Storyboards

This week, tomorrow in fact, I have a presentation with two other ladies in my literacy class at university. Our topic is storyboards. We have to present on what they are and how to use them in a balanced literacy program in school. In researching, I came across one article that said storyboards can be used in writing.

The idea is to use a storyboard as a form of prewriting. You roughly sketch out your ideas in a frame, similar to a comic book. The idea behind using this method in writing is that it helps to plan and organize. And, I suppose it helps during the writing process in that you just glance at the picture(s) to help remember what you want to happen. Keep in mind that story boards aren't just pictures. Under the picture is a short summary of what will happen in the story.

As I sat writing this, the idea came to me that you could even sketch out a picture of your character and jot below it all the particulars you need/want to include about the character. It doesn't matter (in my opinion) if the drawing is perfect; this is just a simple process to help guide in writing. For example, if your character has flaming red hair, draw him/her with that colour hair. If he has a scar running from the inner corner of his eye and down across his cheek, then show that.

Normally when I write, I tend to jot ideas down, going so far as to write summaries of what I want to happen in each chapter. Ok, in all honesty, I don't always do this; but when I do an outline, this is the typical way I choose. I think the next time I start an outline, I'm going to choose to try the storyboard and see how that works.

What about you? Have you used storyboards, and if so, how?