Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Laura Fitzgerald
Ever since I read Engineering with LEGOs: Creating the Ships of Knight Errant I’ve had LEGOs on the brain. Now I don’t have kids and it’s been a good number of years since I played with LEGOs, but I have heard the siren’s call.
John Jackson Miller, author of one of the new Star Wars novelizations Knight Errant writes about how he used LEGOs to brainstorm through the design of the ships and vehicles in his novel.
What a wonderful hands on approach to creating these larger than life mechanical constructions! I’ve sketched my way through the discovery phase of writing and writer’s block before. LEGO therapy definitely sounds like a wonderful alternative.
However, the biggest problem with this exercise is the price point of the LEGOs themselves. They are not cheap by anymeans, so unless;
a) you’ve got the cash
b) your child is willing to share
c) your mom hasn’t thrown out the LEGO collection that you squirrel away in her basement
Then you might be out of luck. Otherwise, go for it. In terms of dealing with writer's block, this gets an A+ for fun.
4 comments:
I used to love LEGOs. Of course, I don't have children, so you would just see a crazy woman playing with them all by her lonesome. :P
My problem is that my cat would bat all the blocks under the furniture or eat them. Though oddly enough, coming up with or putting together costumes often helps inspire me for later scenes in the book and series. I guess it really comes down to whatever eases or kick-starts your mind outside of writing can be a big creative boost on all fronts.
Cool idea.
I wonder what I did with my childhoold LEGOs....
@AllegedAuthor Well hey, then there would be two of us crazies. :)
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