the image, its sublties and symbolism. If you choose poorly, you can inadvertantly confuse or mislead the reader.

[Razor]

I'm going with Dio on this one, too.

 

I've read many a story where some illustration absolutely ruined my fascination with a character, dashing my poor little mental picture of them all to bits.

 

So, if the perfect picture comes along and blahblah, go for it. But don't overdo it. I think that's something you should be really careful with. Everybody has their own imagined descriptions for the little blanks that are left by the author, and for you to suddenly have yours replaced by something as solid as a picture is a bit annoying.

[Trebs]

Again, agree with Dio. I voted "no" and then read about Dan's pics and went DOH. I was more thinking of how many writers put pictures of models next to their story or within it. I'd rather visualize it myself. But after the story has been going a while, I do enjoy looking through threads of "casting" type posts - or like seeing the pic of Seth that Malice K. did for DD.

 

And definately, in MODERATION, a few pics like Dan did with the ships or with the map of the Indian Ocean were very helpful and welcome.

 

 

 

 

PS In reading this response - I should point out that "DOH" in the first line refers to Homer Simpson, not some story about clones...

[shadowgod]

I'd honestly have to go No withstanding the unused option of why?

 

Don't get me wrong pictures are great, especially in Illustrated manuscripts and graphic novels. However, in the writings we find scattered around GA I would only find pictures a distraction for mentioned reasons.

 

1. I form my own image of characters and settings and would only be annoyed at the author presenting something that wasn't along the lines my mind had already cooked up.

 

and on the author side, I have yet to find a picture that encapsulates the way I have described my characters. well maybe one but that was inspiration after the fact and all of the details weren't there. (you know how hard it is to find a pic of a guy with pierced nipples and an appendectomy scar??)

 

As far as technical illustrations I'm for those to an extent especially with SciFi.

 

Steve

[nono]

KIDS' BOOKS RULE

 

I really like graphic novels. I don't think they make it hard to use your imagination. People should try the Sandman graphic novels by Neil Gaiman. I like kids' books anyway (Window in the Willows is great and so is Swallows and Amazons and they both come with illustrations.) but the Sandman novels aren't kids' stuff some of it them are a bit difficult (I had to read a shakespear play before I could understand one of them which I really didn't want to do at first but I'm really glad I did now.

 

I've just read Do Over and the pictures in there were perfect. I don't really know much about war and ships so it helped me to picture what was going on.

 

The thing I don't bother with is when an author or readers make galleries of pics off the web that they think look like they want the characters to be - don't bother if you want to tell me what they are like do it in words. I read some of Tim by Brew Maxwell and I have pictures of all his characters just from reading.

 

Noah

[old bob]

If you want pictures, go read kids books. They're there for a reason.

Hey Dio

You forget a very important part of the litterature of today : the comic strips, the mangas, aso.

check for instance "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_comic_strips" under comic strips

and they are not for children only .

Old Bob

[Formosa]

HEY! I put a lot of pictures in my writings! (just take a look: LYLM and Wintery Wanderland...also my blog entries too) I even included 'story maps' illustrating where the chapter and events are taking place (thank you Google Maps!)

 

I just find it adds to the special effects of the story and narrative, and can make readers visualise and 'picture' themselves more in what's happening. Like they say, a picture says more than a thousand words. I always use pictures I take, partly to avoid having to deal with copyright issues, but also because coming from me I know best what I want the picture to 'say'. Besides, I love taking pictures!

 

take care,

David

[Dio]

Hey Dio

You forget a very important part of the litterature of today : the comic strips, the mangas, aso.

check for instance "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_comic_strips" under comic strips

and they are not for children only .

Old Bob

 

The spirit of my comment was to allude that novels which rely on pictures for description are usually kids books. I am well aware of the existence of comics and manga, as I read a lot of the latter second hand from my roommate. I apologize if I stepped on anyone's toes there.

 

I have nothing against stories developed and executed in a graphical manner. I find them incredible actually, and I'm more often than not completely drawn into the artist/author's world in a much different way than a novel. What bothers me is when either an author gets lazy in description and uses pictures as a cheat, or when the author has used description previously, then also posts a character picture--thereby usually ruining my mental one, and generally turning me off the story.

 

Now I sound like a broken record.

 

cheers!

-db-

[nono]

Yeay but you my Bro and your pics are awesome. Even I wanna meditate when I see your pics. You da man.

 

 

LOL

 

Gonna chant.

 

Namo tasso arahato bhagavato sammasambhuddassam

 

That's my chant dhamma bud

Edited January 11, 2007 by nono

[Jack Scribe]

I guess I'm in a distinct minority. I find head shots of the characters very helpful to me when I'm telling the story. And several of the readers had expressed thanks for a visual.

 

There is absolute validity in stating that the words should be able to describe the character(s). Perhaps because my stories are more of a romantic genre gives me an open door to the no-no philosophy of not submitting photography? I also use "wallpaper" that depicts the general location of the story.

 

If I offend anyone...sorry.

 

Jack