This is a copy of the post I did this week for Defending the Wood Perilous, but it might be of interest to some here:
I often give thanks I am writing in the modern age, because one of my best writing aids is photos. I find it easier to develop locations or characters if I can start with a visual representation.
Online, I can find photos of almost anything.
But it doesn’t stop there.
With Pinterest, I can organize photos—even those I don’t have rights to—and share them with beta readers, if no one else. This gives me a great way to access the photos if I happen to be away from home, which is also quite a blessing. (I do wish it was easier to share Pinterest Boards, but apparently, you have to be a member to see them. For anyone who is on Pinterest, you can see Roanoke Academy, the Family Griffin or here, the MacDannans and Darlings, O’Keefes, Starkadders, Agents and Staff, British Peers of the Wise and their families, Gryphon Park, the Die Horribly Debate Club (present and future members), part of the Roanoke Yearbook, and random pictures of Rachel.
Moving beyond photos, I have discovered a free family tree website called Family Echo. This is a great help for organizing some of the larger families in the background of my world—especially those who span from the Regency period to the modern day. This family tree lets me load photos, so—again—I have a place where I can access the over a hundred blond Odinsons or dozens of redheaded Scotsmen in the Ridel Clan, or whatever I might need.
(Most of these characters will never appear in the books, but they are there, filling in the background and appearing in the roleplaying games set in the background.)
Google Drive can be useful for having notes on hand when not at my PC…though, frankly, I have not figured out how properly to use Google Drive. I must be missing something important about it.
Facebook allows a place to have a Roanoke Academy for the Sorcerous Arts Group that allows me to share amusing things with readers who are interested in the books. My “Virtual Tour” of Roanoke Academy video is there as well. This was also made with some free online video making program. (Can’t recall which one. It was some years ago.)
Wix allows Roanoke Academy to have a website—run by Valierie Hunt and her friend Wally Wren. When I started this website, the page I chose to modify was dated 2023. I thought this was really funny, because that is when the story started. So I kept that date. But, as time has passed and 2023 is no longer in the future, anyone looking at it now will just assume that the website was made in that year.
The website is sadly out of date. But it does include a map of Roanoke Island, some information about the original roleplaying game (under Enroll Now), information about the Hudson Highlands, the Athletics Program, Student Life, the Campus, and more.
YouTube allows us to post videos related to our books. I have an entire playlist of the waltzes, in order, that are mentioned as part of the Year of the Dragon Ball in The Unbearable Heaviness of Remembering and a book video that is a version of the Virtual Tour with music and a bit dronework by a random stranger on the Internet named Kevin McCleod, who volunteered to film Bannerman’s Island and play Hall of the Mountain King for me out of the kindness of his heart. God bless him!
I also have a lovely book video for The Awful Truth About Forgetting, in which Sarah Koolbeck sings a song about the school to the tune of A Modern Major General. (Music by Sean McCleery. Visuals use the illustrations by my wonderful cover artist, Dan Lawlis, and my husband, John C. Wright. The video and lyrics are by Ben Zwychy, whose most recent releases can be found here.)
And finally, there is Photoshop, which allows me to make some of the things I cannot find otherwise. The bridge on the photo of Roanoke Academy above is such a thing.
Those are some of the tools that make writing less of a chore and more of a joy.
For my fellow authors, what tools do you use? Do you recommend something I have not yet discovered?
For readers, do you find things like websites and songs to be of interest? Or just a distraction?
Let me know!
Looking at these pictures is a lot of fun. The only one so far where I was way off is Valerie. I keep trying to make her be Nancy Drew, but Nancy wouldn’t twirl a knife around her fingers.