Writing Challenge
Day seven.
Day seven has brought out the stubborn procrastinator in me. I did not want to write. The flat is a mess due to furniture moving and getting ready to set up wireless, I have job hunting to do, cleaning to do, cooking to do…
The list goes on. It always does when you don’t want to write, doesn’t it?
Reworking my main character’s scenes has proven a bit more difficult than I thought it would be. But, using Susan’s character development sheet helped me to think more about her as a person.
The trouble all along has been that I know the woman she will be at the end of the novel. However, I need to know who she was before all of that happened. In essence, who is the “girl” who turned into the woman I know she’ll be?
It’s an interesting thing to ponder, given I’ve never had this problem before. Then again, I’ve never had so much of a book written in my head before starting before either.
All in all, the twenty minutes a day has been good for me, and I will continue to work on this project for the next challenges in weeks to come.
How has your week of twenty minutes a day gone? Did you get every day? What was it like for you to make yourself sit down and do this challenge? Will you continue on next week with the new challenge…?
July 2nd, 2007 at 2:50 am
I did not write yesterday. I’m a little disappointed. Fell asleep at 10 last night, which is basically what I did all Saturday. Still haven’t written for Sunday, but I will do it soon. It’s getting late.
For character help, here’s an exercise I read in a book once. I tried it out with my novel. It takes too much brain power for me. Too much thought. But it may work for you. In theory it’s a solid idea.
Character Building Exercise:
1. 20 Desire Essences - Think of 20 things that your character wants - ie. wanting to be smart, wanting to be rich, etc. The article was vague about what these things could be. Also 20 is really hard to do.
2. 20 Fear Essences - 20 things that character is afraid of. Could be thought of as weaknesses. For example they are lazy, afraid of spiders, scared of humiliation
3. Now pair each fear and desire essence. Like Desire: Wants to be spider trainer Fear: afraid of spiders.
4. Now you write back stories that put these fears/desires into action.
5. A few quirks about the character in the present that are affected by 1-4.
Well it goes something like that. Overall I think it requires too much brain power and work.
July 2nd, 2007 at 2:54 am
If you needed sleep, you needed sleep. This challenge is more about getting into the habit of writing every day than cracking the whip on people who don’t quite do it.
Thank you for the exercise. If nothing else, it makes me realize there is a lot I don’t know about her. That’s usually the way I like it, but knowing *absolutely* nothing about her is nothing but an annoyance.
July 2nd, 2007 at 8:24 pm
I wasn’t home long enough today to write. Maybe in the next hour or so; we’ll have to see. A day off here and there is a good thing, especially after a day like yesterday, when I wrote like a nut.
Glad the character sketch stuff helped! I was wondering.
July 2nd, 2007 at 8:27 pm
I’ll email you more about it.
Yes, a day off here and there is definitely a good thing, especially to refuel and such.