New thoughts!

So, I'm going to be attempting a new writing exercise inspired by Amie. Her prompt last week to write a letter from your character. Well, since I've got more than my fair share of characters rolling around in my brain, my idea is to write a journal as the character. I had done this a long time ago as part of a role playing game I was playing online at the time. The character had lost her boyfriend and suddenly she was just lost and that wasn't like her. So she went on hiatus from the game and I write a private journal for her. It worked out really when and when she got back to the game, she was more like herself. Yes, there was heart break still, which was obvious since she'd lost her love, but she was the character in my head, not the one who had managed to come out of my fingers. So that's my new idea. We'll see how well it goes. :)

Do You Honestly Expect Me To Believe We Could Ever Be The Same?

So, it's been kind of a crazy week with everything that's been going on. No excuse, but I let most things get away from me. But considering I've become productive again, I'm just gonna take it and run with it.

I spent two hours writing in Barnes and Noble yesterday. Sometimes I do my best writing in places like that, where I have my music on really loud so I can't hear anything but I can see people moving around and doing things, interacting. So I'm not completely detached but I can focus on what I'm doing. Ended up needing a new notebook which is very exciting. I rewarded myself with new pens and post its. I love post its. They're my weakness; ask anyone. My family used to put them in my Christmas stocking. It's a sickness.

Anyways, this new idea is stemming from one that I'd mentioned previously regarding the guy who was in the Army. Well, I have an actual plot idea, which is pretty cool so I'm trying to write as much as I can. He's interesting and I'm still diving into him. For a while, there won't be anything typed up, either. I'm going to do what I did in college when I wrote stories or fanfiction (yes, I was one of those. Still known to dabble when the mood strikes. Don't judge.) where I wrote everything out by hand first and then from paper to computer was a revision. We'll see how well that goes.

I Give It All My Oxygen

Been an interesting day. Went visiting all over the place and met some nice people. Worked on the website some (www.me-night.com) so that was mildly productive. The only thing I didn't like about today was that I didn't really write anything. This makes me sad. Granted, I am writing a blog right, now which is good, but I didn't write anything story wise. So maybe as soon as I post this, I can open Pages and get something actually out there. I need to get focused and start working towards something.

I might try running with the idea I'd been working on the other night, about the guy in the Army. I think he might be a fun character to wrap my head around. Not my usual, but I think I should start simple and work my way up. Not sure what to name him yet, though. I want him to be someone people looked up to because he was brave. Now that he's stuck at a desk, that mentality has changed some. He needs to feel a purpose in what he's doing. Gee, I wonder where he's coming from. Let's see how this pans out.

OH! I almost forgot. I have a Twitter now too. http://twitter.com/me_night Please follow!

Apologies

I have been completely MIA lately and I'm sorry. I let life get away from me yet again and haven't focused on what I needed to be doing to get ahead as a writer. Let's just say this is take two on my trying to get better.

I've had a lot of great character ideas, especially while at work. One of my coworkers mentioned a certain kind of person, one of those action hero types and this person started to evolve in my brain. He had been someone who came from a broken home and did the only this he could do to feel involved: he joined the army. Working hard, he climbed the ranks, thinking he'd finally found a place to belong. But when he got hurt and was slated to a desk job and with that, he had to figure out where his place was when he wasn't on a battlefield.

Then my head keeps going and I start a romance novel in my head and I'm not sure I want to go that route. If I do, it'll be more like a realistic story and I'm not sure this is what I want to do.... Any suggestions?

Also, my website will be under going a MAJOR overhaul and there will be a twitter up soon. I have to be good about this and the more things I have to try to do everyday, the better I'll be. I can't keep letting events and life get in the way of what I want.

They Taped Over Your Mouth

I will never understand why people are the way they are.  There are these habits that seem to be engrained in people's heads and despite their best efforts to try and get rid of them or improve themselves, they can't.  Maybe it has to do with what my co-worker was talking about, working on strengths and trying to develop them.  I know that a character that is completely without weakness is a terrible idea (I know Mary-Sues were always bad in the role-playing game world - ick.) but sometimes it isn't easy to create a character that is believable and not a walking cliché (Thank you Professor Westermann).

