Day Thirty Six: Observing

If you're writing about a character, if he's a powerful character, unless you give him vulnerability I don't think he'll be as interesting to the reader--Stan Lee

Writers aren't people exactly. Or, if they're any good, they're a whole lot of people trying so hard to be one person. It's like actors, who try so pathetically not to look in mirrors. Who lean backward trying—only to see their faces in the reflecting chandeliers--F Scott Fitzgerald

Before I write down one word, I have to have the character in my mind through and through. I must penetrate into the last wrinkle of his soul.--Henrick Ibsen

In his book, Writer's Idea book, Jack Heffron reminds us that if we know too much about a character, we may grow bored very quickly. The character will offer no surprises and the piece will lack tension.  
"Compare this situation to having a guest in your home who is unpredictable, volatile. At any moment, the most innocuous topic or comment could set off an emotional outburst. Even an offer of cheese dip becomes fraught with tension. Your character, of course, needn't be so volatile, but he should offer your piece a level of tension. The reader isn't sure what to expect."
Then he goes on to talk about how the first step in evoking people on the page is to be observant and that a good writer, while he/she may have an unbalanced check book, a roof about to cave in and no idea of current events, is always a good observer. 
"You must be sharp, noticing subtle shifts in mood, intuiting thoughts that people attempt to conceal."


Prompt: List at least half a dozen people you know who interest you enough to write about them. Describe why you find them interesting. If you want, recreate them as fictional characters making up new names and changing some aspects of their personalities, but leaving the real people pretty much as they are. 

Later

Keeping this one private in the interest of free self-expression (and keeping friendships)! What I liked about this exercise was how much potential each person would have as a fictionalized character. It was much easier for me to find dimension in someone I know than to create it in a character.

Day Thirty Five: More On Characters

Writers seldom choose as friends those self-contained characters who are never in trouble, never unhappy or ill, never make mistakes and always count their change when it's handed to them. --Catherine Drinker Bowen

If I were invited to a dinner party with my characters, I wouldn't show up--Dr. Seuss

I am large, I contain multitudes-- Walt Whitman

One of the challenges I'm having in creating characters, especially female characters, is that they bear a suspicious and striking resemblance to me :o) Those that don't are not as dimensional or credible.
The following exercise (taken from the book The Writer's Idea Book  by Jack Heffron) is one way to explore and hopefully bust through this one.   

Create two or three characters from facets of your personality. Put them in a car, driving to the coast (whichever coast is farthest from where you live). Who takes the wheel? Who navigates? Give them a topic of conversation such as the best route to take or what they should do when they arrive. 

Later 

This was my first attempt to let the characters write the story. I didn't do an extensive biography, but a simple three word description of each character based on some of my traits.
Ex:
Jess: Controlling, know-it-all, Politically correct
Natalie: Vain, politically incorrect, abrasive
Kate: Spacy dreamer,  peacekeeper, artistic

Even at this level it was easy to imagine what each character would say and helped me see how really knowing your characters would be critical in staying with them through an entire novel.

Exercise Thirty-five 

by Laurie Guerin

“Jesus! Is natural light our worst enemy, or what?” Natalie has the rear-view mirror twisted so she can examine her face while Jess is outside the car pumping gas. “Oh my God! My eyebrows have five O’clock shadow.” She turns to Kate who’s stretched out on the backseat, her nose in a book. “Please tell me you have tweezers in your purse.”

Kate doesn’t look up. “Oh, Natty. You look fine.”

“Fine? I look fine? I don’t want to look fine, Kate. I want to look amazing. I want people to see me and say ‘Oh. My.God! You look the same!’”

“They’re gonna say that, Natty. That is the most said thing at any high school reunion.”

“Yes, but I want them to mean it when they say it to me.”

“Who? Mean what about what?” Jess gets back into the car and starts the engine. “What are you talking about? And please stop messing with my rearview mirror. Being aware of what’s behind you is a critical aspect of driving. It’s a requirement when changing lanes, for example.  Now, what about what?”

“Eyebrows.  Do you have any tweezers in this deathtrap?”

