Author, Blog, Books, Character Developement, Creative Writing, Writing, Writing Advice

Character Development

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My class “ Character Development” started Monday night. The class was amazing and I have six more to go. Learning how to make our characters strong, believable, lovable, loathed, and focused is something we all should strive for as writers. For as an avid reader, I want to fall in love with my character or hate them so badly I want to see how the book ends. Most times I follow through with the liking of a character. There are some books by the time it ends I wish the one I fell for would just go away as my alliances has shifted to the villain who is suddenly amazing.

If we just stick to the physical aspect of what our characters look like ,while we may describe them so well our readers can image them in their minds, you can only go so far with looks. Well that is what they say right? So invest in your characters, go to the root of what makes them who they are, what they are and why I should as a reader get so invested in this one person. For if you don’t chances are the book will not be read

So the instructor asked how strong were our characters in our book? Do they make the reader get invested in them relatively soon or does it drag on? The format my professor suggested was very simple and something I am sure most of you are all aware of.

Who? Where? What? How? When? Why?

Simple enough but then break it down even further. Who did what where and how did they do it and why? Or you can say how did it happen to this other character that is in the book? The possibilities are endless depending how big your cast is in the book.

So in my mind I mentally went through the two books I am trying to get published and did the math so to speak to see if the characters in those books matched up to the rigor of those six questions.

Fortunately they did, and I did not even know I was doing it correctly. I was happily surprised. For in those two books the main characters I broke down to the core. Not just the physical aspects of what they looked liked. But I talked about their character: weakness, likes, fears, hopes,goals,strengths and so on. I started each character from birth and worked my way up. By doing that you give your person the best chance of working whether it is to be loved or hated. Without that, for me as a reader, the book no matter how well written, will be either read and honestly reviewed or just not read at all.

Each class I will share what I have learned, in hopes I can pass on some insight to others so we can all somehow improve our craft.

Blog, Laid back, Life, purse, Rants

Purses

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As a female I have a few purses. Granted not the gazillions most girls have. I have under five at last check. One of my favorite ones is a big light green purse that only has one pocket on the side to put small items , otherwise it is a free for all. Just dump what you want to put in and go on your merry way. The other one is a smaller bag that is nice enough to use for functions, church and to look at least presentable.

With a bigger bag there is always the issue of trying to find one item in a big bag for there is no order to a bag with no pockets. Yet here is my dilemma. My smaller purse that has two small pockets on the inside and two on the outside gives me major grief. For me to find anything in it, I have to literally dump everything out to find a chap stick, nail clippers and so on. While my bigger pale green hippie looking bag I can find anything within mere seconds of looking for it.

What gives? Logically to me anyway it seems if it is smaller and has pockets I should have no issue but yet every single time I try to find something I mutter to myself. It always ends up with me promising myself that I will go back to my big free for all purse and yet I don’t. My family is so use to me fuss about this topic they have learned to ignore when it happens and just walk away. I live with smart men I suspect.

As a trained scientist I have yet to figure out what the problem but now at this point the matter is becoming mute. It is just another mystery of life. For trying to be presentable I will go with the smaller bag and for the days that is does not matter or I don’t care I will go the hippie route.

Blog, Childhood, Coloring, Family, Hair, Laid back, Life, Ramblings

I’m gonna wash that gray right outta my hair….

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I’m gonna wash that gray right outta of my hair. Yeah my age is starting to catch up with me. Thankfully with conveniences we now have, some of life’s little annoyance can now be rectified. I was born a blond hair child with bright blue eyes, in fact that color stayed with me until I was 19. Then my sister cut my hair really short and soon afterwards my hair changed to the color it is now, brown.

My attitude and personality at times do reflect the status that blonds have gotten over the years and I take it in stride and just say I am being blond which is not far from the truth some days.

With the wide availability of colors out there on the market it is hard some days to choose what color I will use to make a radical change. Yet I always seem to stick to old faithful, red. By the time I am done with the red coloring and it has had a chance to blend with my brown, I get a lovely auburn head of hair for at least 6 weeks. I will go red roughly three times a year to get a change of pace. I like the difference in how it looks and the strut I suddenly get after the coloring is complete.

My husband does not always notice but I am getting use to that. The compliments I get from other people I know and total strangers just makes me smile on the inside and yeah on the outside as well.

It is such inexpensive and easy way to make a small change in one’s life. Face it, life comes at you hard and aging is not always easy to deal with. It is a way to bounce back on the days we need that as women. Granted soon enough the color will fade and slowly be brushed or washed out. But in that small amount of time, every time I look in the mirror and see the change it gives me a boost. I think that is pretty cool all for the price of $3.49. To me that is a damn good bargain.

The Musings of A New Englander