Character

Character.

It's pretty much the whole reason why people write and read books. If you create completely rounded character that people can relate to and in some way see themselves in ( or at least who they want to be ), then people will read your books. They will fall in love with your characters. And that's what  keeps them coming back. At least it's what keeps me coming back to writers and their new books, more-so than the plots of new books. If I've read a book by an author, and I've fallen in love with the characters and fell into the plot, odds are pretty high that i will return to read their other works. I'm even more inclined to read something out of my comfort zone if they've had awesome books before.

So here's what I know about my two main characters:
Naida -
17 years old
Born in Nashville, Tennessee
Parents [Mikel and Whitney] were killed when she was young (10)
Sent to live with her uncle at 9.
She tends to her uncle's "girls", getting anything they need and basically taking care of them.

Samuel -
25 years old
Born in the *Outskirts [ Kairi nation ]
Parents are both dead, his father very recently.
Alpha by blood-- and by fight. The 5th alpha of his name.

And here's what I need to know:
Sam's
Relationship with -
     The Twins [
     His pack - He's trusted and obeyed without hesitation because it's just the nature of the relationship of Alpha and pack. It's a lot of weight on his shoulders.
     The Elders [the remaining pack that used to he headed by his father]
     Naida - On principle he doesn't like humans. He never has. It's not that he's blindly judgmental but he's actually spent time across the border he just can't fathom why
     His brothers [Benjamin, Joshua, Andrew, Elijah, Micah]
       Benjamin [after his sister's suicide] Constantly challenged by Ben. He's always having to put him in his place, much more frequently than he would like. Ben hates him because of his sister, but is forced to respect and obey him.
       Joshua [after his mating to Cala] he feels separated from his second, like he can't talk to him about anything anymore because of his affiliation with Cala.
       Andrew - The oldest of his wolves, a remainder from his father's Brothers. He is critical of the way that Sam does things, since they're different than his father's way.
       Elijah - He really just runs under the radar. Barely ever noticed. He always seems to be doing what needs to be done without anyone having to ask him. He's dependable. 
       Micah - The newest, and youngest. He needs the most direction.
     Cala - (his ex) He doesn't like her, never really has. But it's worse now because she still pursues him though she is mated to his best friend.


Naida's
Relationship with -
     The "girls" (Aleksander's prostitutes) [Isla, Cruz, Kiona]
       Isla - The girly girl. She loves makeup and pretty clothes and is always urging Naida to 'try' a little harder. 
       Cruz - Is the Protector. She's always there to stand up for someone else. She see's Naida as her little sister and fiercely protects her. She's been hurt and doesn't want to see it happen to anyone else. 
       Kiona - pretty indifferent  They don't really have very much of a relationship. mostly Kiona just keeps to herself but doesn't let anyone bother Naida. 
     Sasha [Naida's Uncle Aleksander] - He loves her. Deeply. Sometimes she thinks that she is the only thing that he loves or respects. He's always protected her and made sure that though the harsh reality of their lives are inescapable, that she never has to 'get dirty'. She basically sees him as her father, as she really hardly remembers her parents.
     Sam - At first sight she's afraid of him. From what everyone says about the wolves they're savage and just a bit more civilized than animals. She's almost disgusted by him.
     The Brothers - Pretty much the same as she feels about Sam, but she can see the need for them.
     The Kairi as a whole - They see her as every human that's ever wronged them. They don't like her and they make it clear. She is given a wide birth, no one wants to associate with her.
     Viktor - [the guy Sasha owes money to.] She likes him. She's had a crush on him for a very long time, until she finds out that Sasha owes him a lot of money. He's always been pleasant, if not openly friendly toward her.


And a list of all supporting characters:
Benjamin, Joshua, Andrew, Elijah, Micah, Cala
Isla, Cruz, Kiona, Sasha(Aleksander), Viktor


currently listening to : Elastic Heart - Sia feat The Weeknd & Diplo [Catching Fire OST]

Plot

So, today is Day 1(It's not really day 1 this post was not saved and almost everything was lost) of my serious Nano Prep overhaul. I've been thinking about this story and getting things together in my head all year, but of course nothing was concrete. I never really gave it more than just a passing thought and it shows.

