Month: September 2013

And its done. That was quick. But thoroughly enjoyable of course.

Hello

As I mentioned last time round, I was looking forward to completing the character profile for the main villain of The Searcher’s Want, my NaNoWriMo story from last November. Last November? Dear lord that’s gone by quickly. Although, the next NaNoWriMo is just around the corner! Focus John, Focus.

So, after spending the previous three days with my girlfriend and visiting my awesome big sister and my even awesome-er nephew and then helping to babysit my girlfriends niece, I sat down to write the character profile for the Ripper demon, the main villain of the story I mentioned only a few seconds ago.

Do you know when you are writing and it just seems to flow out of you? Like it’s been dwelling inside of you, waiting eagerly for you to finish doing other stuff with your life and get back to your calling which is, obviously, to write? Well, that is what it felt like. I know the character well enough anyway and as I started writing I didn’t want to stop. I could have happily kept going and wrote all day. Who needs food and water when there is writing to be done? It did end quicker than I’d like but I wrote as much I thought was needed so I’m happy with it.

I had already made the necessary notes, so that I could at least start the character profile, when I was preparing for NaNoWriMo last October. I kept these notes to hand and as I wrote the profile, as like all the previous profiles, the character became completely fully formed on the page and in my head.

What I found as well, which made the process even more electric, was that I was coming up with plot points for the story as a whole and knew exactly how and what I needed to do to improve upon the Ripper within the story itself when editing begins.

My favourite part of the profile was the history part of it. This has allowed me to explain how the Ripper has arrived at the point I found him in the story. I was slightly worried about getting all the back story right but now, I’m not worried at all. Well, I probably will be when I add everything in, re-edit the edit, and find I need to write more. Oh great. Now I’m worried and excited. And I’m not sure what to do…

And that’s my queue to exit. I’ve not done any exercise since Saturday morning so hopefully that will help.

Good pie

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Demons and their ways.

Hello

Since my last post I’ve managed to complete two more of my demon character profiles. I now have three of the four demons profiled that make up the villains of my story. I’m really looking forward to writing the next one as it is the chief, among many, villain of the piece.

Each of the other types of demon have certain skills and knowledge to do something in particular. This type of demon, known as the Ripper, was designed as a protector for the other three. It was designed to make sure the others don’t come to any harm.

I have most of the main parts to this character figured out so it shouldn’t take as long as the other three. Which is a shame as I’d wouldn’t mind it taking a lot longer. As I wrote the Searchers Want, the character grew more than the others because it was more influential. The Ripper demon is the architect of the demons plan to take over the world. As much as I enjoyed writing all the other character profiles, this one should be ever so slightly better.

What I am looking forward to as well, amongst a lot of other things when I start editing this story, is expanding on each of the demons characters. Relating to humans is easy, but demons? Do I know any demons? There is a bloke who walks around Manchester with just his trousers on, wet hair, and a bunny rabbit under his arm. Maybe he’s a demon?

Anyway, to sign off, here is a brief on how the Searchers became searchers in the first place. If you have any questions, feel more than free to ask them.

‘ There are four types of demon in total that make up the villains of my story, The Searcher’s Want. Three of them have been designed to do a certain thing to help the human race live better lives. The forth has been designed to protect them while they do this if required. Unfortunately they have decided not to help anyone else but themselves. After discovering, within hours of their birth, the powers that they had, they all fled to different parts of the world. That is what necessitated the man who conducted the ritual to bring them to life, Henry Radcliffe-Gray, to start searching and killing them just under 400 years ago. He is now the Searcher General and commands the rest of the searchers. ‘

Cheers

Character profiles? Indeed. I reply.

 

Hello

Since my last post I have been keeping on with the character profiles and have managed to finish all the main protagonists involved in my fantasy story, The Searcher’s Want. I’ve now started on the antagonists which are all, currently, demons that the Searcher’s must search and kill to help protect the human race.

Before writing this story and as part of my preparation for NaNoWriMo, I wrote out some brief notes for the primary and secondary characters and decided to make the others up as I went along. I’m glad I did this and would recommend it to anyone attempting to do the National Novel Writing Month Challenge this November.

I’ve been back over these notes whilst doing the character profiles and when it came to doing the first demon profile, The Catcher Demon, it helped me out immensely. The template supplied by writerdsnelson from her post Profiling Blake has also allowed me to expand the demons story line and has allowed me come up with a few story points that, come the dreaded yet brilliant editing process, will enable me to expand The Searcher’s Want and make it as well rounded as I hope it can be.

Whilst writing the first demon profile I chose to give it a history. This meant having to explain where the demons have been and how they have lived and survived since their birth 400 years ago. As I was writing the story I mentioned a small amount, which I’d hope to expand on later, about the demons and their history up until the present day. This first of many character profiles has instantly provided me with a major story point that I can build upon in the other demon profiles and in the story edit.

So, I hear you ask. Character profiles? Indeed. I reply.

Thanks for reading as always and see you, hopefully, next week.

Bye Bye

It tried again…and failed. Get in!

Hello

As I mentioned in my last post, a nasty little cold tried to delay my progress in writing some of the character profiles for The Searcher’s Want, my NaNoWriMo novel that I finished back at the beginning of July. That cold tried, and failed miserably, to rear its pointless head again this past week. I got rid of it and managed to finish the character profiles for the two possible love interests for the lead character. I now have to start doing the profiles of the secondary characters which, though very important, will take ages. But as always I’ll grow to love it after writing few words. And, it’s all needed if I want my story to be completely plot-hole free.

I went to visit my sister and her husband and my awesome now 8 week old nephew Ezra last Saturday in Sheffield. He’s changing so fast, I have to remind myself that he’s the same guy I met after three weeks who was hiccupping, sleeping and going to the toilet all the time. He’s now, kicking, punching, smiling, holding his head up, hiccupping, sleeping and going to the toilet. He’ll be playing the piano the next time I see him.

The train to and from Sheffield allowed me to continue to read 1984. It’s an epic book and is the main inspiration behind my small-amount-vampire-large-amount-government-rule-the-world-future story. That reminds me, I haven’t read Casino Royale or The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night Time in a while. Both of which are either in my work bag or in my bathroom respectively. That can be a task for me to do over the next week. I tried to have a reading evening whereby I read all three books last Wednesday but only managed to read a bit of 1984 before bed. I watched TV instead.  😦 I’m sorry.

I’ve started to carry around a note pad in my work bag and it has so far helped me to complete two of my character profiles. I’m annoyed I didn’t start doing this sooner. I also looked into the different books shops across Manchester and will try each one of them to see if they have anything I can use. I did a scout out one of them, which started out well with a few cheap second/third/forth etc hand books but as I looked round the corner at the next lot of shelves, all I could see was porn. I calmly turned around, walked out, and mentally crossed that shop of my list.

I also managed to edit a couple of short stories which I’ll be posting very soon so if you’re interested, I’d appreciate your feedback on them.

Well, I’m going to get back to it. I’ll leave with a question I think. What’s the best place you’ve found books that have helped you when writing a story?

Good Pie