Creating characters are some of the hardest things to do. You have to include little details, little traits that shape them and make them different from all the other characters floating around. It can be hard coming up with these traits, so I have an idea - what if we all generated lists of our own traits?
I'll start with my quirks, and then anyone who wants to do this as well can list theirs in the comments or link to a post. I hope a lot of people participate! Other people's traits - and even your own - can provide inspiration for your characters.
1. I always wear this one watch on my left wrist. It's black and silver, cheap, and digital, and even though it probably clashes with ninety percent of my clothes, I only take it off to shower or sleep. At first I wore it because it was handy to know what time it was, but now I'm not even sure why I wear it so much. There's even a strip of pale skin around my wrist, and I don't tan.
2. I'm awful at hiding my emotions. This is why I suck at poker.
3. Two or three years ago, I started spinning my pencil a lot. For a year, it was just a bunch of jerky movements, but over time, it became smoother and smoother until almost whenever I do it, someone comes over, stares, and then asks, "How do you do that?" It's difficult to describe, but basically I hold the pencil in the middle with my middle finger and thumb so that my middle finger is just a bit closer to the point than my thumb. I place my index finger about an inch closer to the eraser on the same side as my middle finger. Then I move my index finger to the other side of the pencil, and twist the pencil so that it's now being held by my middle finger and index finger. I twist the pencil further, using my thumb for support, and duck my index finger so that the pencil flies over it. The middle finger is used to stabilize it. I spin it really quickly so you can't see what my fingers are doing; they just look like they're ducking and moving a lot.
4. I almost always have a pencil in hand.
5. I think one of the best birthday gifts I've ever gotten were two stuffed dinosaurs that roar when you squeeze them. I got those for my fourteenth birthday from one of my friends.
Your turn! Post your quirks in the comments or link to a blog post with them!
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
When Not to Write
You hear a lot about the importance of writing every day. You know, make a daily word goal, a schedule, stick to it, write write write write, generate those words, that kind of thing. I try to do all this (I keep missing a few days, but there's so much procrastinating to be done!), but recently, I learned there are times when you shouldn't write. So, here is a list of when not to write, each point from personal experience.
1. When you're delirious. I had some unexplained fever a couple days ago and I fell into delirium. Like, "OMG, look at the pretty colors and is that a man-eating rabbit?" I decided to go and write my daily 1500 words, so I pulled up my latest WIP and started typing. I don't actually remember any of this, but I must have written a lot because my word count was about 3000 words higher.
A lot of words, yes, but... umm... I started writing about tomatoes eating shoes and squishing their seeds all over New York City. In the middle of the most important scene. Plus, in my delirium, I mixed up "your" and "you're". I'm ashamed of myself.
2. When there is an elephant sitting on you. It tends to flatten the top of your skull, which squishes your brain. This usually leads to an inability to think well, and you start writing about flies all the time. Like: "He leaped out of his flies are pretty neat chair and threw a flies make funny noises in your ear punch at the big fat fly man."
3. When you're hungry. Your writing becomes like this: "He picked up his fork and speared his steak with it. The succulent juices trickled out, spilling onto the plate. After taking a bite of the delicious, tender meat, he encircled the glass of wine with his fingers and poured the red liquid down his parched throat." Darn, now I'm hungry and thirsty.
Can any of you think of more conditions under which you shouldn't write?
1. When you're delirious. I had some unexplained fever a couple days ago and I fell into delirium. Like, "OMG, look at the pretty colors and is that a man-eating rabbit?" I decided to go and write my daily 1500 words, so I pulled up my latest WIP and started typing. I don't actually remember any of this, but I must have written a lot because my word count was about 3000 words higher.
A lot of words, yes, but... umm... I started writing about tomatoes eating shoes and squishing their seeds all over New York City. In the middle of the most important scene. Plus, in my delirium, I mixed up "your" and "you're". I'm ashamed of myself.
