Welcome back to another bloghop, with #OpenBook. Here’s this week’s prompt.

Don’t forget to click the link to see what everyone else has to say on this week’s subject. It’s at the end of my post.

Do you ever act out your scenes to immerse yourself and test them out, to be sure they really work?

Although I’ve seen it all play out in my head, I still like to check it out. This means that I do quite a bit of testing and some refinement. All in the name of realism. But some things are beyond that.

With my Sci-fi hat on, I’d have to say no. At least as far as the space travel bits are concerned. It would be a bit tricky; the neighbours might notice the spaceship (or time machine) in my garden.

Ditto for Steampunk and the machines powered by coal and clockwork that fill Norlandia.

For this part of my process, if it’s out of this world, in time, space or any other dimension, I decide what I want to do first. Then I immerse myself in all the available research resources, online and in print.

I want to see how my vision of the future might be possible based on a version of what we already have, and just how much of it I need to invent.

For the flights of fancy, I make use of the art of Rubber Science, which I’ve talked about before.

Then, we come to the bits that I can do.

I hear dialogue in my head all the time. The voices that narrate the stories are ever active. Occasionally, I’ll forget my surroundings and join in out loud, which can attract strange glances.

When it comes to the close action, fight scenes or the contents of my contemporary thrillers, then there’s a lot of enactment going on.

That takes place in the confines of my study, with the door shut. Just in case people get the wrong idea.

It’s all performed in slow motion; my knees aren’t what they used to be. Nor can I bounce too well, or afford to repair any breakages that might occur if it all goes wrong.

In the absence of firearms, I make do by shouting BANG!

I also did quite a lot of driving around Devon and Cornwall when researching Stories like I Remember Everything and Where’s Lizzie? Just to make sure that the timings and places I used in the story were as accurate and realistic as I could make them.

Yvonne, bless her, was unaware of the true purpose of these outings. She was under the impression that we were having lots of days out.

It cost me quite a few lunches and a lot of fuel for the car, but at least I know you can’t fault the worldbuilding.

What do you think about this week’s subject?

Let me know by leaving me a comment.

While you’re here, please click the InLinkz link to check out what my fellow writers have to say about this week’s topic.

I’ll be back with another post on Thursday. See you then. Meanwhile, have a great week.

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