Into the woods, TO GRANDMOTHER'S HOOOOOUSE!

     You know you sang it in your head.

     Both my sister and my best friend have communicated their displeasure with the blurring of my Flight notes in my last post. I tell you this so that, if you were also frustrated by the fact that I did not leave my top-secrets notes out in the open air for all eyes to ravage before the due time... you are not alone in your displeasure. Sorry I'm not sorry. 

     Over the past two weeks, I lived with my grandmother. She usually lives with my uncle and aunt, but they went on a trip. I was my grandmother's companion while they were gone.  

     This was a wonderful time for me because I was able to spend some quality one-on-one with my grandmother, who is called "Gramummy" by all of her grandchildren (don't ask me, it was the doing of an older cousin). We ate ice cream, watched movies, and played lots of Scrabble. Seriously, lots...

of...

Scrabble. 

     It was also a profitable time for me because Gramummy's house is quiet. With six people living in my house, it is hard to find a good place to focus on writing (yet another reason I usually write late at night). I was able to start putting my updated outline to good use.

     Another advantage to living with Gramummy was that I had a living reference for one of my characters, who is an old woman. I loooove writing old people. This character is one Mrs. Highland, and though she is different from my grandmother, they do share some qualities. This was extremely helpful in some of the times when I got stuck. 

     Mrs. Highland and Benjamin have a particularly interesting (and by that, I mean awkward) relationship. Let's just say that she gets frustrated with his secrets almost as much as I do. 

     While I wrote at Gramummy's house, I used Facebook to track my daily word counts. I will continue to do so until the draft of Flight is finished, so be sure to follow my support page. Your encouragement and prayers help more than you know. Plus, I post a little of what I write to help make up for the blurred outline notes. 

Post Tenebras Lux!

-ST

Climactic Confession

     Benjamin came clean.

     To translate for all those who are unlearned in Writerese, this means that I spent a lot of time thinking about Benjamin's backstory last night and came up with good ideas.

     Praise. The. Lord. I think I finally have my climax. I'm almost afraid to say that, in case it turns out to be a dud. But, for now, I am giving thanks to the Creator of creativity for answering my plea.

     By the way, I was right. Benjamin is ashamed of his secret. Tsk-tsk. That one is gonna come back to bite him.

     And I wonder why my characters don't trust me.

Post Tenebras Lux!

-ST

What's Happening and What's Not

     So, the game plan is doing well. I'd be a liar if I said that I've been keeping to the code perfectly. I was about 15 minutes late to the drawing board tonight because I was captured by a warden and a wolf king. But reading is good... right? (This is where you say, "No, not write. Sometimes write, but only to get your imagination kicking, not distract you! Too much read is not write." I blame the sock man.)

     It's really incredible how far I will go to not actually write. I catch myself wandering all over the internet and the refrigerator, losing my train of thought again and again. Imagination and creativity are difficult to catch sometimes.

     I wrote a bit of the story tonight: 140ish words. Most of my time lately has been spent in working out the plot. I have a crude idea of where I'm going, but that's it. I know the beginning (sorta) and the middle fo sho (well, pretty sho), but the end is definitely missing this important thing called "a climax."

     This is mostly Benjamin's fault. Let me introduce you to Benjamin. He has an imposing physique. His voice is deep as a drum, but gentle in tone. He was in love once, but he never married her. And he is apparently hiding a secret.

     Let me state, once again, that I love secrets. Especially in a story. But Benjamin's secret is driving me crazy. This character is tight-lipped. I know that once I figure it out, I will have an important piece of my climax. The threads are just so tangled! (I really do need to stay away from Google and the kitchen.)

     I tried conducting an "interview" with Benjamin the other night. We did not get very deep. Then I tried getting the backstory from his crush, but she was a brick wall. Tonight, I just straight up asked him, "Why won't you tell me your secret?" There was an awkward silence (and not just because Benjamin isn't real). He tried defending himself, but I had already caught it. Shame. He's ashamed of his secret. Why? I dunno yet. But I will find out. Ya'hear me, Benjamin? You better fess up, cuz I need to get this story written!

Yes. Yes, I had coffee. 

Post Tenebras Lux!

-ST

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Let's Start at the Very Beginning

     I wrote just over 300 words today. The amount is not very exciting, but I am excited because those words make up the current start of Flight.

     If you've been paying attention, you may be wondering why I suddenly started writing the actual story instead of character developing short stories. Well, I'm still developing characters. There was one guy (you can call him John) that I needed to do major work on, but his short story rolled out nicely and helped me really see him. Now that John is done, I only have one more character with a murky backstory, so I'm still working on him. Remember, I've been hanging with these characters for over a year, so I think I have most of them down pretty well.

     By the way, if you're reading my posts, thank you so much! You are keeping me accountable, motivating me to get this story written so I can tell you about it. Maybe no one is there and I'm writing to myself, but I guess the push to write comes from the knowledge that, even if no one cares now, someday someone may be encouraged by my words.

Post Tenebras Lux!
-ST

Character Development Part 2

"3-D"

     One of my writer friends asked me how my writing was going. I told her that I haven't been writing much. I've been developing my characters. I expressed my frustration over my antagonist. My story, at the moment, has no antagonist. The old  manuscript had your average evil villain, but I am striving for more. 

     My writer friend asked if I had tried character boards. After I displayed my ignorance, she explained that character boards are when you write down character information on index cards. "Sometimes the 3-D, being able to touch the cards, triggers something in your mind to help you find what you're looking for," she said. 

     So I tried it. I wrote down different traits for my antagonist on pieces of paper. Some of them were obvious: "Prideful," "Selfish," "Vain." Some were contrasting: "Male-Female," "Rich-Poor," "Easily Angered-Not Easily Angered." Then I picked out the ones I really liked and wanted to see in my story. I had a "Eureka!" moment after looking at them for a few days and wrote down some possible motives. 

     Since the antagonist board is going slowly, I also wrote down each of my characters' names and made a "main cast" character board. I found that the characters naturally fell into pairs. After a while, I felt that something was missing. Then I realized I had forgotten the most important "character." Jesus. I wrote His Name on a paper and it really helped me figure out how each character relates to and views Him, which of course affects their personalities entirely.

     Have you ever used character boards? How did yours work?

Post Tenebras Lux!

-ST

Character Development Part 1

“A Day in the Life”

     I have decided that developing characters is much harder than developing relationships with real people. With real people, all you have to do is ask them what they like to do for fun or what their opinion is on something, but with characters you have to make up their response. And all the characters have to be different.

     I want my characters to feel like real people. So I decided to write them in different situations that would be normal life to them. For example, I wrote a short story about one of my characters taking a trip to a mall to go shoe shopping. Not a thrilling plot, and the story has no real “point,” but it really helped me discover more about what he thinks about himself and others, what he fears, what he likes, and, most importantly, what he wants.

     I wrote the story from 1st person POV, as if the character was telling me his story. I also purposefully avoided listening into the characters thoughts; so not only am I learning about my character, I’m also practicing my writing skills in “showing” instead of “telling.”

     That particular character is a new one I am adding to the story. For one of my original characters, I went through the old manuscript and pulled out everything that would tell me what kind of a person he is. It was tedious, but now I have a list of characteristics for him.

     How do you develop your characters?

Post Tenebras Lux!

-ST