Tag Archives: character development

What’s your story about?

16 Tuesday Jul 2019

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Seven days ago my post was a brief update about my recent novel.  I talked about the village that I’m using as the setting and a little bit about the story.

A very dear and wonderful friend read it and asked why I didn’t tell him that I was writing about that.  My main reply was you didn’t ask. I very briefly explained where the idea had come from originally, that it was what I was going to write as my serial for the Rural Post but they wanted something more episodic but, give a writer an idea and a good writer is going to run with it, just like give a dog a bone…

But when I answered because you didn’t ask, it made me think back.

Since 2001 when I first put pen to paper I haven’t had anyone, friends or family, ever ask me what I was writing about.  What’s your story about? Over the years, when I tell people I’m a writer and I’ve self-published X novels the question is what do you write? They want to know the genre to determine if they would read what I write or not.  It’s always been that question only.. but never have I had anyone say… so what’s this story about.

Of course, as you writers will know and understand, when we get going on something we’re working on we don’t want to talk about it, at least not at first, because it’s not formed fully in our minds!  Sometimes we can’t talk about it because we don’t know!  We need to tell the entire story first before we can start the process of sharing a synopsis!

Why is that?  Because the characters tell the story and we can’t see where that’s going until we have transcribed it all for them.

I’ve been done writing this novel for several weeks now and I’m on the second edit so the story is told but there has yet to be that question… what’s your story about?

If nothing else it was an interesting realization…

So I will ask you, my writer friends…

What’s your story about?

I love this guy

06 Thursday Jun 2019

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Despite being a day “off” today it certainly was mixed with more interruptions and less writing time though I have done double time and I think I’ve made up for that.

I have brought my present-day main characters back to the nursing home for a second meeting with the man who was six years old in 1947 and he’s sharp and he’s got a sharp tongue and, after all these years, is just looking for some action anywhere he can get it.  I have really loved writing his dialogue being kind and being snappy and having no issue snapping his fingers and bossing around an orderly to bring water for his guests and himself.

When I create characters at the start of a new project I simply create a person with a name that I usually struggle to come up with.  When working in the past I need to be wary of the names that would have been in then as opposed to now.  My character from the present is Haven but my character from the past is Lizzie short for Elizabeth.  I have had to choose names like Leroy and Hannah and Peter from the past and so I have used names like Haven and Ethan to really differentiate between the time periods.

I digress… I simply give them a name and hair colour, eye colour and height and they take on the rest as the story goes on.  My dialogue usually starts off very choppy until the characters come into their own and then it takes off.  Editing is so important because it allows me to then alter dialogue in those beginning choppy stages to flow better with how the character evolved.

They develop their own personality and I’m often late in providing details.  I realize that characters have backstory and they have a reason they are the way they are but I have held that off until I’m at this point in the story.

It’s so much fun having watched these static “idea on paper” characters evolve.  I am now at 43, 651 words and I will likely take that to 44,000 words this evening before I quit.  I have another surprise for them to discover and it’s going to be the lead-in to the end of my story.

I’m excited to be getting to this point… that many words over 185 pages.  I have a legal-size outline of the changes I have to make in order for my 1947 character to get his wish and not take a fatal shot.  Those notes won’t really matter so much until the editing phase and I’ve implemented what I had to into recent pages.

It’s been quite a ride and I hope this continues. I’m scrambling to get this done because I need to come up with another episode for the newspaper now that it has gone to print and I need to make my mind available for that.  I think I’m struggling because I’m so deep into this story right now that I can’t surpass it… it has taken over and my mind needs to get it to the end!

Words into MY Mouth

03 Monday Jun 2019

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Yesterday’s post was all about people putting words into the mouths of other people to get what they want.

Today I’m writing about the opposite because I have characters who exist only in my head who are trying to do the same thing!

With work on Saturday and a headache something awful yesterday it wasn’t a weekend conducive to great writing… any writing for that matter!

However, it did pass by late afternoon and I did manage to fit some writing time in last evening despite this little guy needing mommy-love time.

kitty_love

I passed the 30,000 word mark and I’m currently sitting at 32,182 words!

I’m getting very excited about it as I see the shape it’s taking and the characters are getting themselves into more trouble than I can get them out of right now.  It’s currently an argument between myself and my main characters from both 1947 and from the present!

