Tag: character profiling

Somehow….I didn’t get much done really. Or did I?

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Hello

 

Looking back over my last post I realise I’ve only partially stuck to my new routine over the past week.

The writing part of my routine has moved as slowly as ever. This is due in no small part to working over-time on Saturday, wanting to chill on Sunday, and starting back on the weights again Monday through till Today. Now, I don’t lift a crazy amount of weights but after 6 months of not using them at all, it’s made me pretty tired and lacking in the energy to write. Though I know this will change once exercise is as much a part of my routine as writing, reading and editing, I’m hoping it will come sooner rather than later. I’m feeling tired now as I write this post. I have managed to write a character profile for the hero of my time travel piece. Once I get my internet sorted, as in unlimited and not with a cap on it, I’m looking forward to going head long into time travel research. Who knows what I’ll come out with or even if my mind can handle it.

The editing part of the routine is going along as always. I’ve just finished Chapter 7 as it goes. It ended pretty poorly and I noticed how I’m very aware of the style of my story. My hero was on a hunt when he got distracted by his would be love interest. I added this in because it’s happened to me before. Not the hunt thing the distracted by love interest thing. I’m glad this is in as I hope it gets across how normal my seemingly abnormal hero can be. Like I said, the chapter ended pretty poorly and when I edited it, I removed three lines and put in one new one. I’ve read enough about having to be ruthless whilst editing and to make sure everything left in is useful to the story and I think I’m getting the hang of it.

The reading part of the routine is coming along nicely. Along with moving onto the latest edition of Writing Magazine, which has an interesting article regarding how Amazon could help authors instead of hindering them that was pretty interesting (thank you Tom Ellis author of the Parish & Richards crime series) I have been moving on with my current book to read, Seven Deadly Sins: Settling the Argument by Corey Taylor. As in, the lead singer of Slipknot and Stone Sour aka The Great Big Mouth. Now, I picked this up because I’ve heard a lot about how tough and diverse his upbringing was and listened to how he has used it to help his song writing but my curiosity wanted to know more. And so far I’ve not been disappointed. Some of things he’s gotten up to so far, I’m up to chapter about Sloth if you’ve read it before, are…well…all over the place, which is how I like my reading to be. He does this with structure and he writes so well I’m glad I forked out the money for it. To think I forgot I had it until I came across it when I last moved house.

Ok. That’s me for the time being. Have a good week.

Cheers

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

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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

Character profiles? Indeed. I reply.

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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!

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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

Research…Will I ever like you?

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Hello

Following on from my last post, which was two weeks ago, my fault, sorry, I have looked into buying a notice board. This may seem like a simple task but I don’t want to be buying notice boards all the time. This is necessary I can assure you. (I’m sure some of you are aware of this anyway.)

I also decided to dedicate a majority of last week to research. I have started to research certain parts of two of my stories, the story I’m currently writing which is my take on the vampire myth, The End Solution, and The Searcher’s Want, my hunter/searcher against demons for the fate of the world story I started, and finished recently, for NaNoWriMo.

For The End Solution, I’ve started by looking into the structure of the British Government. Specifically, who the Prime Minister has around him and why. I since discovered that he has around 21 members of parliament who act as cabinet ministers around him mainly amongst others. This has given me the headache of having to come up with possibly 10 new fully formed characters for this story as I don’t plan to need all of them in a complete capacity. And, along with having to write full character profiles for the ones already in the story, this is both bad and good. Bad, all that time it will take. Good, because I know I’ll enjoy it on many levels and it will help to advance the story greatly. Research…Will I ever like you?

For The Searcher’s Want, I decided to start the character profiles. Using the template I found in a post from writerdsnelson entitled ‘Profiling Blake’, I’ve discovered a lot about my characters and some things I can use to enhance their back stories, and create some conflict which I think the story needs, when I come to re-draft the story in the future. What I found out when doing this was some research, which I’d been neglecting about some of my characters, was sorely needed. For instance, one of my characters, the second oldest searcher named Abraham Smith, has been a searcher for 200 years. He became immortal at the age of 55 after being a searcher for 2 years. Now, this brings up all kinds of things when I’m writing about his history. Working out dates and things. It’s as exciting as it is frustrating. I think I’ve got the dates right, which I’m going to go over again just to be sure, to then find out I’ve missed one thing out. And I have to start all over again. Research…Will I ever like you?

I know I have to do research to make sure my story makes sense when it comes to location, dates and times of things, street names etc. But I think I’m just whining because it’s not as simple as I thought. I’m going to continue for the next week and I’m sure I’ll grow to like it. Here’s hoping anyway.

Well, to end this post and push me back into a research and character building frenzy, I’ll leave you with a question. How do you like to go about doing the research needed for any writing that you are about to do or are currently doing?

Cheers