You are currently browsing the monthly archive for July, 2007.
Oh the silence is gone and boy oh boy are the ideas flooding in. Only I’ve not been able to put most of them down. Today was a super busy day. Tomorrow promises to be just as busy. But I’ve got to stay up tonight and at least get some of this shtuff down. It’s some good shtuff. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have some more free time than I think I am.
A friend asked me once how I came up with characters and I couldn’t explain it. Not sure if I can still but here’s my attempt:
Sometimes you just get an idea for a character. Sometimes just a name spawns the whole idea. Sometimes it’s a simple characteristic and the character forms around it. Whatever spawns the idea simply starts me thinking about this character. And (this is where I’ll sound like a nut job) then I simply listen to the character as they tell me about themselves. So before I know it I’ve got a visual and I know that the character is hardheaded, with a chip on his shoulder and that though he is a nice person he rarely lets anyone see that. As I learn more about the character the more solid they become in my head and the more they seem to talk to me about themselves.
For example. Sunday I got an idea for a character Joleene. I only knew the basics. As I thought more about her the more she became a real person with real fears and real issues. (For the record I do realize she’s a fictional character.) She has to be more than two dimensional for her to be a good character. I have to know something more about her past, her fears, her expectations in order to know what drives her in order to know what kind of decisions she’d make in certain situations. Because if she isn’t consistent she won’t be believable to the audience. Most of the time I know more about a character in my book than my readers will probably ever know.
I made a template on the computer with questions about characters. Some basic stuff such as name, age, hair, eye color, etc. Then some more detailed questions like pet peeves, sexuality, hobbies, relationship with parents, etc. Things that help shape a person. I’ve yet to fully fill it out for any character. I tried yesterday with Joleene but got stuck. I think I’ve fixed it now. Thought about it more this morning and I think I was trying going the wrong way. Something didn’t ring true about it. So I’m going to try to fix it today and see if this new idea works for me. If it does I’ll hopefully finish my first character template!
(And just so I don’t take credit for something that wasn’t mine… I made the template but the idea and the base of the template came from a book about writing, I just took the basic idea and formed it to fit my writing).
Another thing I’ve said over and over I was going to do to help develop my characters is just write in the first person and let them tell me their life story. I’ve failed to do that too. But I really need to get some of these background stories out of my head and onto paper. After all I’ve only got so much space up there. Plus let’s face it my memory is faulty on the best of days.
Since my muse is back he’s vying for attention against the muse who replaced him. I really want to work on my book, the one I have been working on for years. The new muse is a short story, as far as I can tell and not necessarily publishable. But it seems cruel to dump him just because my old lover came back. Plus what if he leaves again. I want to have something to write about.
I’m never been good at two timing. Honestly I’ve never tried. I’ve always believed I should focus on one at a time. Yet in my everyday life I can multitask. It’s a skill you learn. I’m going to try to learn to do it with writing.
So I’m not going to dump my new guy for the old flame. I’m going to see them both for a while. Try to balance my time between the two. I’ll spend mornings with my new muse and evenings with my old one.
Hopefully I can pull this off. It would be nice to know I can focus on more than one book at a time
My muse is back. Found him wandering across the countryside. Literally.
A trip I took yesterday took me out to the countryside north of my home. I’d originally thought to put some of my book out there. It’s very rural and since I need a rural area it’s almost perfect except it was too far away from the city. I’ve put it closer to my own home, which is closer to the city but still considered rural by some.
Yet yesterday as I drove I reconsidered moving it further out. Suddenly ideas for future stories and more world building came flooding to my mind. I’m so excited. There was my muse hanging out in the country.
Perhaps my location was one of the things holding me back. My location could’ve been wrong all along and that slowed down my writing. Or perhaps the long drive by myself relaxed me enough that I opened my mind again, after all I do have great ideas when driving on a trip. I’m not sure but next time I the silence reigns I’m going to go for a ride out in the country.