That’s four against one!  Not fair!

My main female character from 1947 is now pregnant (her choice… already had that conversation) and her significant other is now arguing with me that he does not want to DIE… actually he’s demanding that the shot NOT be fatal… of course now there’s a baby on the way…

My main female character from the present decided to not heed her boyfriend’s warning about an old, unused chimney and started a fire in the fireplace and is now in hospital with smoke inhalation!  Her boyfriend, who is new to the scene, is sitting at her bedside and is begging me to let him propose to her even though they’ve only known each other for a little over a week or so!

Oh how they run the show!

I realized a long time ago that this is not only what writing is about but it’s what characters do and I’ve never talked to another author who has experienced anything different yet it’s hard to explain to non-writers what it’s really like having characters come to life in our heads and then take the lead on the story.  Yes, we create them but when we breathe life into them, things can change really fast!

It’s a lot like the movie Mannequin where Jonathan builds a mannequin out of the four basic parts… legs, torso & head and two arms… and sends her on her way only to find out that she comes to life and has her own story to tell!

As creator, I have some decisions to make as I become both judge and jury in both pleas and I try to sort out what will be what!

Putting Words in Someone Else’s Mouth

02 Sunday Jun 2019

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

As an author I should be the last person to complain about words being put into someone else’s mouth and as a woman who loves the Hallmark movies, especially the Christmas ones, the ones on this Wedding June, many of which are sequels to the Christmas ones, are driving me crazy today!

For both Marrying Mr. Darcy that ended an hour and a half ago and Wedding in Graceland which is still on the families are driving me crazy!  The bride and groom are from different worlds, as in worlds apart, and therefore their families have different ideas of what the wedding should be.  Of course you have the down-to-earth common thinkers and then the hoity-toity stuck-up snobs who want three million guests and neither family is concerned with what the bride and groom want.

So this one, right now, the mother of the groom and the mother of the bride are at odds over decorations and when the bride says she likes both equally her mother says “I think what she’s saying is she wants to go with traditional”… so it’s been almost four hours of movies with those sorts of assumptions and putting words into someone’s mouth.

Sigh!

I realize that as authors we do this all the time with every character we develop.  We give them the stupid ideas, we give them the smart ideas and we get them to do things that other people roll their eyes at but we do manage to tell a story from beginning to end and they are OUR characters!

In the movies they are someone else’s characters but I also think that, to a certain degree, they are merely trying to create enough conflict to get the story to fit into a two-hour time slot so it feels like they’re reaching.  I’m not saying weddings and families aren’t different nor are families always going to be on the same page and understanding but I think the biggest thing we try to teach our own kids is to communicate which is the one thing not happening in these movies… at least not these two!

So, my author peeps, keep creating those characters with their flaws but try to keep characters from putting too many words into other character’s mouths!  Let them think for themselves!

I got… The Call…

19 Friday Apr 2019

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

As I was getting ready to zip out yesterday the phone rang.  I was all the way up in my room… there was no chance I was going to catch it before voicemail picked it up.  I knew who it was yet I was going to end up calling back anyway.

So I quickly ran next door and came back excited to see what ideas the guys had come up with for me for their newspaper.  It was surprising but it’s certainly exciting!

The bottom line is they want me to write serials, rather a serial,  for the paper!  For those who may not know what that is it is essentially a series that runs paper to paper.  Yes, it can be written as episodes just like your favourite TV shows or it can be written like chapters in a novel from week to week which makes it easier to leave those cliffhangers!  How many TV shows do you know that have To be continued… at the end of each episode… I think that would be harder.  From the quick research I’ve done there isn’t a lot of character change or growth in the episodic version.

Anyway, yes, I would have loved to also written some of the articles and stories but it’s incredibly exciting for me to proceed with this project!

I already have a great idea of where to start so now it’s into some of the planning stages… who and what will my main character be?  Of course she has be to be bright and quirky and fun but also vulnerable.  She also needs a name.  She needs to be nosy and willing to take risks.  Of course it can’t just be her, she needs to work with someone, for someone and someone has to work against her too.  But, seeing as I write what I write, there will probably have to be some romance too!

So my friends, that’s the writing I will be up to for the next while, hopefully interspersed with some articles from my other paid gig!

I want to energetically, but cautiously, say that things are looking up!

I need another cup of tea!

