Posted on

Conversations with myself

I’m sure that if mental physicians everywhere had their way, I (and many other writers) would be diagnosed with something serious.  I’ve been writing Serious Character Bios (read: three handwritten pages per main character, which so far is six pages and will eventually be 15), and this has caused me to love my characters. Even my antagonist.  Which is good, because even villains have mothers who love them (or something).

Anyway, now that I’ve fleshed out Cleo and George, in particular, I’ve started to have conversations with them. Sometimes this involves acting like I’m listening to said fictional entity telling me about themselves or a situation; sometimes I take on the role of the character and monologue to myself while in the bathroom (no, not while it’s otherwise occupied, I’m not that confident in my ability to prove my sanity).  It’s actually a helpful exercise, because it plays on my one strength as a public speaker: spontaneity.  I like to connect dots that were never supposed to be connected, and this happens best when my brain is in GO mode without the ability to censor a connection before I can see where it goes.  Having conversations with myself is kind of my version of freewriting, especially because I’m slow to write by hand and typed freewrites feel like cheating.  Weird quirk, right?

What kinds of quirks do you indulge in as far as your writing practice?

Posted on

Unintentional symbolism

Symbolism and motifs are one of those integral parts of a good, solid novel that I tend to overlook.  Either that, or I make it uber-obvious.  I’ve been trying to explore some possibilities for motifs in A God Grown Old and before last night I was totally stumped.

Then I started reading up on historical Libyan food and dining rituals.  One of the things that stuck out to me was that three cups of green tea are consumed at the end of every meal.  While green tea is by no means native to Libya, it does appear to be a commodity they purchased from the traders coming in from the Far East as early as 800 BC.  That fits nicely into my timeline, so I think sharing a cup of green tea is something two of my characters will do as a representation of their relationship.

I had to make a trip to the library the other day (avoiding the bus tunnels as long as I could and all that) and ended up walking out with two useful books: The Natural History of Unicorns by Chris Lavers and The Hero With an African Face by Clyde Ford.  I needed information on the history of the karkadann (my previously made-up unicorn species has been switched to this no-less-elusive but appropriately “real” critter from Arabian mythology) as well as a little extra depth to my African characters and their belief system.  I perused Ford’s book this morning and pulled out quite a few useful gems for the Princess, and I’ll take a look at the unicorn book very soon.

Research is surprisingly fun!

Posted on

13 and counting

Sufficient sleep has eluded me lately, but it’s not been all bad; a tired, loopy mind is a fertile place for brainstorming to occur.  I sat down this morning and wrote outlines for each of the secondary characters’ arcs, all four of them.  I won’t include at least half of what I wrote down, because it’ll be happening off-screen, but I’m finding it to be an incredibly useful exercise.  Now, when my secondary characters are off-screen, they won’t be like puppets: useless unless I have my hand up their asses.  (Wait.  What?)

Inevitably, my favorite character in (insert show/book/movie/fandom here) is a secondary character, but I’ve yet to quite capture a good supporting cast.  I think this might be the secret: giving them lives outside of recorded events, especially when the tale is told in a limited p.o.v. (in this case, third-person limited, probably to two characters max, barring the epilogue).  Of course, it does help that I’ve known these characters for 13 years, but still, they were never this vibrant before.

Now, to figure out how to make the main character likable and not just a whiner.  CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

Posted on

The perfect tools

My personal writersense tends to air on the technological side of things rather than the traditional. I think much faster than I can write by hand (I never took many handwriting courses growing up), so my 120-wpm typing speed is really helpful in that department.  Yet there are times when hands-to-keyboard just doesn’t feel right. I can’t connect as well with the material if I don’t write it down by hand. (This holds true of taking notes and making lists as well.)

I went out yesterday and “splurged” on some perfect tools for my outlining process: a simple Mead college-ruled notebook (green cover, of course), a set of five different-colored highlighters, and two fantastic Pilot G-2 pens with gel roller ink. No strain on my hand for prolonged periods of writing and permission to be messy (i.e. no fancy journal cramping my style)? I think yes!

I’m well on my way to seven solid pages of handwritten notes in just one lunch break, one slow afternoon at the help desk, and one early early morning.  I’d say this is a satisfying start.