Creating Characters

When I took intro to fiction writing, my teacher us that writing was like playing God. I didn't know until recently that she stole that quote from a tv show. I had never really given that quote much thought, but it is true. When you write you build the world and the characters. You give them actions, personality, motives. You're the reason they succeed or fail. For me the hardest part about creating a character is forming their personality. Their motives and actions are always clearer to me than their personality. I have to think about the way they talk, dress, and act. I have to think about their reactions to things and why they feel that way. It's like looking at a real person and trying to figure out everything about them. The character has to have interests, even doing something like making them wear a band t-shirt develops them a little more. They usually wouldn't wear a band t-shirt unless they liked said band, or if there is another reason they would usually explain that in dialog. Example: I'm wearing my friend's shirt, I spilled something on mine. If they have no interests outside of the story they are not interesting, and no one will want to read about them. Although building characters is the hardest thing about writing, I also enjoy it the most. I like getting to know my characters. I usually keep a notebook and make notes for each character and just refer to it when I need to.

Learning English

Since I'm in a class devoted to learning Spanish, I've been thinking about how it was to learn English. It's almost the polar opposite of the way I've been learning Spanish. I remember having a list of vocabulary words that we were required to learn. We had to learn to spell, often by writing the words repeatedly. Grammar was an entirely different story. We had a whole class devoted to it until about forth grade, then the two merged. I used to love my grammar class, where I got to write poems about Freddy Kruger and ghost stories that were similar to what R.L. Stine was writing at the time. Spanish is completely different. There are no spelling words, no grammar, you are expected to learn how to hold a conversation quickly. How can I learn Spanish so quickly when it took me so long to "master" English?

I'm a blank canvas

In the original draft of Hair Of The Wolf (my werewolf novel), there was more romance than there is now. Sure, there's a little flirting, but no real romance. There's a love interest, but again no romance. It's an urban fantasy, so it doesn't need romance, but I do want Anyssa to end up happy. She's been through so much that she deserves it. Why did I cut out the romance? The first answer to that is that Hair Of The Wolf is going to be part of a trilogy, and I didn't want to rush the romance. I hate reading a book where the romance seems rushed, or watching a movie where the two leads have known each other for three days. It takes time to build a relationship, even a friendship takes time to develop.  Another reason is that I have never been in love. I've been in relationships before, but never any where I thought I was in love. I've had strong feelings towards someone before, but I knew it wasn't love. Part of me isn't sure how to write about love if I've never been in love. Do I write about what I think love feels like? I am pretty much a blank canvas when it comes to life experiences. I've had some, as you can tell by reading this blog, but not as many as I would have liked. I need to have more. I need to be more carefree and experience more things. I need to think about what it means to be in love, and what it means for Anyssa to fall in love. I'm going to write about her falling in love, in fact I already have the whole second book outlined. I just need to get out more and do more things. I've heard of authors going on road trips, or doing extreme things to find themselves and experience more. Maybe that's what I need to do. I need to force myself out of my comfort zone. 

Weekend Review: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

I'm trying to read more books that are outside of my comfort zone. I usually don't read romance, and that's what this is labeled as. Although, it does have some romance, that's not what I would label this. I'm not sure what I would label this. It's really a character driven novel. I've never really read a book that was character driven before. The main character is Cath, a social outcast with a popular twin sister. She has trouble making friends, and would prefer to lock herself in her dorm room than go out. I could relate to her in a lot of ways. People don't always treat her the best, and she's even drifting apart from her sister. She finds a guy she likes and he kisses another girl! Every lady has gone through similar things to what Cath went through in this novel. Cath is also obessed with Simon Snow, who is basically Harry Potter. There are inserts throughout the book of Cath's fan fictions and the from the "Simon Snow novels". I skipped over those, since I was more interested in Cath's story. This is a great book, I suggest it to anyone just starting college, or just going to a new college.






Four Out Of Five Stars

Buy The Book

Casual Friday: Out Of Ideas

I had an idea for a blog and I forgot it. It was a good idea, but I thought of it when I was at school and I forgot it by the time I'd gotten home. Since I forgot my idea, I'm going to write about school. It's interesting for me to go back after missing a semester. It's interesting for me to take Spanish. I have no idea how to speak Spanish, and it's really confusing for me. My teacher is nice though. I like her, even though I have no idea what she's saying when she speaks Spanish. Math class is another story. I've never liked math to began with. The only thing we do in math class is go to the computer lab and go to mymathlab.com. The teacher doesn't teach us. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do in that class, but I do know that I have to spend two hours in that class that I am not scheduled to be in that class. It's required. I haven't met any cool new people. I'm not really a people person.

This is why I write

If you follow me at all you know how big of a Supernatural fan I am. I remember one episode where Chuck told Sam and Dean that he wouldn't have chosen to be a writer if he could help it. I have to agree that writing is difficult. You have to make sure everything makes sense, and things are spelled right, and there's also that pesky little thing called grammar. I get asked why I want to be a writer every time I express my interest in writing. I have always had an interest in writing. When I was in elementary school I used to write stories about vampires, ghosts, and werewolves. I was the only kid in my class who spent my spare time coming up with stories. Every year for my birthday I was given a diary, or a journal. I still keep a journal to this day, but I don't write in it as often. As I got older I took an interest in writing poems and songs (some of which got published in a poetry book in high school). My favorite poem was a recipe poem I'd written about a Nightmare On Elm Street. I wish I still had it so I could share it. The teacher loved it too. After that I went through a phase where I didn't write at all. No poems, no stories, no songs, nothing. It took a really bad break up to get me to start writing again, and even then I didn't think it would amount to much. I thought I was just doing it to escape from reality for a little while. There must have been a point when I realized that I loved writing, and that's what I was meant to do. I don't remember when that was, but I do remember starting to be inspired by everyday things. People's names, their actions, I was taking note of it all. Everything in my life inspires me, from the people around me to my dogs. I think I was meant to write.

First two paragraphs: Hair Of The Wolf

Happy Labor Day!! Unlike most of the working world, I have to work today. Not only do I have to work, but Monday is the most demanding work day of the week. There's always extra stuff to do. At least I didn't have to go to school today, although I thought I did. I got up early, went to the gym, cut my gym visit short, all to find out I didn't have to go to school. Oh well. Anyway, if you lucky people who actually have the day off are looking for something to do, why not read the first two paragraphs of my upcoming novel? I'm trying to get it out by September, but with my busy schedule I may not be able to.








The room was clean, aside from the body that lay covered on the table. I had seen more than my fair share of corpses, but something about this one set me on edge. My stomach was in knots by the time the mortician pulled back the pristine white sheet. The man on the table had grown pale with death, so it took me a minute to realize that I knew him. I hadn’t seen Trevor in five years. I thought I would never see him again, but here he was, his honey-colored eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. I reached over and touched his cheek, instantly wishing I hadn’t. His skin felt ice cold, and his body remained lifeless.

I took a step back, letting my eyes sweep over his body. He was so tall that his feet hung over the end of the metal slab that he laid on. He’d lost at least twenty-five pounds since I’d last seen him, but his stomach was still marred with stretch marks. His head was freshly shaved, just like it had been the last time I’d seen him. His wide mouth was set in a permanent frown, which was an expression he seemed to wear more often than not. Four long cuts dissected his neck, they almost looked like claw marks, but I doubted they were what killed him. I felt a pang of guilt as I studied the wounds, knowing that I’d once wished for him to meet this fate.