 

Pain, Characters & Other Complaints!

26 Monday Sep 2016

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

For anyone who has read my blog in its entirety over the years knows that I live in constant pain.  Short and sweet, I have a 6th lumbar vertebra where there should be 5.  Basically the top popped off of the sacrum to create this.  That means that the pelvis can’t attach properly creating instability and, therefore, pain.  And lots of it!  I get pain in my legs during bad weather; I can’t sit for extended periods of time because it makes it worse.

Today, it’s raining outside.  My pain is nearly off the charts for me and, yet, I have to go to work shortly.

When we write characters, we often give them the opposite of what we have (or don’t have).  I have never given my characters pain.  I don’t think it’s fair to them to go through life with pain.  And why not?  Many of us live in pain!  For me, it’s part of me.  There are many things I can’t do and even more things I shouldn’t do but it’s hard when you’re in your early 40s to not do some things.  And yet I don’t even want to go grocery shopping right now!

Confessions in the Mural is the first character I thought I would try to go with Rheumatoid Arthritis.  No, I’m not trying to be cruel.  It’s a disease that has many more treatments than it used to.  It starts off gradually in most cases and it goes into remission here and there.  I thought of it because they are going to struggle with the thought of having another baby meanwhile she just had a baby six weeks before the book begins.  So timing becomes an issue.  Could she and should she take the risk of getting pregnant again?  Sometimes it’s fun being a nurse and a writer… I get to do this with very little research!

We don’t “give” our characters issues because reading is fantasy.  People read to escape reality.  When I write, I do the same thing.  I don’t want to my reality.  I live my reality every single day of my life.  I don’t want to put that in my books because, as a reader, I know the world doesn’t want to read about that.

What things don’t you give your characters?  Money problems?  Pain?

 

Change is in the air…

05 Monday Sep 2016

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , ,

Reminds me of that old song Love is in the Air by don’t-ask-me-who!  Same tune going through my head.

I know I wrote last week about my emotional breakdown on the verge of my daughter starting college and that still holds true.  How can we not be sad but happy about the milestones of life?  They happen to each of us from when we are born and say our first words to taking our first steps.  Then some of us go to preschool, others not, but then there is school.  Kindergarten, grades one through eight, then we venture off to high school.  We decide what we want to be (sometimes), we go on our first date.  We often experience our first kiss and then we graduate.  We move on to higher level education (sometimes) or full-time jobs.

All are milestones and all create the base for who we become.

Tomorrow my baby takes her first steps into that post-secondary education.  I hope she likes it.  I hope she enjoys what she’s learning and it comes easily to her.  After last year, she deserves that!  It’s going to be tough because she will be adjusting to that, she’ll be adjusting schedules so she can still see her pony and she’ll be needing part-time work–or a few more lesson hours.  All of this in a very short time frame.

She’s going to meet new people and try to find the balance between her old friends, her barn friends and the new friends.  I think that will be incredibly difficult for her because she has such a huge heart.  She wants all these friends in her life.  I didn’t have that really because my boyfriend was also friends with my high school best friend.  The rest of my high school friends ended up going their separate ways.  We are all connected now on Facebook but how many years did that take?  My college friends were pretty well merely that.

So wherever you are and whether you have kids or not, know that tomorrow is a big day for hundreds of thousands of kids around the globe.

And if you feel like it, write a bit about your own milestones.  What makes you the person you are today.  Maybe you don’t want to but just think how awesome a backstory it would give one of your future characters!

Where Does the Time go?

07 Sunday Aug 2016

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

As I approach another birthday and the start of much change I ask myself where has the time gone? The past month, after my vacation, my time away from the day job, has gone by in a flash.  From births to deaths, from the zoo to a horse show, it has sped by and is now a mere memory.

Many of us are experiencing this increase in time passing and wish to have it slow down a bit.  How come the summer months evaporate and the winter months never seem to pass?  How, in a world where time is speeding by us, do we slow down and get done what we want to get done?

I finished the edits on Confessions in the Mural over a week ago.  The document has sat open on my laptop at home and for several hours at work this past week and I have yet to enter anything.  Just that, in itself, is depressing.

