Aiya!
Today's post will be, well, random, and I shall give you a bit of background story...
After a reasonably tiring day of saving Australia from certain destruction, (I deal with the rest of the world on Mondays. :P) I came back home to relax. Then, it dawned upon me.
Blog Post Day.
Frantic, I asked some friends to say something random, hoping to glean some Inspiration from them. The responses were as follows:
"Something random."
"Penguins have knees."
"Tubas can make weird sounds sometimes."
"What if the sky was yellow?"
"Glitter."
So, as you can see I have very useful and Inspirational friends. Thanks guys!
Erhem, so, I sat down to write my post. And realised that maybe all they said wasn't that useless. Maybe it could be used in writing. Not the words themselves, but the huge range of answers. Thinking a bit back on what has randomly been my latest tangent (characters) this also fits weirdly well.
There are a few different things that are worth thinking about...
1. How does your character view a question?
2. Do they give a sarcastic come back?
3. Are they suspicious?
4. Do they answer vaguely?
5. Do they reveal much about their past?
6. Do they think hard about the question, or just go off the top of their head?
Just asking the same question to different characters and analysing their responses should give you a fair idea if your characters are all the same. You don't actually want every character to be sarcastic more often than serious. It actually takes away from the characters. (I know, I know. Shocking, right? xP)
So, I suppose my prompt is pretty obvious. Ask your characters a few questions and see how they answer them. Oh, and remember that friends can also have some good ideas or traits to go off.
Say something random below! Or just chat. That's cool too. :P (Sorry for the shortness guys! Saving Australia is pretty tiring...)
Thursday, 25 January 2018
Thursday, 11 January 2018
Spice Up Your Characters... And Have a Cuppa While You're at it.
Aiya!
Raise your hand if you've suffered as a writer with cold cups of tea or coffee? *Smiles sadly at all of the raised hands* Well I have a solution for you! Add some chilli or Cayenne Pepper to your tea while you brew it. Then even after a few hours, it still has heat!
(Nope, I'm not joking, I've been doing this for the past few days and it's really nice!)
Eh, aaaaanyways.
Last week I did a post that mentioned ways of giving your characters some more depth. Added quirks. Now, for next Camp NaNo, (shush, I know it isn't for ages but year 11 won't give me time to do prep during school!) I'll be re-writing the Survivor Trilogy. And turning it into a standalone book of about 80k. But it has sooooo much more plot and theme and character developments and, and, AUGH! It's just heaps better.
I also have a character who is an Experiment. She has a few 'blights' due to the government trying to create a world of superhumans, the everyday people. But to work this out, they do tests on people. Ashley was a failed test and has a few, 'blights'.
I've found that these are interesting to work with. For one, she's stuck in her fourteen year old form. She is also colour blind and has an unexplainable fear of water.
Giving characters 'blights' can be interesting. [Please note that I do not think badly in anyone who has what I am for the sake of this post, calling a 'blight.'] Everyone has something about them which people think is unusual. And it makes for some interesting problems.
So, what if you do something like this to your character?
Here is my Inspiration for you today...
Any ideas? Happy writing!
Raise your hand if you've suffered as a writer with cold cups of tea or coffee? *Smiles sadly at all of the raised hands* Well I have a solution for you! Add some chilli or Cayenne Pepper to your tea while you brew it. Then even after a few hours, it still has heat!
(Nope, I'm not joking, I've been doing this for the past few days and it's really nice!)
~Spice Up Your Character... And Have a Cuppa While You're at It.~
Eh, aaaaanyways.
Last week I did a post that mentioned ways of giving your characters some more depth. Added quirks. Now, for next Camp NaNo, (shush, I know it isn't for ages but year 11 won't give me time to do prep during school!) I'll be re-writing the Survivor Trilogy. And turning it into a standalone book of about 80k. But it has sooooo much more plot and theme and character developments and, and, AUGH! It's just heaps better.
I also have a character who is an Experiment. She has a few 'blights' due to the government trying to create a world of superhumans, the everyday people. But to work this out, they do tests on people. Ashley was a failed test and has a few, 'blights'.
I've found that these are interesting to work with. For one, she's stuck in her fourteen year old form. She is also colour blind and has an unexplainable fear of water.
Giving characters 'blights' can be interesting. [Please note that I do not think badly in anyone who has what I am for the sake of this post, calling a 'blight.'] Everyone has something about them which people think is unusual. And it makes for some interesting problems.
So, what if you do something like this to your character?
Here is my Inspiration for you today...
"Colour... I miss seeing it."
Any ideas? Happy writing!
Thursday, 4 January 2018
Inspiration with a Side of Habitual Laughter
Aiya!
Happy New Year guys! Even though New Year was four days ago, I'll still say it!
I have a confession- I have not done much writing these holidays. Admittedly, that's due mainly to the fact that I don't have a computer at the moment, only an iPod of evilness. All that I have written has been in notebooks, which is cool, but takes a lot longer. However, lots has been happening which makes up for my inability to write regularly.
For one, we had an AWESOME Christmas. Family over, our own service, and a lot of laughter. Carols, skits, food, prayer, family, laughter, and different traditions. It's always an awesome time of the year.
