multimodal worlds

Written word. Spoken audio. Graphic novellas.

It’s an interesting concept in fashioning a micro-universe in which to set a collection of fictional stories to reach into a multi-modal mentality and try to create different pieces in different formats all within the same world.

If you know me then it has been no real secret that I’ve spent the last six to eight months writing a paranormal science fiction novel set in a fictionalized city but based on an amalgamation of a few real places I know and love.

If you know me then you also know that sometimes I get stuck and veer off on personal side projects while I’m supposed to working on other personal side projects.

Yet sometimes—often—this is just because I have a bit of writers block. And what I’ve learned about writers block is that nothing breaks through the block better than just writing. If that sounds counterintutive, then take a deep breath and think about what it means to be a professional at anything. When you need to get stuff done, you can’t just stop and feel sorry for yourself. Instead, you need to buckle down and keep at it. The same is true for personal projects.

“But I’m blocked!” You say.

Well, have I got a solution for you: multimodal world building.

Can’t quite squeeze out the next chapter of a novel? Work on a short story set in the same universe, telling a quirky tale about the people who work at the restaurant your characters visited a few chapters back.

Struggling to figure out the plot twist that has you tangled in knots? Draw a cartoon about a minor character from your novel who pops his head into one brief scene as a mention, but has a huge influential backstory to explore.

Hung up on some funky character development in chapter thirty seven? Write a script for an audio drama centred around the prequel events of your novel and then maybe even record some of it.

I mean, sure, you’re not putting words into your novel, but the machine keeps working and the words keep flowing and that is sure a heck of a lot better than letting that keyboard gather dust, right?