I will be forever indebted to storyteller, friend, colleague and educator Laura Packer. In a workshop she presented in Phoenix she said, "Use and trust your image engine."

In my Art of Storytelling classes, I use the story of Stealing Smells to demonstrate many different aspects of storytelling;

One concept is, that I have an image in my head and use my voice, body, gestures and facial expressions to portray the character as I see him (without describing him). Each member of the audience sees their OWN image based on my performance. I use a similar image of the bearded man, in this graphic, for the character of Mordechai the Baker. I Then ask the students to describe the image that THEY saw in their heads.

Then, I repeat the process by using a DIFFERENT image (the skinny fellow with glasses) and perform him differently. Then I ask the students to describe THAT character. By trusting my image engine, I can quickly become the character, without hesitation. 

This process is both about having a "back story" for your character, and also trusting your "image engine" and letting it take you where you need to go.

Do you have your engine gassed up and ready to go?