I am on vacation this coming week and I already see the end of it.  Tomorrow I will get much of it to myself.  Tuesday I have an appointment at 1:00.  Wednesday is the barn at whatever time we choose and, with the heat, it might be earlier than later.  Friday, again, is my daughter’s lesson.  So every day but Thursday somebody is doing something.  I’d love the opportunity to hop on the train and go to Toronto and once again snoop around Casa Loma and, this time, visit the Aquarium… IF my back could handle it because it too has been creating major issues!

Once in a while I step back and I think of whether this type of lifestyle would make a good character or bad character?  Is this something that can be written into a character?  Is it too blase or is it exciting?  Is a life this busy worth reading about?  I guess that is the ultimate question.  And how do you fit that into a plot of some kind?  A woman who is too busy, too busy, too busy suddenly finds herself ______________… fill in the blank!

I take vacation time to get out of the office and slow down.  I don’t have to go somewhere.  I’m quite happy at home being able to split my time between getting house work done and trying to catch up on writing projects.

How about you?  What things are you up to this summer?  Could they all be put into a book?  Would your life be an exciting read?

I was thinking about my blog the other day as Hope Clark offers guest posts.  I was trying to figure out how to describe what my blog is about.  My Writing Path is all about MY writing path.  The twists and turns, the frustrations and the joys of a writing career interspersed with a full-time job, being a full-time, single mom, and having other family obligations.  I think that summarizes it nicely even if it doesn’t cover everything off.  Perhaps one day soon I will ask her to guest blog!

Well, everyone, stay cool.  I will likely be posting a couple of times this week, but if not, you will know that I got too busy.

 

Another Chapter Closes…

17 Friday Jun 2016

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

Our lives our made up of chapters like any book we read.  Our life is the book.

Today my daughter is going to her last day of classes.  Yearbook day is Monday but it’s not like it used to be where you still went from class to class to get it signed.  Now they get their book and they run madly all over the school trying to find as many friends as they can to get their books signed and then they leave.

She has some exams to write but today the chapter comes to an end.  It’s the end of an era.  For fourteen years she has gone off to school every morning.  She has learned to read, write and do arithmetic, among other things!

She has grown and changed into a lovely young woman with her whole future ahead of her and I can only hope that I taught her well in the ways of the world.

I understand how she feels.  Twenty-five years ago I was in the exact same position she is now.  Half a decade has passed and I understand the feeling… leaving your friends behind to go on a new, and scary, adventure.  What will college bring?  What will college be like?  It’s scary not knowing what’s around the bend.

But she will prevail as we all do.  We work hard, we experience failures, but we come out of it all in the end.

I wish her the best and I will be with her through it all… I’m not going to abandon her, I will always be her mom and, as most parents say, will stand by her decisions even if they aren’t always the best and I will help her to find her way.

Sounds much like the makings of a novel… character development… do you make a mom supportive or not?  Do you make a child supportive or not?  Sometimes parents are overbearing and drive their kids away even though they mean well.  Other times parents don’t care and they still drive their kids away.

For her, the future isn’t written yet… there is no plot right now.

I get to watch her write her own story!

Peaking Stress Levels

24 Sunday Apr 2016

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

Ha ha! My laptop is sooooo slow that Levels in the title actually came out Leels for a moment!

Well this week has not been fun… things just seem to be spiraling downward.

Do you even get told that you have to relax, that everything happens for a reason and that God only gives us as much as we can handle???  I’m past that!!  I’ve gone WAY past that!

And now I just had a power failure which knocked out my internet!  Luck?  What is that?

Anyway, I’ve resigned to a few things at this stage and this little voice in the back of my head (or perhaps it’s on the right side of my brain) is telling me that it can all be food for a character’s background some day… when I’ve managed to get through it and over it.

It’s true too.  And it doesn’t have to be a part of the character in that moment… the moment of the story… but it can be part of her history and be part of why she is the way she is.

I read the start of a rude argument against authors… that we use friends and family and their flaws against them in our books.  That’s not true.  We use pieces of those people.  Perhaps we use only the flaws because the flaws are really good ones.  If our friend has been as such long enough we know the reason why.  So we use that background and the flaws in our characters but does that mean that the character automatically becomes the real-life person?

Anyway, I just thought, since we were on the topic of characters that I’d put that out there.

I’m starting to apply for more jobs… this past week I applied to the local college as an instructor for Health Office Administration… I taught the equivalent from 2002-2004 at a career college and loved it.  Here’s hoping.

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started