I’ve been reading a great new psychology book that should help in developing characters, especially the settings which reveal so much about a character.
Snoop
Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You by Sam Gosling, Ph.D. is a fascinating book by a psychologist who studies a person’s environment and what that environment says about you.
For example, in a bedroom:
Variety of books, magazines, music — this is a person who is open to new experiences.
Well-lit, uncluttered and organized books and music — this is a conscientious person.
Inspirational posters — this is a negative or anxious person.
In an office:
Distinctive decor, stylish, unconventional, varied books — this is an open person
Good condition, clean, organized, neat, uncluttered — this is a conscientious person
Decorated, cheerful, inviting — this is an extravert
High-traffic location — this is an agreeable person
Decorated — this is a negative or anxious person.
Not only does he tell you what to look for, he also details the things that people mistakenly look at when trying to evaluate a person’s psychology.
Examples of things people tend to rely on, but shouldn’t, in a bedroom:
Stale air does not indicate a negative or anxious person
Cheerful and colorful does not indicate an agreeable or a conscientious person
Decorated and cluttered does not indicate an open or extraverted person
In an office:
An uninviting office does not indicate a negative or anxious person
A comfortable office does not indicate a conscientious person
An inviting office does not indicate an agreeable person
The nuances of our Stuff are fascinating to read about and the book is easy to read. It’s a good resource when you are creating new characters.
(Image from Trendhunter.)
The name of this table design by Italian company MOCO is “Ex Libris.” Cool idea, except it seems to me that you could create this sort of table with your own materials. Plus you’d have to choose books that you know you wouldn’t be reading in the near future!
This will be a short post today--I worked on my SCBWI Austin speech all afternoon on Saturday, only to decide to scrap it and start over on Sunday after talking it over with the Blue Rose Girls at lunch yesterday (not that they advised me to start over, it was just that talking to them inspired me to refocus the talk). I had been trying to combine my first two ideas from last week, but now I'm going to mainly focus on #2. My talk is tentatively titled "The Realities of Children's Book Publishing." If there's a specific question/topic that you'd like me to cover under this umbrella, feel free to leave your suggestion in the comments section! Thanks so much. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks to everyone for their suggestions regarding my talk AND places to go in Austin! I'm hankering for some good mac and cheese.
And now I'll leave you with pictures from my new office. I moved offices yet again on Friday. You may recall that I moved to an office on the atrium in January. I quite liked the office, but the problem was that it was on the other side of the building, away from my department. An office recently opened up back on the children's side of the building, and so I packed up my belongings into boxes yet again and made what I hope will be my final office move. I'm happy to be in my first windowed office! Big time, I tell you.
Here's my empty old office:
I left behind some SERGIO stickers on my window:
And here's the new space (not fully unpacked/organized--I'm planning on hanging my snowflakes from the Robert's snow auction on the pillar!):
And here's the two things I did manage to hang--an original piece of art of FLIGHT OF THE DODO from Peter Brown, and the star with HOPE stamped on it in honor of CALL ME HOPE by Gretchen Olson.
My view from my desk:
Let's hope I don't have to spend any more time in the new future packing and unpacking...
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I spent a good part of the day organizing my office space. It's not quite done yet, but it is now funcitonal.
I wanted to fill my office (which will also have to double as a guest room when needed) with the things that inspire my creativity and help me reconnect with childhood.
Some of my
critique group buddies will recognize some decorations from our
schmooze in 2007 hanging on my bulletin board which holds masterpieces made by my children.
The desk space-- where the magic happens . (my childhood furniture, dolls from my childhood more
schmooze decorations and things made by the kids, reference materials etc.)
The tiffany lamp in the back is made by my dad, the bed is made up with all the colors that I LOVE! Bright colors make me happy. And then there's the book shelf! Books! Books! and more books! I need a picture or something over the bed. Any suggestions?
I've been illustrating with cut paper since college. LOVE all the textures, patterns colors, etc.! Lately, I've been doing quite a bit of work for the American Forest and Paper Association. Here's a piece I did about renewable resources. I really love it when the concept makes more sense when created in paper than in other mediums. I also love working in whites and creams with a touch of color to make a point. This one was great fun for me!
ooo a window, congrats alvina! I like the green wall color.
Just call me Little Miss Suggestion: you could talk about how editors feel about writers publishing with multiple publishing houses. If you start out with only one publishing house and then branch to another, or if you always work with more than one. Or if halfway through your career you start to shop yourself around. (Probably more relevant to fiction writers than illustrators.) How much is editor-loyalty still a reality?
I'd love to hear you talk about "What I'd Like To Do Vs. What I Can Do"--(I being you, not me). I guess that falls under "The Realities..." It would be interesting to hear you compare how things would be ideally in your work with how they really are.
Marketing and publicity realities. What are the realities of publisher support? How are marketing dollars distributed among titles? What can an author/illustrator expect from a publisher and what can they do for themselves and their book.
I recently read Sticks and Stones by Jack Zipes, in which he affirmed my observation that children's publishing tends to throw a lot of titles out in hopes that one or two will take. Is this true from your perspective?
Also what are the current realities of book sales? Is it true that book sales are moving to Target, Wallmart, Costco and Starbucks? If this is true, how does an author/illustrator help their books in these venues?
Katherine
p.s. Would love to read your talk. Will you be posting it anywhere after you give it?
For writers who are talented but unpublished and unagented, how big an obstacle to (favorably) impressing an editor is the sheer volume of submissions (paper or electronic) from other writers? And what can they do to improve their chances?
If only there were someone in Austin dedicated to getting you that mac & cheese...
Big time!! Big time, big time!!!
That's sweet.
Remember that post you did a while back on how book auctions work? I have no idea if that will fit in your talk or not, but I remember it was really informative.
ha--Rita, funny you should say that, because I DID put that into my talk. In fact, I put too many things into my talk and went over my time, and also didn't finish what I had planned to say. Argh! Oh well. I'll do better next time.
And thank you everyone for all your suggestions, I did actually put in a lot of them into the talk.
Katherine, I'll try to post some of my talk. Some of it, actually, I took from former blog posts. Either way, it'll all get out there eventually!