2. When there is an elephant sitting on you. It tends to flatten the top of your skull, which squishes your brain. This usually leads to an inability to think well, and you start writing about flies all the time. Like: "He leaped out of his flies are pretty neat chair and threw a flies make funny noises in your ear punch at the big fat fly man."
3. When you're hungry. Your writing becomes like this: "He picked up his fork and speared his steak with it. The succulent juices trickled out, spilling onto the plate. After taking a bite of the delicious, tender meat, he encircled the glass of wine with his fingers and poured the red liquid down his parched throat." Darn, now I'm hungry and thirsty.
Can any of you think of more conditions under which you shouldn't write?
Would You Rather...
I have a question for you. Yes, you, the person who is reading this blog post and plans on not commenting. And yes, I also know you are there because I have added a brand new view counter to the bottom of this page and I'm using Google Analytics. There are people from wild and foreign places reading this, places like Mars and Antarctica and Canada.
I was playing Would You Rather with a four-year-old (please don't ask why I was trapped with a four-year-old for several long hours because it involves really bad elevators and really good cookies) and while this question didn't come up, it came to me later.
Would you rather
(a) have your books write themselves without any input or effort from you and go on to be more famous than Harry Potter but you will never, ever, ever be able to write another word for fun again (so you can make shopping lists but you can't write things for the sake of writing)
or
(b) be able to write as much as you want (although you still have to work and take care of kids if you have any and sleep and the like) but never, ever, ever be able to have a single word published?
I am sorely tempted to say (a), but no matter how much I complain about how hard writing is and how annoying it is to stick to a schedule, I think I would die if I couldn't write for fun ever again. Like, my lungs would explode and my heart would shrivel up (some would say it already has) and my eyes would spontaneously combust and my skin would turn black and my hair would fall out.
What about you? If you had to make the choice, what would you choose?
I was playing Would You Rather with a four-year-old (please don't ask why I was trapped with a four-year-old for several long hours because it involves really bad elevators and really good cookies) and while this question didn't come up, it came to me later.
Would you rather
(a) have your books write themselves without any input or effort from you and go on to be more famous than Harry Potter but you will never, ever, ever be able to write another word for fun again (so you can make shopping lists but you can't write things for the sake of writing)
or
(b) be able to write as much as you want (although you still have to work and take care of kids if you have any and sleep and the like) but never, ever, ever be able to have a single word published?
I am sorely tempted to say (a), but no matter how much I complain about how hard writing is and how annoying it is to stick to a schedule, I think I would die if I couldn't write for fun ever again. Like, my lungs would explode and my heart would shrivel up (some would say it already has) and my eyes would spontaneously combust and my skin would turn black and my hair would fall out.
What about you? If you had to make the choice, what would you choose?
How to be a Great Writer
Setting Up Your Lifestyle
1. Get a rich husband or wife. Why should you bother with a day job or (snicker) marrying for love? Psh, that is so last season! Instead, go out and find yourself a super-rich spouse. Good places to look include fancy-schmancy restaurants, business man conventions, celebrities' doctors or massage therapists, and Hollywood. Just walk around until you see a man or woman by his or herself, stroll up to him or her, and pour on the charm! It's so easy, Bella Swan could do it! And she did! (Hint: Men are fans of women randomly running up to them and stroking their stubble, and women are fans of men shoving them into dark alleys and whispering in a deep, throaty voice, "I love you.")
2. Convince your rich spouse to buy you a mansion. A good way to start the conversation is as follows:
You (at 3:00 in the morning, tapping Spouse on shoulder): Hi, honey, let's get a mansion.
Spouse: *grunts*
You: Oh, I'm so glad you agree! I'll go over and sign some papers now, okay?
Spouse: *grunts*
Easy as pie, right? I told you! Writing is super-easy when you know what you're doing.