As I mentioned the idea for the current story that I’m working on came from a movie character. The other night I watched a movie I have seen a few times. The driving force for me to rewatch this movie is I love one of the characters in it. He is to me a very sexy and romantic character. The movie is good but I love this character. If the character had been in a book in a series I would’ve read the series for the character. That is a character driven story. That is what I strive to write.
A good book with a great story, well, that is a great thing. There is an author of a series that I read. Great stories. I enjoy them and gobble them up when they come out. But it took me a few books to really get involved in the characters. They aren’t character driven. I read them because they were great stories but I didn’t feel emotionally invested in those characters. I have grown fond of them but not as strongly as I would if it were character driven.
Now other writers, Laurell K Hamilton for example, have hooked me with their characters. Guilty Pleasures was a great story but the honest reason I couldn’t wait to read The Laughing Corpse was because of Jean Claude. I loved his character right off the bat. J.K. Rowling and Kim Harrison are two other writers that pull this off magnificently. Their books are character driven, you love the characters and read to see what is going to happen next to the characters. Not to see how the story goes.
However, in all my favorite series, very few of them are character driven. Most the time it takes a few books before I’m invested in the characters. The stories are great and the characters are good but I’m not invested until say three books in.
To be able to write a character driven story is my goal. I want the story to be good for sure. But character driven stories are the ones that after you finish the book you can’t let go of the characters. Character driven means that people love your characters. They feel emotionally attached to your characters. There is speculation that Harry Potter will die in the last book. I’ve been preparing myself for that possibility and yet I know that if he does I will mourn him as if he was a real person not just a character in a book. THAT is exceptional writing. That is a character driven story. Writers who write character driven stories have a bigger and more loyal fan base. The books that are character driven are the ones that readers await with bated breath. I want that. It is my goal.
I do have a story that I’m writing on. The story has nothing to do with my book or the world I have been working on creating. Usually I jot down quick notes about any stories that don’t deal with my current book and continue to work on that book so I won’t get distracted. I have to finish the first work before tackling a second.
Since I am just excited that the silence is gone I’m going to write about this new story. Just let the story flow from my fingers. I’m not going to fight it. My muse has gone off so if another wants to tantalize me with a story that has nothing to do with my current work then I will not fight it. I don’t know where it’s going to take me. I don’t know if it’s even a publishable story. But I’m writing.
The idea came from a character in a certain movie. I’ve always loved this character. The movie is good but the character is why I love the movie. Using the things I love about this character I will make my own character. I’ve already got other characters coming to my mind. The story is forming already.
It’s amazing how certain things can inspire you to write. A movie, a song, a comment, a conversation overheard, a dream, the way a person walks… all these things and many more can inspire a story. A seemingly ordinary moment that takes seed in your brain and out grows a beanstalk, whether it grows into the clouds is up to you. Whether or not it gets climbed is up to agents, publishers, etc. But if you don’t grow the beanstalk then it’ll never be climbed.
So I’m off to nurture the seed that has been planted.
In the silence I hear a whisper. I do not know this voice. Though I sit in the dark hollow I know I am no longer where I thought I was. Somehow in the stillness the world around me has changed. My hand touches cold stone and I jerk back. I strain to listen and hear him whisper again. I cannot see his face but his voice… this voice is new. He’s calling to me. Suddenly he is moving forward out of the shadows, bringing light. His face is in shadow as he moves toward me. He sits besides me and starts whispering in my ear. Telling me his story. I cling to him and his story grateful to have him there even if it means I’m lost. I will listen to any voice at the moment. The silence is scary and it’s comforting to know someone is in dark with me once again bringing his light. He motions toward the computer. Grateful for this different muse I listen and let him tell his story…
This weekend I actually had a great opportunity to write. My roommate was gone most the day and it was raining so there shouldn’t have been a lot to distract me. Only I was blank. I sat down and stared at the computer and nothing. I couldn’t even blog. I had nothing to say. I cleaned a little and did a few chores; but as far as my writing was going, despite numerous times I sat down to write and stared at a blank screen, I wrote nothing. Friday morning my main character was talking to me. I was excited and ready to work on it this weekend. But somehow by the time I got to sit at a computer to work on my writing she’d gotten quiet. Tomorrow I will write about something. I will write about not writing as I’m doing now if nothing else but I will write. This blankness is foreign to me. Every since I can remember I had stories I made up in my head. The silence is deafening. Is this what those who don’t write hear? How can they live with it?