“Volvos  happen to be one of the safest cars on the road, but even being in a Volvo won’t protect morons from poking their own eye out while tweezing in a moving vehicle. Even if…”

            “Speaking of morons, I wonder if Tina Wayne will be there. Do you remember that bitch? How she used to torture that poor retarded kid? God, what was his…”

            “’Challenged’,” Jess interrupts. “Or ‘Special Needs’.  Don’t say ‘Retarded.’”

            “Whatever. That girl was pure evil. The boy--he wore those black-rimmed glasses that magnified his eyes. Fly! That was his name! Remem…”

            “Highly unlikely the boy’s given name was Fly,” Jess tweaks her rearview mirror one last time before merging onto the highway.

            Kate looks up from her book. “His name was Keith Stanly and he wasn’t challenged, or maybe he had challenges but he was brilliant. We had English together. He used to write these elaborate science fiction stories.”

            “Are you sure about that? That it was the same kid? This one certainly looked off. And the way he let that Tina treat him. He was like a little retarded puppy, trailing her home after school. She’d make him carry her books and say ‘Go ahead!’ to her friends who would pile their books on top until he was loaded down. And they’d laugh and start walking real fast. God, that whole group of girls; Tina, Nancy, Julie Williams.  ‘The Blondes.’ Such bitches.  And they always got the cute guys.”

            “Who were the cute guys?” Jess cuts her eyes sideways at Natalie. “Seriously. Twenty years is a long time.”

            “Football players, Duh! Like Mike Rogers, Kenny Steele, George Hernandez…”

            “Those were your cute guys, Natalie. I always fell for the drama club guys. The ones who got the leads. Steven Milford, remember him?” Kate closes her eyes. “Dark hair and those sea green eyes and…”

            “…And gay as toast.” Natalie says.

            Jess bursts out laughing. “Gay as toast? Where’d that come from?”

            “I don’t know. It’s an expression the kids use now.”

            “What does it even mean? As if toast had a sexual proclivity. Ha!” She puts the blinker on and merges left.

            “It’s true, he was gay. So was Richard Nichols. I always fell for the gay ones.” Kate sighs.

            “That’s before we knew they walked amongst us,” Jess laughs. “Seriously, we were taught to believe it was this rare anomaly that didn’t afflict anyone we knew. Certainly not the romantic lead in Brigadoon or the quarterback.”

            “The quarterback?” Natalie’s eyes widen. “I know for a fact that Kenny Steele was not gay!”

            “Hypothetically, Nat, as an example of the fact that it’s part of the human condition.”

            “Poor kids. Can you imagine?” Kate looks out the window. “They must have had their own secret underground club. At least I hope they did.”

            “They did!” Natalie says, laughing. “It was called ‘Theater Club’!”

  

Day Thirty Four: Creating Characters

.

When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends--Japanese proverb

Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it, the tree is the real thing--Abraham Lincoln

Many a man's reputation would not know his character if they met on the street--Elbert Hubbard

Today's exercise:
For this exercise you may use a character you've already written, or create a character from scratch. Imagine the character is sitting in a chair in front of you. If you don't have a clear vision/picture of your character, imagine that he/she is partially obscured or out of focus. Conduct an informal interview using the following questions or improvising with some of your own.

• What is the name of the character?
• How old is the character?
• What does the character look like?
• Is the character married or dating anyone?
• Does the character have any siblings or children?
• What is the character's family like?
• Where does the character live?
• Does the character live in a home or apartment?
• Who does the character live with?
• What type of education does the character have?
• What are the character's hobbies?
• What does the character do for a living?
• What does the character do when not working?
• Who is the character's best friend?
• Who is the characters enemy?
• Does the character have any secrets?
• What are the character's strengths and weaknesses?
• How does your character deal with conflict and change?
• What kind of childhood did your character have?

