Hi, Folks! Very soon (as soon as I learn one free video editing software or another), I’ll begin posting how-to videos demonstrating how to build several styles of microbuild, starting with my first starfighter, the GDM Arrow, the build that was the spark behind this fiction-writing technique and this blog.
After I show you how the sixty or seventy odd bricks that make up the GDM Arrow stack together to make the build, I’ll move on to several other themes that can be done in micro scale (meaning not made to accommodate a Lego pilot [minifigure, they’re called]): robots, dragons, sailing ships, magical walking castles, and landscapes–some urban, and perhaps a few medieval settings! I believe each video will be about ten minutes or so, with me, a talking head, introducing the build, then most of the video, a pair of hands stacking bricks, and then a return of the talking head for a few fictioneering pointers to do with the build.
I’ll set up a YouTube channel for these vids and post the link on the blog repeatedly. I’d love to hear your feedback on the vids. Are they easy enough to follow, too boring, to fast moving, or whatever criticism or praise you have to offer.
Please check back here soon for a link to the first vid. It could be up as early as November 10, 2018, (Friday) but may have to wait until Monday.
One of the cool things about the vids is that I’ll link from them to this blog where I’ll advise you about how to as cheaply as possible buy a little set or two that will let you make the build for yourself, though most likely it will differ in some respects because you won’t have all the same bricks that I did my build with. That’s a good thing. It means you’ll be forced to adapt my techniques and come up with something with your own style built in.
That’s about all the news for now, guys. Parents, I’d be delighted to see some builds you and your kids have done and will have a special category just to highlight your children’s or your work! And don’t be surprised if I invite you to tell me the background story behind the build. That’s what the Fiction Bricks technique is all about.
Sounds Simple–Even Childish–for a Fiction Technique?
I know it sounds simple and all too easy to be truly effective–make a cute little build and then write a background story about it. I can imagine some people viewing this big breakthrough of mine with disdain. But let me remind you, I’m a trained book editor who’s worked on some fiction in his day, who knows a lot about fiction, and who, until this Lego technique came to me was unable to conceive his own novel, never mind write one. Today, I’m up to 85,000 words (a Harlequin novel is about 50,000 thousand words) and will finish the novel once my public relations training year is finished. The technique works. But it requires real immersion in Lego free-building (meaning building your own model without instructions) to build something you love enough to be inspired to write about.
It may take you a year before you stumble upon the model that sparks the process, and then you’re ready to use the technique. I’ll be with you every step of the way. Ask me anything. Show me everything!
Bye for now, friends!
Mark
