Ready... Set... GO!

I got my kids to bed tonight and was really good: I went directly to my computer and started working on Jacoby Figurine.

One of the things I know I am terrible about is character development. Would you believe this 25k story has pretty much nothing personal about any of the characters except maybe one sentence to describe them physically? Or maybe a word or two about the tone of their voice?

So while I had good intentions on working on chapter two tonight, I actually turned about and started making character sketches for the main characters and taking what details I could out of what I had already written. James (the male lead) is never described physically, but was dressed and performed as a sailor in the opening scene. He is a great swordsman and seems to have some extraordinary abilities (telepathy mostly), but the exact nature of this ability isn’t described until chapter two.

Jack, who is the villainous mastermind, has a description only that he is “portly” and has a deep baritone voice. Nothing else.

So while I go through this rewrite, I’m going to be adding what details I already have into the character sketch and see if I can’t glean some more details that can be worked in about them. This way they can have some actual depth. This way they can feel like living, breathing characters. Well, except maybe for Aaron… he dies in the middle of the first scene. Ironically enough, I’m pretty sure I have the most details about him because he has a lot of action in the first scene… too bad he dies. I really liked him.

While taking a break (read: surfing the internet when I should have been doing writing, editing, anything-but-surfing), I noticed a friend of mine post that she was having trouble writing, so I worked with her on coming up with a challenge.

Nothing better than starting off a race with GO!

The challenge was to write about 750 words to a scene that was suspense, horror or romance in genre. I added the additional challenge of using the following words: cabinet, hardening, conditioning. Oh and there was a 15 minute time limit.

I like little sprints like this to get my mind going. Sure, most of the time the scene is contrived or just so out there that it is otherwise unusable, but it is an exercise that forces you to get out of your own way. Since that seemed to be the issue my friend was having, and it is an issue I definitely struggle with (when it isn’t NaNo-time), I was glad to offer it up.

So to sum up: I did get some work on Jacoby Figurine tonight, but not as much as I had intended. I also tried to help a friend to write some more. Other than a dish of ice cream that seems to be conspicuously missing, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

Have a good night everyone.

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