But people have these quirks and ticks that make them "normal" by societies standards.  And then there are the ones that are weird or strange, something that seems to be a completely relative term to anyone who is looking at a person.  So, how as a writer, do you approach this?  Does it have to do with how you personally view something or do you go with the social norms?  It's the kind of thing that seems to make my brain hurt.  A lot.  

So Wrap Around Me and Baby, Let's Dance

It seems that I have discovered something. The more emotionally involved I feel in a story, in a character, the more it sticks with me.  (Okay, so that part isn't news to me, but here is the good stuff, I promise.)  But if I'm too invested, if I think too much about the characters, what I want them to do, or if I put too much of myself in them, I never seem to finish what I'm working on.  I was writing the other day to a lyrical prompt I gave myself about a girl who just found out about a friend's engagement.  Since that had happened to me that day (literally an hour or so before), I couldn't finish it.  It wasn't something I wanted to read, let alone write.  This whole thing is trial and error; I suppose that makes each error a learning experience and I should just chalk it up to that.  

Disappointment is an emotion I seem to be feeling a lot lately.  Not just in regards to work, though that's there, but in regards to family, friends, finances.  As good as things are, there are still life's disappointments. Someone didn't come over when they said they would.  Another friend decided to go someplace without you.  A family member forgot your birthday.  Your good friend wasn't sympathetic when you needed he or she to be.  But sometimes you need to store that away for another day.  Sometimes it's just not the time for that story about the girl who's friends all seem to be getting married or having babies.  Maybe now isn't that time for a novel about a young woman holding out for her soulmate.  Maybe now is the time for stories about finding love or starting fresh.  Maybe if you write about what you want to happen, about positive things (not personal things), it'll be easier.  Or maybe it'll be that day to write something that makes you cry, just so you get it out and can move on.

The Darker the Secret, the Harder You Keep It

Just finished a writing prompt given to me by a friend on her blog.  I told myself that I would write for an hour today and I wrote over 1500 words in forty minutes. I think that's a big accomplishment for someone who's got writer's block.  But in writing that little short story, I realized that I might not be ready to jump back into writing a novel.  I think I should work on some more prompts or possible some short stories of my own prompting to get back into the right groove.  It's not easy and I just want to get something out of my system some days.  

Back in January and then a month or so ago, I just wanted, well needed really, to get something out of my system.  So I turned off the tv and turned on my iTunes and wrote it out.  The first time it was this story about this man who loses the woman he loves when she gives birth to their child.  It was tragic, but something I'd never actually experiences.  And yet, as I was writing, I was crying for him, for the child he had but couldn't look at, for the future he'd lost.  It was heart breaking and even reading it now makes me cry. 

The second time, it was a young woman being approached by someone she'd been in a relationship with who wanted her back.  That one I knew personally.  It's hard to just cut someone out of your life, especially when you cared for them so deeply.  And then to see them again, to be reminded of how you felt, how much they had been a part of your life.  It isn't easy.  Being human and caring isn't easy.  We all have secrets, regrets, choices that we are forced to make that no one saw coming.  It's messy and it hurts but it's part of living.  Maybe that's something I have to remind myself of when looking into characters.

I might post the prompt later, depending on how I'm feeling.  And how much my friend enjoys it.

A Fun and Interesting Evening

So tonight I went to church with a friend.  While there, the main message of the night had a lot to do with letting ourselves be healed from the inside out.  I have a feeling that there might be some kind of spirituality for the main character in my book.  After everything that people go through, something has to give them hope, something has to keep them moving forward.  It isn't easy.  Kind of like writing.  Nothing is easy in this world, but it can bring a person joy.

After church, we stopped by a going away party for a friend.  And it was rather epic.  We had a lot of fun, laughed a lot.  It reminded me why I like my job and why people are interesting.  Everyone has little personality quirks and it makes things like going out and playing some games and drinking all the more entertaining.  It felt good to laugh like that. Its the little things that add to the joy.

The real question is then, what makes a character tick?  Do they focus on the positive when they can?  Do they take joy in the little things?  That's the real question that needs to be answered when pushing towards what motivates a character.