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.

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~Inspiration with a Side of Habitual Laughter~

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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!