Is Your Character Acting Up?

I’ve been stymied on my novel for a while, so I’ve taken the time to work on a short story — which is coming along nicely. Part of the reason I’ve been stymied is that my main villain is evolving into a more likable character and I’m not sure if I like that. Such changes to characters can change your plot line as well, and not always for the better! 

In this crazy time of viruses and anarchy in the streets my husband and I became overwhelmed by all the negativity on the news and the hateful things people were saying and doing to each other and we decided to make a change. We decided to stop watching this crap that just flows negative energy into our home and return to ourselves. While this initially sounds out-of-place, it is the very reason for this post. 

Being a writer and having a couple of projects going, I decided to start my morning reading about writing. I came across this post on Nathan Bransford’s blog. He was writing about runaway characters. Well, of course, I had to read it because one of my characters was acting up. I’m so glad I did! The thoughts in his post helped me work through my character’s antics and how they might affect the plot if I let him go on that way. Big breakthrough for me and for my character! Thank you, Nathan!

I am sharing his post in the hope that it may help you as well. 

https://nathanbransford.com/blog/2020/06/listen-to-your-characters-but-dont-let-them-run-away#comment-222544

Always remember to #BeKind

Aloha,

NC 

Exploring Writing Resources #2

I've been reading a lot of blogs lately because I want to see what others are doing to help propel themselves through tough spots in their projects. I am at a crossroads and I have completed the beginning and the end of my first novel -- not on purpose, that's just how it happened -- and I need a compelling middle.

I came across this site called BookBaby and I identified with it because my husband released his new CD (Cosmic Stowaway) through CD Baby. While searching through the site, I came across their BookBaby Blog. Wow! Talk about a resource! You should check it out, really! No matter where you are in the process, they have amassed tons of articles on any number of topics -- some you didn't even know you wanted to read!

Now, I know many writers keep a journal. I have kept personal journals in the past but I would just abandon them after a few months. While I was searching through their blog, I came across an article about keeping a "short fiction journal."  I have a WIP journal, but I think a fiction journal is a snippets journal, right? Little ideas and scenes that may or may not go into a story or create a plot that can be turned into a novel. Many "TV" writers use slips of paper and sticky notes for these things. The thing is that while the fiction journal can include those things, it can be used for so much more than I ever thought. For example, you can use it to flesh out characters to be used in future stories or creating new plot lines or just writing down scenes, snippets, and dialogue.

Now, I'm sure this is nothing new to many of you writers out there, but it was a great help to me! You have to remember, I'm a technical writer by trade. We work with specs and programming tools and other resources to create technical manuals, help text for software programs, etc. We don't keep journals for future projects because it's, well, unnecessary.

Finding an article that actually explains using a short fiction journal in a bit more detail than most blog posts I've read in the past is simply gold to me. I had to share this on my blog because I've now read a few more of this author's posts and she is very good at providing concrete examples. Her name, if you're interested, is Dawn Field. So, if you go to BookBaby Blog, look her stuff up. You might just mine a little gold for yourself.

Merry Christmas!!