{"id":440,"date":"2014-05-26T13:53:43","date_gmt":"2014-05-26T18:53:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/?p=440"},"modified":"2014-05-26T13:56:58","modified_gmt":"2014-05-26T18:56:58","slug":"spatial-reasoning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/2014\/05\/spatial-reasoning\/","title":{"rendered":"Spatial Reasoning- How A Deficient Writer Copes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"knight_fork\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I struggle to visualize characters interacting inside of a space.\u00a0 There, I said it!<\/p>\n

My spatial reasoning<\/a> is poor.\u00a0 Given a description of a set of objects, and a change to apply to one or more of those objects, I usually can’t tell you the end result off the top of my head.\u00a0 I must draw or act things out to arrive at the answer.<\/p>\n

In my college programming courses, I filled notebooks with sketches of arrays and registers, and how they changed with each method call.\u00a0 I drew every bit shift, concatenation, and sort. I was a mutant in this regard- Paper? In a Computer Science classroom?<\/em>– but I maintained an A average.\u00a0 No regrets.<\/p>\n

\"quicksort\"<\/a>Imagine this, repeated upon hundreds of pages.<\/small><\/em><\/p>\n

As a writer, poor spatial reasoning bites me in the ass any time the action becomes more complicated than a few characters standing around, talking with each other.\u00a0 In fact, many of my scenes start out that way<\/em> in the first draft, because dialogue is what comes to me easiest.\u00a0 Unfortunately, a whole book of people standing around talking is boring.\u00a0 After their words are down, I go back and flavor them with action…<\/p>\n

…action I can’t picture inside my own head.\u00a0 Every heavy action scene makes me cringe, because I just know I’ll confuse people about how large the room is; or I’ll have Character A swipe at Character B, whom he has no business reaching with a normal human arm span…<\/p>\n

*deep breath*<\/p>\n

Sketching out the action is super-helpful here.\u00a0 Stick figures are fine- or, heck, break out some RPG miniatures, tokens, and graph paper.<\/p>\n

\"dnd_map\"<\/a>This helps you understand why you can’t have 17 ogres blocking The Doomcave’s exit.<\/small><\/em><\/p>\n

That’ll win you the general placement.\u00a0 For more refined maneuvers, like wielding a weapon or grappling, act them out in a mirror or on a good friend.\u00a0 Seriously.\u00a0 You’d think<\/em> you could totally grip a knife a certain way and make a certain cut, until you try it yourself and realize the human wrist isn’t so generous.<\/p>\n

Now, if you’re dealing with alien or fantasy characters, you have more leeway- and less you can act out in the real world.\u00a0 Drawings are more important for these situations.<\/p>\n

Also, remember: the characters aren’t acting in vacuum, but in a space with its own “character.”\u00a0 Hence, they should also be interacting with<\/em> that space too.\u00a0 If a character falls to the ground, what might they fall on?<\/em>\u00a0 Is there anything nearby they might think to use as a crutch, disguise, explosive, etc.?\u00a0 Keep descriptions of the environment close at hand- you’ll immerse the reader in the scene, and create more interesting action.<\/p>\n

Once you see it, time to write it!\u00a0 What helps me- as much as I hate doing it- is explaining every detail as excruciatingly as possible.\u00a0 Oftentimes I think I’ve described a complex maneuver sufficiently, only for my beta-readers to unite in one great cry of “Wha??<\/em>”\u00a0 Throw in as much as you can bring yourself to describe, then cut back later (if needed).\u00a0 Several drafts are normal for action-heavy scenes!<\/p>\n

Do you have issues with visualization?\u00a0 Leave me a comment and let me know how you cope!<\/strong><\/p>\n


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