I’ve obviously been slacking since I haven’t blogged since June 26. My blogs are suppose to be a way to kick myself in the ass and get myself writing. Blogging is a tool to hold myself accountable for my writing. If I blog every day, then I write every day. If I write a blog every day, then I should write on publishable works every day. It’s suppose to help keep me committed to writing every day.
Another purpose of my blogging is practice because writing a blog is practice. Perhaps, if you’re not a writer, you can write a blog without considering the prose. However, if you are a writer, your blog is showcasing your skill. So as a self proclaimed writer I can’t just write. I have to edit and rewrite and edit some more. It has to be witty, entertaining, or at the very least well written.
I’m not saying I haven’t been remiss and just wrote a quick blog, did a spell check, and posted it. I have. However, I’m trying not to do those kinds of blogs. I want those of you who stumble upon my blog either by accident or design to be entertained. And if by reading my blog you are intrigued enough to read my book when I finish it and get it published then I’ve done good.
If you read the page labeled Write you will see a favorite quote of mine. Mr. William G Tapply wrote those inspiring words in an article. That quote spoke to me. I laminated and hung it on my wall where I see it everyday.
The message in those words of wisdom many of us can heed, regardless if you’re a writer or not. Those words can be changed to fit many aspects of our lives. Try it. Look at that quote but make it about exercise, diet, painting, blogging, whatever. It fits. If it is something that takes time and constant work to do or get good at then it takes commitment. And writer’s write. People who are in shape, exercise. People who want to get thin, watch their diet. Painter’s paint. Bloggers blog. If you want to be successful at those things, then you must do them everyday. You can’t make excuses.
Which brings me to the reason I haven’t been blogging. My father was recently and unexpectedly put into the hospital for heart problems. Without going through great details of what happened I let my writing fall by the wayside. Understandable despite the quote and its truths. Exhausted mentally, emotionally, and physically I didn’t blog or write at all for the three days he was in the hospital. And then I didn’t when he was home because I had things to do to before I went on a trip. Then the trip happened and I had no access to the internet. I got home and tired from the trip, so I didn’t write or blog. Work was hell the day I went back to work because I had to catch up from my trip and for the three day weekend that followed so I didn’t write that day either. Then the weekend came and …
See excuses. I will say that my daddy going into the hospital is a legitimate reason not to write if there was going to be one. Except I could’ve brought a notebook and instead of stressing and worrying over him while he was in surgery wrote whether it was on my book or my blog or better yet both. Honestly it wouldn’t have been great but I could’ve done something. Frankly though my daddy being in the hospital is one of the top reasons I would give myself some slack about writing or should I say not writing. But that excuse made the way for the others that came in. It wasn’t hard to say well I don’t have time to do a proper blog or I don’t have time to just sit and write. No internet access and helping my friends move (the trip) is a legitimate reason not to post a blog. Yet again grab a notebook and I could’ve blogged in it and then posted when I got back and I could’ve wrote at least a page of something pertaining to my book or some other publishable work and typed it in when I got home.
Mr. Tapply was right. Once the excuse was made I easily pushed the writing aside for other reasons that were less legitimate. And to be honest my diet suffered too because I gave myself excuses to eat foods I’m not suppose to have. I found one excuse and continued to find them until I forced myself this morning to face up to the flaws of my reasoning.
So I’m back on track. I’m writing this morning. I’m blogging and I’m writing…
