So, you know how I’m apparently creating a Visual Bible for the Veronica Tracey Spy/PI Series. Yeah, so easy to make the mistake of thinking you’re creating A+ content then end up with a visual bible. 🙂

It occurred to me, that the pictures aren’t just pretty, they tell a story and they are a gateway to a story. Yeah, that makes them useful not pretty. That means when I’m trying to get handle on a scene or I’m just not sure about something, I now have something visual to jog my memory and also be the gateway. Flicking pages going, “Oh yeah, that takes me back!”

I’ve always used music as a gateway to writing but this series doesn’t really have a soundtrack like the FBI-Byte Series does. There is music but nothing that hits right and pulls me into the story when I’ve had trouble reconnecting with the whole gang. For eight books, it’s kinda annoyed me that I don’t have a trigger or an entry song.

Even now, after finishing the FBI-Byte Series a few years back, when I hear ‘Long Cool Woman’ I see Ellie and the whole team. They just rock back up as if we’re going on another case. We are not. Step aside FBI, we’re writing Spy/PI set in New Zealand now.

This afternoon I thought, I’d really love a team shot – not everyone but most of them sitting around a table having dinner.
Now this is where patience comes in. I don’t have that location locked in as part of the Visual Bible. New location time. Sometimes it’s easier if I lift a scene from my work and just go – here this is the place. Next, I start adding people. But, we know that AI can get a bit carried away and decide to randomly change people – as long as there are six who cares what they look like?
Yeah, I do.
I have 15 characters locked in, so far. That’s quite a few. But I’ve also learnt that very clear perimeters are the key to getting the output I want.
Here’s a fun example:
Two dining room scenes.
They are different and the people are not right because I forgot to add some clear perimeters. There’s a lot of typing and thinking that goes into consistent images. 🙂 🙂
It’s not just “make me biker type guy”. It’s specifics.
And sometimes even the specifics go awry.

Here’s a selection of examples of what it looks like trying to get the one picture I want.

It’s ridiculously difficult to create a scene with 6 people in it. So, I’ve gone back to two people. Enzo and Donald. But by crikey they were not playing nice. Finally, the whole thing came together and I now have a whole lot more detail to add to every prompt. 🙂
But it’s fun.

Because I get to play with something that’s not writing while I’m in the middle of writing the next Veronica Tracey Spy/PI book!