1. Pictures:
Since pictures are worth a thousand words, why not use pictures as part of your character profiles. While I use pictures of real people as icons for my characters, to avoid lawsuits, I'm very careful not to isolate physical or other attributes that perfectly describe that person in my writing or in any promotional materials. The picture is merely a way for me to get closer to that character to improve my writing. I use the dating sites where I can shop for both male and female pictures based on age and other attributes.
Besides getting a picture of the person, pictures of the character's apartment, automobile, favorite location, friends, or family members add depth to the character's environment. Again, the Internet provides pictures for additions to character profiles.
I also used the Internet to help me set a scene. I used real estate listings provided on the Internet to identify a neighborhood and the quality of its homes. One listing even gave me a floor plan of a home that I used to create an entire set for my characters and scene action.
2. Scene sequences:
I use Microsoft's PowerPoint software to create scene slides. This allows me to summarize a given scene and sequence them to create the best flow for the entire story. I've used the slides to develop a book synopsis for submission to publishers and later, I envision using these slides to develop screenplays that require removing, adding, or altering scene sequences.
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