3. Never have kids. Ever. Kids are messy and irritating and expensive. You have to drive them to school and to various activities and clothe them and feed them and listen to their stories, complaints, whines, laughter (ugh! the laughing!), pleads for even more driving-ness, clothes, and food. It's simply not worth it. And seriously, why spend money on raising a kid when you can just buy a nice printer or a pretty new laptop?
4. Set up a schedule, and stick to it. Everyone knows how annoying it is to write first thing in the day. The best thing to do is to procrastinate. Here is a good example of a schedule:
1. Wake up, eat breakfast, and contemplate the mysteries of life as the maids clean the house.
2. Go to the spa.
3. Take a nap.
4. Call up some friends and get together for lunch. Be sure to show off your brand-new limousine!
5. Go to the spa again.
6. Take a really, really long nap.
7. Have your live-in and super-hot massage therapist, your super-hot manicurist, and your super-hot pedicurist work on you.
8. Eat the fantastic dinner the maids made. (See what I did there?)
9. Take a long, luxurious bubble bath.
10. Go to the hot tub, with the massage therapist, manicurist, and pedicurist.
11. Write. But only if you feel like it. Otherwise, go to bed.
The Writing Itself
1. Description. Description is the most important part of writing. You need your readers to be able to visualize everything, and I mean everything. Consider the following passage:
He sat down at the table and took out an unsharpened pencil from his pocket. Sweeping a brown lock of hair out of his eyes, he reached forward and sharpened the pencil.
It's okay, but it doesn't have nearly enough description. Now consider this:
He sat down at the table. His dark blue jeans crinkled a little as he sat, the price tag still swinging close by the dark brown belt. He leaned against the back of the chair, his white t-shirt pressing against it. Millions of bacteria transferred from the furniture to his clothes to his body. He reached his fish-stick fingers into his pocket and removed an unsharpened pencil. The pencil was long and yellow, exquisite in its beauty, and the end was as blunt as a miser's heart. Slowly, he leaned forward and placed the end of the pencil, lovingly, into the mouth of the electric sharpener. His ears rang with the grating hums of the sharpener, and a brown lock of hair fell into his brilliant turquoise eyes. He brushed it away with a quick flick of the back of his hand, the tiny hairs on his knuckles briefly coming into contact with his silky smooth scalp.
So much better, right? I know, I know. I'm a genius.
2. Metaphors and similes. They are so important! I can't possibly stress it enough. Consider:
The sky was blue.
Now consider:
The sky was as blue as a dead-by-hypothermia baby's cold flesh.
Doesn't it add so much?
Over to you! What other tips should be included on How to be a Great Writer?
The sky was
1. Get a rich husband or wife. Why should you bother with a day job or (snicker) marrying for love? Psh, that is so last season! Instead, go out and find yourself a super-rich spouse. Good places to look include fancy-schmancy restaurants, business man conventions, celebrities' doctors or massage therapists, and Hollywood. Just walk around until you see a man or woman by his or herself, stroll up to him or her, and pour on the charm! It's so easy, Bella Swan could do it! And she did! (Hint: Men are fans of women randomly running up to them and stroking their stubble, and women are fans of men shoving them into dark alleys and whispering in a deep, throaty voice, "I love you.")
2. Convince your rich spouse to buy you a mansion. A good way to start the conversation is as follows:
You (at 3:00 in the morning, tapping Spouse on shoulder): Hi, honey, let's get a mansion.
Spouse: *grunts*
You: Oh, I'm so glad you agree! I'll go over and sign some papers now, okay?
Spouse: *grunts*
Easy as pie, right? I told you! Writing is super-easy when you know what you're doing.
3. Never have kids. Ever. Kids are messy and irritating and expensive. You have to drive them to school and to various activities and clothe them and feed them and listen to their stories, complaints, whines, laughter (ugh! the laughing!), pleads for even more driving-ness, clothes, and food. It's simply not worth it. And seriously, why spend money on raising a kid when you can just buy a nice printer or a pretty new laptop?
