My dreams tend to be vivid, but not where faces are concerned, for some reason. In the dream, everything feels very real and solid, but when remembering it afterwards I can only get an rough outline, no colours or faces, just a sense of body language and relative positioning. Similarly, I rarely remember exact words when I wake, but I remember the tone of voice, and the emotion of the conversations.

It's as if I dream the finished product, and wake up to rough outlines and garbled notes. Very frustrating. It does, however, give me a lot of freedom when it comes to eventually describing my characters. I know, for example, that Snagg is in his fifties, dresses soberly and is very controlled in his speech and movements. I don't know his height, weight, or colouring. And I don't really care - I tend to leave those details up to the reader anyway, unless they are relevant to the plot.

This longwinded ramble boils down to: I don't find character pictures particularly helpful, but I can understand people who do. If required to create a visual, I will use my weak art skills and lay down a stick-figure pose, or even a single line showing how they stand or sit. Once I did my whole cast's handwriting and signatures. But faces? Hardly ever.

Kell Willsen
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