Before the Words: How Visual Storytelling Strengthens Writing
Before the Words: How the Companion Lab Was Drawn
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| Sketching Kindergarten Fear |
For years this blog has been light.
Memes.
Loose prompts.
“Read It ’n’ Sketch It.”
Three random nouns. One action or emotion. Make them coexist.
Literal.
Abstract.
Doesn’t matter.
The point was never the drawing.
It was the composition.
This post explores how visual storytelling can strengthen writing structure and how bloggers and authors can use intentional imagery instead of generic stock photos to reinforce their message.
In this post:
• How images can reflect writing structure
• Why tone matters in blog visuals
• A simple three-step method to choose better imagery
When the Lab Needed Art
When I started building The Messy Companion Lab, I could have used stock images.
Smiling laptop people.
Generic classroom.
Inspirational typography floating over a sunrise.
But the Lab isn’t inspirational.
It’s structural.
It’s about hesitation before prompting.
Direction before prose.
Architecture before polish.
So the images had to do more than decorate the pages.
They had to carry tension.
Using Visual Storytelling to Show Emotional Tone
The first image is quiet.
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| Kindergarten Fears |
A little girl at dinner.
Food pushed around the plate.
A backpack sitting nearby.
Nothing dramatic.
No tears.
No speech bubbles.
Just uncertainty.
That drawing sets the emotional tone before a single instruction appears in the Lab.
It mirrors the feeling many writers have before they type the first prompt:
Something feels off.
You don’t know why yet.
But you feel it.
That’s where the experiment begins.
How Images Can Reflect Writing Structure
The next set of images shows the same characters in three small comic panels.
Same dinner table.
Same girl.
Different direction.
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| Three Directions |
Empathy.
Quest framing.
Step-through reassurance.
That wasn’t comic styling for style’s sake.
It mirrors structural branching in writing.
Every directional choice reshapes the story.
In “Read It ’n’ Sketch It,” three random words could create chaos — until you place them intentionally in relation to each other.
Composition is architecture.
The drawing simply makes that architecture visible.
The Backpack
When color first appears in the Lab, it’s subtle.
The backpack.
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| Pressure Testing |
Why color it?
Because it represents pressure.
Newness.
Expectation.
The weight of “first day.”
In visual composition, emphasis matters.
In writing, emphasis matters.
Color becomes metaphor for intent.
Not decoration.
The Antiprompt Moment
When the ecosystem starts to crack, it doesn’t explode.
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| The Antiprompt |
It softens.
Edges blur.
An eraser enters the frame.
The artist’s hand becomes visible.
That break in the fourth wall mirrors the Lab’s deeper lesson:
You are allowed to question the structure.
You are allowed to revise the premise.
You are allowed to erase certainty.
The drawing shifts because the thinking shifts.
The Final Classroom
By the time the classroom appears in full color, something has stabilized.
The girl isn’t hesitant anymore.
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| The Quest Begins |
She has agency.
“Can we do Wizards and Dragons? I’m a good Wizard.”
That confidence wasn’t dropped in randomly.
It was built.
The art moved from uncertainty to structure.
Just like the Lab moves from impulse to intention.
This Isn’t Illustration
It’s parallel storytelling.
The Lab teaches:
Think before you prompt.
The art shows:
Feel before you structure.
That’s always been the quiet thread here on B&W.
Whether through a meme, a four-image story prompt, or three nouns and a feeling — composition comes first.
The drawing just makes it visible.
How to Choose Images That Support Your Writing
You don’t need to illustrate a workbook.
You don’t need to be “an artist.”
You just need to stop grabbing the first stock image that vaguely matches your title.
Here’s a simple three-step way to analyze your own post before choosing imagery.
1. Identify the Tone
What emotional temperature is your post?
Humorous?
Serious?
Reflective?
Provocative?
Quietly instructional?
If your tone is reflective but your imagery is glossy corporate stock, you’ve fractured the composition before the reader even begins.
The image should echo the emotional frequency of the writing.
Not contradict it.
2. Decide What the Image Is Doing
Is the image:
A) Direct information
Like a comic that shows a literal scenario.
B) Subtle reinforcement
No words. No dialogue. Just atmosphere.
C) Parallel storytelling
Where the image runs beside the post like a second narrative thread.
In the Companion Lab, the images weren’t explaining the lesson.
They were embodying it.
The hesitation.
The iteration.
The shift to agency.
That’s parallel structure.
3. Choose the Style Intentionally
Business clean.
Artistic textured.
Stick figure minimal.
Newspaper comic.
Graphic novel bold.
Watercolor soft.
Style is not decoration.
Style is argument.
If you write about structure but use chaotic imagery, the message blurs.
If you write about creativity but use sterile stock art, the message flattens.
In the Lab, the progression of style mattered.
Graphite → muted color → full modern comic.
That wasn’t aesthetic drift.
It was structural evolution.
A Small Invitation
If you’re curious how all of this looks in motion, the Messy Companion Lab walks through the full progression.
From hesitation
to structure
to agency
It’s not a masterclass.
It’s an experiment.
Pay-what-you-want, because the goal isn’t pressure — it’s participation.
If you’d like to see what all this fuss about kindergarten, backpacks, and wizards is about, it’s there.
Try it.
Sketch something of your own.
See what changes when the image and the argument align.
If you’re interested in the structural side of this experiment — how non-fiction can support fiction and how layered assets strengthen creative work — I wrote about that angle over on Nearing Retirement and Broke.
Same idea.
Different lens.
Because principles of structure don’t belong to one audience.
They compound.
You can read that version here:
Nearing Retirement and Broke's post When Non Fiction Asset Supports Your Fiction
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