Ahoy all!
The one topic that seems to be the most difficult for new members to understand is the concept of essence. From reading different posts and explanations, my understand of essence is that you use it to let your reader experience the essence of people/items/places/etc. in your stories. If that doesn't make any sense, let me explain. You, as the writer, have a certain image, feeling, and emotion you want to evoke out of your reader. You want them to know the
essence, the intended image, feeling, emotion, etc. of what your writing. So, essence maps are here to help us accomplish that.
Essence maps help us share the essence of what we are describing, and it accomplishes that by using metaphors or similes to relate what you're describing to something else the reader can identify with. For instance, we all probably have not sky-dived, but if you wanted to capture and share the essence of that experience, you could relate it to something else your reader may know.
"Victoria jumped off the sky-diving platform, and as she soared through the air she felt a surge of joy that made her feel like she had just tied her shoes by herself for the first time again."
Although this may not be the best example, you kind of get the picture. It relates the joy of one unexperienced event--sky diving--with an event almost all of us can relate to so that we could understand the essence of how it felt to sky dive for Victoria.
So here you can get the chance to create your own first firstX map and comment on others. We'll begin with mapping characters. I'll choose my character Victoria. Once again, if you come in later and wish me to start over with another character and do it with you, I will be glad to do so. Also, if you have any questions, feel free to ask. Not only I, but I'm sure many others, will be more than happy to try to answer your questions.
Victoria
So first I'm going to take the essence of her body description:
Body:
Under body I'll put things I wish to describe about Victoria's physical appearance:
Eyes:
Under eyes I'll put things I'd like to describe about her eyes:
Color:
Depth:
Sparkle:
You don't have to include all of this, or even add in different things. Now we'll do the same for the rest of our character:
Smile:
Dimples:
Motion:
Color:
Hair:
Color
Up:
Down:
Motion:
Face:
Stature:
Normal:
Afraid:
Angered:
Pleased:
Motion:
Grace:
Strength:
Speed:
So, all together and completely filled out, the firstX map would look something like this:
Victoria:
Body:
Eyes:
Color: is as green as an emerald sea.
Depth: waver in fear, fade in struggle, and glow with excitement and pleasure.
Sparkle: like the crest of the waves on the ocean.
Smile:
Dimples: one on her left cheek plays with the symmetry of her face.
Color: pink as bubblegum
Motion:when afraid, it hardens into an unbreakable line, when joyous, they curve merrily and mischievously, and once upset, they drag into an arch of disappointment.
Hair:
Color: as beautiful as the dirty sand on the beach
Up: curving and twisting in the wind like a flag on a pole
Down: straight as sticks, but flowing like a river
Motion: playful like the wind
Face: ever-changing like the sea: soft at calm, but also hard and confused.
Stature:
Normal: tall and strong, but wavering, like the Leaning Tower of Piza
Afraid: cowering low and unsure like a deer caught in the headlights of a car.
Angered: Towering like a fire column shooting in the air
Pleased: relaxed and playful like a lion cub.
Motion:
Grace: moves with brilliant coordination like a ballerina waltzing around the stage.
Strength: shows strong and reliable like a roman pillar
Speed: running with the wind.
Now, you don't have to go into this much depth if that's what suits your character, or you can always go into more depth. Also, there are still more categories you can do than just body. There's soul, mind, spirit, and anything else you want to come up with. Also, because this is my first firstX map ever, I don't believe it to be perfect at all. I'm sure, like many other things, this takes practice, and with practice will come the ability to use this to our advantage in writing.
Once you've tried this, feel free to look into the two other forms of essence mapping: X+ Maps and Freestyle maps. Also, feel free to post the essence mappings you complete.
Now that I have completed part of a firstX map for the first time, feel free to comment on it to help me improve!