Now, allow your character to talk at length (at least one paragraph) about whatever question they would like to expand upon.
For an extremely detailed list of questions go here

Day Thirty Three: NaNoWriMo

There is not one big cosmic meaning for all, there is only the meaning we each give to our life, an individual meaning, an individual plot, like an individual novel, a book for each person.--Anais Nin

Writing a story or a novel is one way of discovering sequence in experience, of stumbling upon cause and effect in the happenings of a writer's own life--Eudora Welty

There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are--W. Somerset Maugham

 



 A friend of mine mentioned NaNoWriMo a month ago and tonight I talked to a couple of new writer friends who are doing it. I decided to do it too. 
What is it?
Here is the entire description found on the What is NaNoWriMo? Link
National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing on November 1. The goal is to write a 50,000 word, (approximately 175 page) novel by 11:59:59, November 30.
Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.
Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. This approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.
Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.
As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and—when the thing is done—the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.
In 2010, we had over 200,000 participants. More than 30,000 of them crossed the 50K finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.
So, to recap:
What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month's time.
Who: You! We can't do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let's write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.
Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era's most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.
When: You can sign up anytime to add your name to the roster and browse the forums. Writing begins 12:00:01 November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at 11:59:59. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.
 Here is a fabulous Pep Talk link if you want to explore the idea further.

Exercise: If  you are planning to join NaNoWriMo, this exercise will help you in creating characters to use in your novel. There is a theory I'm planning to try on the start date and that is this: If you have a clear picture of each character, set them free on the page and let them show you what they'd do. In other words, let them write the story.
If you are not planning to join NaNoWriMo, this exercise will help you either discover a completely new character, or discover something new about a character you've already created.
Since I found the exercise purely by chance on the NaNoWriMo website (Seriously! I googled 'character creation exercise and it popped up!) I'll just post the link here:
Character Creation Exercise

Are you excited at all? I am! I'll post my sketch tomorrow!

Later

The music suggested did not really work for me other than the classical piece by Ludovico Einaudi - A Fuoco. Dreamy and haunting. For me, rather than an immediate sense of a character, the music evoked  an image of a woman on a boat, looking out to sea. There was a sense of longing.
To get clarity I asked myself questions about the woman.
What is she longing for?
Who is she with?
Where is she going?
What is her passion?
What are her flaws?
What makes her laugh?
What does she look like?
etc.

It was a really cool exercise. I plan to experiment more with different types of music. What kind of character will rise up from Jazz, or something blusey or heavy metal?

Her parents named her Chloe, because her mom thought it was the classiest name around. Way classier than Jennifer, or Linda or Jackie. Being classy was important to her mother.Still is.
"It's what sets people apart," she's always said. Which to her is a good thing.
Her mother is what set Chloe apart from other kids. The kids in Mountain View, California her mother deemed sophisticated enough to play with her daughter, steered clear.  She has one friend, Charlie, who's unbearably awkward and spends his time creating detailed drawings of fantastical animals. As a result of being alone most of her young life, Cassy is a dreamer. Her interior life is rich and full of texture. She dreams of escaping and exotic men with foreign accents. When she finds one who takes her away, she dreams of Charlie. She's always dreaming of something other.
Chloe has skin that burns easily, auburn hair and green eyes. None of her features are especially remarkable or beautiful, but they come together in a pleasant way.
She has yet to find her voice. In fact, she has yet to find a strong opinion. She's never completely sure about anything, least of all about what she believes.

Later Still

Thus far I find this character a little blase, but that's OK. I'm going to give her time to come into focus and she may or may not make the final cut. In the meantime there are more characters to create.











 

Day Thirty Two: Petite Paragraphs

 A word is not the same with one writer as with another.  One tears it from his guts.  The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket.  ~Charles Peguy

And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise.  The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.  ~Sylvia Plath

Today's exercise comes from the wonderful and fun Write Brain Workbook by Bonnie Neubauer.

"Here's a chance to write short paragraphs of memory snippets. Use the starters provided."

I remember running....

I remember spitting....

I remember growing...

I remember Valentine's Day...

I remember liking...

I remember feeling...

Take the next step: Take one phrase from each of these six paragraphs and combine them to form a poem.

Later

I'm keeping the paragraphs private, but the idea of the poem is interesting. Mine doesn't really work, but was fun anyway and I can see a potential poem here.