Then, my cousins kidnapped me.
Don't worry, it happens a lot.
Although, at least this time I had the comfort that someone from a town that's my kinda home with the distinctive number plate of LACE.96 was following me all of the way... Ish. No idea who they were, but hey! It's something.
Lots happened while I was there, including reading, going to a New Year's Eve party, laughing, watching Star Wars: The Last Jedi, theorising, reading, martial-arts-story-research, water fights, playing with the kids, witnessing the adoption of a fish called Henry, reading, staying up past midnight being insulted, staying up past midnight on a SEPERATE occasion for New Year's Eve, making D&D characters, eating pizza, being thrown in a bin and having water poured over my head, and many other things.
What can I say? I have cool cousins.
One of the things that is totally random that I do at my cousins' house is, after dinner, I clean their stove. It's PURELY because after dinner they all gravitate to their assigned jobs, so I've adopted that one as my own. But it's made me think about how characters really become more realistic if they have habits, or patterns. Personal resolutions. These are things we discuss at the start of the year, but they apply to our characters as well. We need to give them habits and routines. Cleaning the stove. Nodding when standing about awkwardly. Having a corner that they gravitate to. Tapping their fingers or feet. Humming. There are so many things that just make characters more realistic and relatable. And it's easy to do. Just observe.
On a totally different topic, when doing story research, having first hand experience is the best. My cousin Jane and I were doing some different martial art throws and holds for some research. Now, I had watched this video so many times to get how to do it. I tried it on Jane and flipped her easily... When she stood still.
It was a cool Judo flip, but the problem was that in a fight it was basically useless. Jane was able to prevent the flip simply by turning, and then it put me in a position that was not so great for my safety. Had I only watched the video, I would have totally thought that that was a perfect move. It really is best if you can do these things for yourself.
Not only that, but doing that sort of thing with family and friends is fun, and hilarious. Our greatest injury was laughter. These sort of things are actually really fun and great to do if you have others willing to join in.
My Inspiration for you today? Go and stare at someone you know well. If they ask what you're doing, don't say anything, just observe their body language and how it responds. Then see how your characters may react if someone did that, or give them the reaction your poor victim gave you!
*NOTE: I take no blame in how creeped out some people may be.*
Have fun! You know any weird habits? Cool story research? Feel free to share!
Happy New Year guys! Even though New Year was four days ago, I'll still say it!
I have a confession- I have not done much writing these holidays. Admittedly, that's due mainly to the fact that I don't have a computer at the moment, only an iPod of evilness. All that I have written has been in notebooks, which is cool, but takes a lot longer. However, lots has been happening which makes up for my inability to write regularly.
***
~Inspiration with a Side of Habitual Laughter~
***
For one, we had an AWESOME Christmas. Family over, our own service, and a lot of laughter. Carols, skits, food, prayer, family, laughter, and different traditions. It's always an awesome time of the year.
Then, my cousins kidnapped me.
Don't worry, it happens a lot.
Although, at least this time I had the comfort that someone from a town that's my kinda home with the distinctive number plate of LACE.96 was following me all of the way... Ish. No idea who they were, but hey! It's something.
Lots happened while I was there, including reading, going to a New Year's Eve party, laughing, watching Star Wars: The Last Jedi, theorising, reading, martial-arts-story-research, water fights, playing with the kids, witnessing the adoption of a fish called Henry, reading, staying up past midnight being insulted, staying up past midnight on a SEPERATE occasion for New Year's Eve, making D&D characters, eating pizza, being thrown in a bin and having water poured over my head, and many other things.
What can I say? I have cool cousins.
One of the things that is totally random that I do at my cousins' house is, after dinner, I clean their stove. It's PURELY because after dinner they all gravitate to their assigned jobs, so I've adopted that one as my own. But it's made me think about how characters really become more realistic if they have habits, or patterns. Personal resolutions. These are things we discuss at the start of the year, but they apply to our characters as well. We need to give them habits and routines. Cleaning the stove. Nodding when standing about awkwardly. Having a corner that they gravitate to. Tapping their fingers or feet. Humming. There are so many things that just make characters more realistic and relatable. And it's easy to do. Just observe.
On a totally different topic, when doing story research, having first hand experience is the best. My cousin Jane and I were doing some different martial art throws and holds for some research. Now, I had watched this video so many times to get how to do it. I tried it on Jane and flipped her easily... When she stood still.
It was a cool Judo flip, but the problem was that in a fight it was basically useless. Jane was able to prevent the flip simply by turning, and then it put me in a position that was not so great for my safety. Had I only watched the video, I would have totally thought that that was a perfect move. It really is best if you can do these things for yourself.
Not only that, but doing that sort of thing with family and friends is fun, and hilarious. Our greatest injury was laughter. These sort of things are actually really fun and great to do if you have others willing to join in.
My Inspiration for you today? Go and stare at someone you know well. If they ask what you're doing, don't say anything, just observe their body language and how it responds. Then see how your characters may react if someone did that, or give them the reaction your poor victim gave you!
*NOTE: I take no blame in how creeped out some people may be.*
Have fun! You know any weird habits? Cool story research? Feel free to share!
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