4. Set up a schedule, and stick to it. Everyone knows how annoying it is to write first thing in the day. The best thing to do is to procrastinate. Here is a good example of a schedule:
1. Wake up, eat breakfast, and contemplate the mysteries of life as the maids clean the house.
2. Go to the spa.
3. Take a nap.
4. Call up some friends and get together for lunch. Be sure to show off your brand-new limousine!
5. Go to the spa again.
6. Take a really, really long nap.
7. Have your live-in and super-hot massage therapist, your super-hot manicurist, and your super-hot pedicurist work on you.
8. Eat the fantastic dinner the maids made. (See what I did there?)
9. Take a long, luxurious bubble bath.
10. Go to the hot tub, with the massage therapist, manicurist, and pedicurist.
11. Write. But only if you feel like it. Otherwise, go to bed.
The Writing Itself
1. Description. Description is the most important part of writing. You need your readers to be able to visualize everything, and I mean everything. Consider the following passage:
He sat down at the table and took out an unsharpened pencil from his pocket. Sweeping a brown lock of hair out of his eyes, he reached forward and sharpened the pencil.
It's okay, but it doesn't have nearly enough description. Now consider this:
He sat down at the table. His dark blue jeans crinkled a little as he sat, the price tag still swinging close by the dark brown belt. He leaned against the back of the chair, his white t-shirt pressing against it. Millions of bacteria transferred from the furniture to his clothes to his body. He reached his fish-stick fingers into his pocket and removed an unsharpened pencil. The pencil was long and yellow, exquisite in its beauty, and the end was as blunt as a miser's heart. Slowly, he leaned forward and placed the end of the pencil, lovingly, into the mouth of the electric sharpener. His ears rang with the grating hums of the sharpener, and a brown lock of hair fell into his brilliant turquoise eyes. He brushed it away with a quick flick of the back of his hand, the tiny hairs on his knuckles briefly coming into contact with his silky smooth scalp.
So much better, right? I know, I know. I'm a genius.
2. Metaphors and similes. They are so important! I can't possibly stress it enough. Consider:
The sky was blue.
Now consider:
The sky was as blue as a dead-by-hypothermia baby's cold flesh.
Doesn't it add so much?
Over to you! What other tips should be included on How to be a Great Writer?
The sky was
Being Observant
Every day, I have to walk my dog because for some reason when I was nine, I told my parents that if we got a dog, I would walk it every single day without any complaints. So we got a dog. And I walk it every single day (well, mostly, anyway). As for no complaining... well, I mean, that's not really important.
My method of dealing with things that bore me to tears is to space out. And I mean, really space out. I have basically no memory of French class. I can recall walking in, putting my books down, and then walking out when the bell rings. This was not news to my French teacher, who liked to call on me. Someone sitting next to me would proceed to stab me in the forearm with a pen until I wake up, at which point I would say in an embarrassingly loud and startled tone, "What?"
My teacher would give a derisive snort and then threaten me with detention. (For the record: he only ever gave me detention once in three years. I'm actually not sure what I got it for, considering that was one of the days where I'd paid attention and I did my homework and everything. But he's not the kind of guy you argue with.)
As walking a dog in searing hot weather is among the things that bores me, I usually withdraw inside myself and idly think about random things. This gets to the point where I sometimes stumble off the sidewalk and begin walking in the middle of a busy road without quite realizing it. My dog has saved my life more than once by darting after a squirrel on someone's lawn.
However, I recently read a post about how it's important to be observant as a writer. I decided to actually pay attention to stuff that happens around me as I walked my dog, because right now in my WIP, my character is an icky spot and I wasn't sure how to save him.
These are the things I observed:
- A butterfly and a moth were floating near a flower, and suddenly the butterfly flung itself at the moth, knocking it to the ground. The poor moth twitched on the grass while the butterfly smashed its wings against it again and again until it was dead. Reminded me of school.
