Comments on: Right brain book building

By: Yvonne Lindsay

Yvonne Lindsay — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 02:06:36 +0000

I don’t know whether I’d like PC collaging because for me some of the beauty/inspiration of the collage comes from layers of pictures, depth and texture as well, e.g. lace, chocolate wrapper, different thickness of card, ribbons. That said, I haven’t collaged for quite a few books. I found after the last one (my Dec09 release) that I had to tuck it behind my folder of notes and then, and only then, did the words flow to the end of the book. With my others works to date I’ve printed collections of photos on separate sheets, of hero, heroine, and things (i.e. house/rooms/environs etc.) and I look at them every now and then before tucking them back behind my notes again. Don’t know why I have to put them away all the time. Strange, but then that’s me.

By: Nicola Marsh

Nicola Marsh — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:56:00 +0000

Good idea, though if you saw the size of my office and the covered walls…

Playing with collaging on PC sounds like fun. Must try for next book.

By: Barbara Samuel O'Neal

Barbara Samuel O'Neal — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:09:44 +0000

Curio sounds like a blast, Mel. Now I’m remembering that this came up before…I never did check to see if there was a program for PCs.

Interesting, Nicola, that you love your Indian one. Maybe you could give yourself permission to put it somewhere you can still look at it.

By: Nicola Marsh

Nicola Marsh — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:33:22 +0000

I’ve collaged for several books, the most vivid (and still on my corkboard) for my Indian book.

Interestingly, I don’t look at them much either once done, but if I’ve had to take a break from a manuscript for any reason, one glance and I get a ‘feel’ for it again.

And I have to admit, I absolutely love the whole ’sorting pics, cut out and glue’ hands on process. Unrelated pictures suddenly stimulate ideas for the book and that’s always a nice surprise.

By: Mel

Mel — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:05:54 +0000

I definitely Collage but I do it virtually with Curio (mac software from Zengobi). I’ve started with the paper way but it never really worked for me as well but Curio I love because of how you can layer images, change the opacity, use text etc. Plus no clean up required *g*

My usual process is either get great idea, write write write, get stuck, collage to explore the book idea a bit, write write write and (sometimes) tinker with the collage. Sometimes the collage comes quickly, sometimes it takes a few cycles. I have words in mine too. The other way is when I have an idea for a book, grab images and dump them into Curio for collage, play with it a bit but don’t know enough to finish it then start writing, write til stuck, play with collage. Those collages are generally slower to get finalised. I use actors and actresses for the h/h but it’s more the mood of them rather than my h/h actually look exactly like them in my head.