In the world of the internet, there is a concept known as “fancasting.” In a nutshell, this means that you take a favorite book and cast actors in the roles of the main characters. This often leads to people photoshopping pictures of the actors so that they look more like the characters in the book. It’s a fun exercise for fans of books, but it could also be a great exercise for writers.
Sarah Perlmutter wrote about fancasting your own characters and I think it could be a great way for writers to get more interested in their own stories. In her post, Sarah says that fancasting your own stories can help inspire you because you have a walking, talking person to imagine when you’re writing a specific character. You can even draw on an actor’s physical and vocal tics to use in your character’s makeup.
If you’re someone who gets passionate about fanfiction or fancasting books that you love to read, I would suggest trying out this method for your own work. Imagining who might play the characters you’re creating in a movie adaptation can motivate you to write, and it can also just be fun!
If you really want to get creative (and more organized), I would recommend the CharaHub website. It’s generally used for mapping out characters in a roleplaying game like Dungeons and Dragons, but writers can also use it to organize characters in their stories. I used this website for one of my past projects and was really happy with it. You can insert pictures for each character and create a full fact sheet for each one.
I hope this helps you out! Happy writing!
— Jet Fuel Blog Editor, Mary Egan