- The exact way a terrifyingly large mosquito sucks blood from your suddenly-skinnier-and-paler arm, and how it feels to be such an insect-phobe that you can't even slap it away, but you don't want that horrible beast on your flesh. Also, it hurts.
- A little girl bashing a little boy's head in with a red plastic shovel while her mother coos, "Aww, how cute!"
- My dog sniffing feces.
- My dog sniffing more feces.
- My dog eating f- oh wait, okay, that's just not right.
And then, a squirrel raced past me, an orange clamped in its mouth. And inspiration struck. I suddenly knew exactly how to save my MC, and it had nothing to do with squirrels, oranges, or racing past teenage girls. I'm still not actually sure if the idea would have come to me whether I observed or not, but I guess it didn't hurt.
What about you? Do you make yourself pay extra attention to things going on around you, and does it actually help your writing?
My method of dealing with things that bore me to tears is to space out. And I mean, really space out. I have basically no memory of French class. I can recall walking in, putting my books down, and then walking out when the bell rings. This was not news to my French teacher, who liked to call on me. Someone sitting next to me would proceed to stab me in the forearm with a pen until I wake up, at which point I would say in an embarrassingly loud and startled tone, "What?"
My teacher would give a derisive snort and then threaten me with detention. (For the record: he only ever gave me detention once in three years. I'm actually not sure what I got it for, considering that was one of the days where I'd paid attention and I did my homework and everything. But he's not the kind of guy you argue with.)
As walking a dog in searing hot weather is among the things that bores me, I usually withdraw inside myself and idly think about random things. This gets to the point where I sometimes stumble off the sidewalk and begin walking in the middle of a busy road without quite realizing it. My dog has saved my life more than once by darting after a squirrel on someone's lawn.
However, I recently read a post about how it's important to be observant as a writer. I decided to actually pay attention to stuff that happens around me as I walked my dog, because right now in my WIP, my character is an icky spot and I wasn't sure how to save him.
These are the things I observed:
- A butterfly and a moth were floating near a flower, and suddenly the butterfly flung itself at the moth, knocking it to the ground. The poor moth twitched on the grass while the butterfly smashed its wings against it again and again until it was dead. Reminded me of school.
- The exact way a terrifyingly large mosquito sucks blood from your suddenly-skinnier-and-paler arm, and how it feels to be such an insect-phobe that you can't even slap it away, but you don't want that horrible beast on your flesh. Also, it hurts.
- A little girl bashing a little boy's head in with a red plastic shovel while her mother coos, "Aww, how cute!"
- My dog sniffing feces.
- My dog sniffing more feces.
- My dog eating f- oh wait, okay, that's just not right.
And then, a squirrel raced past me, an orange clamped in its mouth. And inspiration struck. I suddenly knew exactly how to save my MC, and it had nothing to do with squirrels, oranges, or racing past teenage girls. I'm still not actually sure if the idea would have come to me whether I observed or not, but I guess it didn't hurt.
What about you? Do you make yourself pay extra attention to things going on around you, and does it actually help your writing?
Getting Reviewed
To Outline or Not To Outline
Seven months ago, when I decided to write "Winter Child" and I had the whole idea and everything, I had to make a decision - outline or no outline. At the time, I was really anxious to start writing because I was very excited about launching into Jayme's universe, and an outline sounded like a horribly boring thing to do. It was like going into a cold pool, one toe at a time. On the other hand, plunging in was like leaping into the water, and people like me panic and start floundering around and forget that the water is actually maybe four feet deep.
I decided on middle ground. I plotted out a few major scenes, decided where I was going to start, and began to write. Seven months later, I had a 74,000 word manuscript (okay, okay, I'm a slow and lazy and procrastinating writer! [begin lame excuse] I had school! [end lame excuse]) that I was pretty proud of. I stuck it in a drawer, because I'd heard advice about waiting a month, no, three months, no, six years, no, a WHOLE LIFE TIME before revising. But, okay, I got impatient, so I took it out a week later and started marking it up.