Exercise #32

by Laurie Guerin

I could tell you that I was tired of always trying to do what’s right

who would have guessed it?

little tissue-paper buds formed in random places

I was sure mine would be empty

coated in raspberry jam and rolled in coconut

I gave what was mine to give

took what I had no right to take

Day Thirty one: Ghosts

We all have ghosts, remorse, dreams, things we love and hate. One day something in life- a word, a phrase, something in a book, a beautiful woman- clicks and part of that world takes on a special meaning. And you realize you have a story to tell. --Arturo Perez Reverte

The past but lives in written words: a thousand ages were blank if books had not evoked their ghosts and kept the pale unbodied shades to warn us from fleshless lips--Francois Fenelon

 

 Today's exercise is taken from THE 3 A.M. EPIPHANY: Uncommon writing exercises that transform your fiction by Brian Kiteley

Write a story about a ghost who is bored by the immensities of time and timelessness. Or write a story about a ghost who is embarrassed by the intimacies she is able to achieve with perfect strangers over and over again (without actually being intimate with them). Start your fragment of fiction with a phrase something like, "After I was dead..." Try to be matter-of-fact about your ghost or ghosts. Certainly a living person encountering this ghost will have a scare but make this ghost the central sympathetic figure of the narrative you unfold, not the mechanism for exciting our interest in the living characters. This should be a straightforward piece of narration. Something that takes for granted the idea of ghosts.

Later:

Ghost Exercise #31

By Laurie Guerin

After I was dead, life got interesting for a time.  All of that worry and existential fear; POOF!  I mean the ‘worst’ has happened, right? And it turns out the ‘worst’ is actually not the worst, but the next. Just the next.

Which pissed me off at first.

I mean, planet-bound life is such a set up. I remember thinking even when I had the body that humans were so brave. That to get up in the morning was an act of immense courage. Seriously. When you know that at any time anything can happen to you or the people you love? Not just the obvious, like a car crash, or cancer, or a drug overdose, but the sneaky little freak accidents—like in Vacaville, California when a cow gets struck by a car, launched into the air and lands on some poor guy; Or the little girl in Ohio who’s killed by a random hockey puck, or the guy in South Carolina who’s jogging on the beach when a small plane crash lands into the back of his head. Sometimes I saw life as a mad dash across a billion-lane highway, dodging cars, planes and airborne livestock.  And while we were making that mad dash we were supposed to hold down jobs and remember birthdays and fall in love and sign tax forms.

How were we supposed to pay attention to the little things?

Like the shadows that fell oh-so-briefly across our children’s faces when we told them that for sure tomorrow we were gonna play that game, or see that movie, or read that story together.

Shadows fall everywhere, after all.

When you die, you blink. It’s a long, slow blink, like a cat’s. You close your eyes and when your vision comes on again, the entire landscape has changed. Not just physical, which of course had changed completely- but emotional.

You’re terrified. You blink. You’re not.

Day Thirty- Playground

The world is a playground and life is pushing my swing--Natalie Cocisis

Acting is playing - it's actually going out on a playground with the other kids and being in the game, and I need that. Writing satisfies that part of myself that longs to sit in my room and dream.--Billy Bob Thornton

I must apologise because I know all writers have memories of being on the outer because it's the children on the side of the playground who become the dangerous writers.--Thomas Keneally

Today's prompt is simple: Write a poem about a playground
This comes from an email I received calling for playground poets from a friend of a photographer who is creating a coffee table book on playground equipment. There is no compensation, but the photographer is interested in including poetry with her pictures. Let me know if you would like for me to forward the results of this exercise. My email address: laurieg41@hotmail.com

Later

Exercise #30 

By Laurie Guerin

Remember tanbark

How the soles of your feet

were splintered and stained brown after

pushing other kids on the merry-go-round

faster and faster

stopping when the littlest begged

or flew off

and then starting again

for the few, the brave that remained

 eyes squinting, hair flying, skin tightening

 you ran until your feet were a blur

kicking up oak bits, you held fast to the rail

until the very last minute when you flung yourself

onto the metal platform

Remember the smell of oak and hot steel

everything swirling in and out of focus

the swing set, your mother in her sunhat

the see-saw, the twisty slide

the red ribbon in your sister’s hair

like looking though

a warped View-Master

time slowed until it stopped completely

and you all got off

drunken sailors

making your way home