Wednesday, December 12, 2018

A Grown Man Playing with Toys - miniatures as writing aides

When I was a child, I would stage battles with.my action figures. Heroes on one side and villains on the other for the "fight". I would speak for them and move them along my room's floor. My furniture was their landscape; a bedside table was a fort and my bed a mountain.

There were stories involved. Immature stories they may have been but I planned them out. One such story was a grand villain alliance trying to over-run a hero base.

As I grew older I stopped using the figures to tell the stories. I started keeping everything in my head. This was less expensive for someone as young as I was; my allowance went mostly into batteries for my Gameboy, and such. So the figures I already had watched me move myself around the room while I thought out the story.

Now, as an adult, I have come full circle. I am using toys to tell stories again. They may be D&D/pathfinder/etc minis instead of Transformers but the point is the same.

I use them to mark the positions of characters during battles.

It is a useful writing aide. In my newest story (after The Highest Power), I used them to keep track of six or so soldiers that fought my new protagonist. I moved them along the wall of a keep to flank her and then decided how she would respond. Without this aid, the scene would be less structured and clear. It most likely wouldn't have such a grand conclusion either.


Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

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