What Characters

HI. This is me, posting, NOT a bajillion years after the last time I posted!! I am so proud of myself, hehehe.

Anyway. A few nights ago I had a breakthrough. Two, actually.

First, one of my MCs in Defiance, Varesa. She's supposed to be really awkward. Slightly comical, even. I've been having trouble bringing out that part of her character while writing. There were moments when I thought I had nailed it, only to be disappointed because it would fade again.

Until it occurred to me...I should try to write her like I think when I'm hyper. I am not awkward––I hope...––but I do have a completely random thought process, and it's ten times worse when I'm hyper. If I could channel a bit of that into Varesa, maybe it would work?

YES. It did. I didn't really make her random, so much, but somehow, SOMETHING finally clicked. It was beautiful. I still need to get to know her more, but I'm on the right track. It is happifying.

The second win of the evening come from me procrastinating (SEE, good things DO come from procrastination!). I was googling an actor from an old show I used to love, and instead, I found this picture of a boy. A boy that, given a few shades of auburn in his hair, is my other MC's love interest. I have been trying and trying to find a proper picture for him, because I love having pictures of my characters. If I can't find one, I usually let it go. But with Thane, I couldn't. I would find pictures that had one aspect of him, and they would catch my attention, but they weren't quite right. I needed to find the right one. (It was sort of becoming an obsession.)

And boy, is this one great. I can forgive the hair being off, because the hair is wrong on basically all the photos I find, since I always seem to have unusual aspects. But the rest? Perfect. It has made me a very happy girl, finally having a photo to glare at when Thane isn't getting along.

So, two tiny things––things that have varying degrees of visible importance to the eventual completion of the book––are all it takes to make me feel like I won the lottery of my life. But even if they are small, they are important. It's the little things that keep me excited about writing this story. The little things that remind me that I love it when I want to throw it off the nearest bridge.

What little things keep you in love with your story?

On a side note, I saw The Hunger Games movie last night. Ooooh my GOODNESS. If you've seen it, did you like it?? (No spoilers :P) And if you haven't...you should do that. Nowish.



Twin Moment of the Day: Hunger Games movie. We loves it. (That is presumptuous of me, since she hasn't seen it yet so I *could* be wrong. But I seriously doubt I am.)
On my Mind: Latin homework.
Listening to: Someone is sweeping in the other room.
Grateful for: Sleep. Sleep is nice sometimes.
Wanting: The weekend!
Writing: Defiance! (41,830)

Major *facepalm* & Writer Sadism

So some of you might have seen this over on Noveltee(n) already, but since it's pretty silent around here because of NaNo, I'm double-posting it. But, first...

I am a terrible person. O_O I have school, 4 exams to take in two months, a song(in Korean) to memorize, and novel to finish writing before the 30th, and guess what I go and do?! I get 8 books from the library.

Plus I can't for the life of me figure out how to make all the fonts in this post the same... O_o Today is not my brightest day, to say the least. [Maggie: Twin to the rescue! *fixes fonts*]

But I'll live. Probably.

Anyway! On to the next bit.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that writers are really just sadists.

Okay, maybe only some. But it is pretty common, when one overhears writers talking about their work, to hear the writer gleefully discussing maiming or emotionally scarring their characters, or killing people off, etc.

But I'm thinking it's not actually the hurting the characters that the writer delights in (okay, maybe a little) but rather what the hurting will lead to. As S.E. Sinkhorn says over on her blog*:

"Try it. Take away something your character loves dearly. Cut away their family. Steal their significant other. Annihilate their best friend. Destroy their freakin' world. Then let them change. Let them grow. Let them become someone with a different outlook on the same past. Let them be stronger for it. And let the story continue."

What doesn't kill your characters  make them stronger. If you kill the character's whole family, they will probably be devastated. If you throw their life in a mud puddle and stomp on it with soccer cleats, they will suffer. But they will get over it, and become better characters. Because that is what people do.

So really, it is a truth not-so-universally acknowledged, that writers love their characters so flipping much that they are willing to put them through the pain that will make them better, stronger people.

*Nooo, I didn't just choose a blog topic that would fit that link because that link is about Doctor Who, why do you ask?

Twin Moment of the Day: Well, it's not really a TM, but I did get "Between Shades of Gray" from the library.

On my Mind: Where is all my time?!

Listening to: "I Dreamed a Dream" by Ruthie Henshall from Les Miserables

Grateful for: Very little homework

Wanting to: Eat. Sleep. Read. Write. Get one of Hermione's hourglass things that makes me be in two places at once.

Writing: Defiance (NaNo novel--27k!)

Writing From Experience

HAPPY THURSDAY!

I feel like I've brought this up before, because I probably have. I find the subject of 'writing what you know' has so many different angles you can look at it from. It makes for awesome discussion topic amongst writers.

Personally, there are some things I'll write that I've never experienced first hand. Death, killing someone, driving and crying, riding a dragon, etc. Some things you know enough, have seen enough, heard enough, and can guess enough to pull off writing. Likewise, there are some things I just won't write, because I feel like they cross the line and step into the realm of Can't Pull This Off.

Like kissing. Falling in love (as in, legit love). A first-person novel where the MC's parents get a divorce. There are just some things I'm waiting to experience (like love) or some I don't know enough about to actually write realistically. At least, not as far as my MC, since I'm in his/her head.

Sometimes third person helps. Sometimes not. Sometimes lots of research is the ticket. Sometimes not even that is quiet enough. I think it really depends on how much you can imagine (dragons, mythical creatures, killing someone, etc.) and how much you can research to pull something off realistically that you hope to never experience (divorce, a drinking problem). There's a balance. While there's no doubt that a scene written from your own experiences and emotions might way outshine a similar scene written from research and imaginings, I think if you think you can pull it off, and there's a good chance it'll work, you should try.

My question to you is, how picky are you about writing only about what you know? Where do you make exceptions? Have you ever written something and felt like you didn't pull it off, or had someone tell you you aren't pulling it off?

Just something to muse this Thursday. 

Best Part of Today: Lots of new words in my novel. 
Currently Craving: Pineapple.
Music Pick: "Whisper" by Evanescence
I'm Reading: "The Seer and the Sword" by Victoria Hanley
WATM: Blink (46,277 words)