Scary. The first ten chapters were all right. The writing had to be tightened up here and there, some things had to be adjusted, some scenes taken out, some taken in, the usual. Probably the biggest change I wanted to make was adjusting Russell's character. He wasn't as edgy as I wanted him to be - too dark and brooding in some places and too light and funny in others.
Then I went on to the last four chapters, and they didn't make sense. They were pretty much the worst in the whole manuscript, there were some major plot holes going on, and basically, they sucked. I did a lot of X-ing out, and decided on a new way to take the story. It would make the story longer (which was okay, because I write rather superfluously so I have to do a lot of cutting anyway), and it was a totally new direction. There was no salvaging the last four chapters. This is going to have to be beyond a rewrite.
And I remember writing those last four. I was stuck in the story, not sure where to go with it, and so I decided to write them (when I was plotting the major scenes, I was great at coming up with those in the beginning and middle, but I sort of neglected the end) haphazardly. Now I have to pay the price with these horribly painful revisions, and I can't help but think that revisions would be a lot easier if only I did some outlining.
I used to dislike outlining because they're so confining. A big part of my writing is when I'll be typing and suddenly things I never thought of started happening and they worked. In "Winter Child", there are some places I'm really proud of that are the result of this.
But I've realized that outlines aren't set in stone. They're usually written on paper, which is fun to burn, or typed on the computer, which is fun to defenestrate. My point is, you don't have to exactly follow outlines. They can be changed and it's possible to make an outline that still allots a decent amount of freedom.
I started casually thinking about the next book I'm writing (it has zombies in it, therefore it shall be awesome), and I think I'm going to outline it.
What do you think? Outlining or no outlining?
I decided on middle ground. I plotted out a few major scenes, decided where I was going to start, and began to write. Seven months later, I had a 74,000 word manuscript (okay, okay, I'm a slow and lazy and procrastinating writer! [begin lame excuse] I had school! [end lame excuse]) that I was pretty proud of. I stuck it in a drawer, because I'd heard advice about waiting a month, no, three months, no, six years, no, a WHOLE LIFE TIME before revising. But, okay, I got impatient, so I took it out a week later and started marking it up.
Scary. The first ten chapters were all right. The writing had to be tightened up here and there, some things had to be adjusted, some scenes taken out, some taken in, the usual. Probably the biggest change I wanted to make was adjusting Russell's character. He wasn't as edgy as I wanted him to be - too dark and brooding in some places and too light and funny in others.
Then I went on to the last four chapters, and they didn't make sense. They were pretty much the worst in the whole manuscript, there were some major plot holes going on, and basically, they sucked. I did a lot of X-ing out, and decided on a new way to take the story. It would make the story longer (which was okay, because I write rather superfluously so I have to do a lot of cutting anyway), and it was a totally new direction. There was no salvaging the last four chapters. This is going to have to be beyond a rewrite.
And I remember writing those last four. I was stuck in the story, not sure where to go with it, and so I decided to write them (when I was plotting the major scenes, I was great at coming up with those in the beginning and middle, but I sort of neglected the end) haphazardly. Now I have to pay the price with these horribly painful revisions, and I can't help but think that revisions would be a lot easier if only I did some outlining.
I used to dislike outlining because they're so confining. A big part of my writing is when I'll be typing and suddenly things I never thought of started happening and they worked. In "Winter Child", there are some places I'm really proud of that are the result of this.
But I've realized that outlines aren't set in stone. They're usually written on paper, which is fun to burn, or typed on the computer, which is fun to defenestrate. My point is, you don't have to exactly follow outlines. They can be changed and it's possible to make an outline that still allots a decent amount of freedom.
I started casually thinking about the next book I'm writing (it has zombies in it, therefore it shall be awesome), and I think I'm going to outline it.
What do you think? Outlining or no outlining?
