Plotting Books and Editing Photos, 'tis all the same

Photo by Kim Smith, Oxford MS
Thanks to my dear friend, Marta, for suggesting this post.

I have been doing a lot of editing of photos lately, and much less plotting of books, but there is a similarity, nevertheless.

When you plot a book, you take a look at the whole story, beginning, middle, and end, and wrangle the idea into a tale, woven and spun. It is like that with picture editing also. You take the whole and tweak it here and there, cut it back a bit to bring out the best parts, and make sure all the lines are straight.

Editing wedding photos is especially fun because the story they tell is a happy one. Everyone looks great, and is smiling. Sort of the romance story.

Children's pics are more of a delving into the mind of kids and seeing what they see. Life has never been more interesting than when seeing things from that perspective.

photo credit Kim Smith

Likewise in writing, you must write the story the character sees, from their perspective.

So okay, I am going back to the editing table to color correct, crop, and adjust some images, and as I do that, I will be thinking of writing and my current WIP and how if I could only do a bit more of the editing on that, I might be called the Ansel Adams of the writing world!

Funny how when I am working on photos, I want to be writing, and when I am writing, all I can think of are the photos waiting to be shot, edited, and appreciated.

Sigh. The life of a creative person.