I'm going to start Plot. I'll admit it's always been one of my weak points. Not necessarily conflict in it's basest sense, but the overall Story Problem. I'd spend hours, days, months writing thousands of words to a project only to stall before the middle because there was no real Problem. The big thing that needed to be solved before the end of the story was always missing. So this year in my quest to write as close to a complete first draft of *Thirst as possible I'm determined to go in with a plan. 

What I need to know:
Antagonist - MFC's uncle Sasha
Inciting Incident - MFC is sold in exchange for asylum.
Story Problem - In exchange for her life and the lives of her family, MFC must find the formula to the wolves' drug before her uncle's debtors find them. ( This needs reworking...)
Conflict -  MFC vs MMC, MFC's family vs Wolves, Wolves vs other Wolves, MFC vs Sasha
Turning Points -
Darkest Moment - MFC's betrayal, Sasha's Betrayal
Solution -
Resolution -

I'll update this as I figure out more...

*The title of my 2013 Nano novel.

Nano Day 14

   

  So it's almost the mid way point of Nanowrimo ( I can't believe it!) and I find myself wanting to almost anything other than putting fingers to keys and writing. Seriously, anything seems more appealing than sitting down and typing the story that's inside my head. I've only just reached the end of the first act in my novel and already I'm running out of steam. 

    As you can see if you look at my chart above all that extra wordage I wrote in the early days of Nano are slowly dwindling and I've found myself without that safety net today. So I've decided to withhold the last two episodes of The Vampire Diaries Season 3 (yes I'm behind, but I like to wait until they come on Netflix and watch them back to back in a pseudo marathon) until I have at least written 3k today. I think it's pretty good motivation because I really want to see how they'll deal with [SPOILERS] Bonnie feeding Alaric and thus waking up his dark side/original vampire hunter weapon side [/SPOILERS].

     

     Another problem I'm facing is the fact that I'm running out of scenes that I know need to be written. When I began plotting in October, I had a certain list of things that I knew needed to happen right away and now that I've exhausted that list I really don't know what to do next. I guess this is where the pantsting (?) comes in. Wish me luck.

---Edited 11:19 P.M
 3k done!

 

Nano Day 1

So here we are, It's day number one and I can honestly say that I am incredibly enthusiastic about what transpired all day. I stayed up until midnight last night so that I could go ahead and begin writing just as the start. My region was hosting an online kick off party that I joined in on the first time and it was a blast! Just having that little bit of communication with others who are doing the same thing is truly awesome. So I suggest, if you've never been to an actual write in (like me) or kick off party I really think the online kick off really gave me a burst of momentum. I was able to write 1,738 words in an hour. So yes that was my total word count knocked out in an hour, which if I do say so myself, is pretty awesome. 

I went to bed at 1 and woke up at 6 a.m for work and began writing again while I was there. That's actually one of the things I really love about my job. I get to write and read and it's not frowned upon. it took me a little while longer to actually finish my second 1,716 words but I managed and it wasn't too painful. That brought my word count for the day to 3,454 words on day one and I am pretty happy with that. 

While writing I was able to flesh out a couple more details about characters that I just couldn't 'see' while I was plotting. Like I had no idea that Kai's group of men consisted of 4 men a set of triplets and a gorgeous blonde. I also had no idea that Matt smoked or that he kind of looks like Jackson Rathbone. Seriously. No clue. I think that's one of the things I love about writing, finding little tidbits of info that you never knew, but that makes these characters so much more real. 

I was originally planning on having a goal of 5k on the first day but I didn't want to burn myself out on the first day. So I'm going to set my daily goal as at least 3334 words, in two scenes with word count totaling at least 1.7k each. I'm setting the scene length because I've been known to write short punchy scenes and I wanted to challenge myself to try and make them longer. Who knows how that will work out, but I'm going to try. I'm also going to go back over what I wrote for the day and spell check (since I really detest spell-checking long documents) while I read over everything to get an idea of what the next scene will be.(But no editing) I think that's one of the things that always stopped me before, not knowing what was coming next when it was time to write. I want to already have at least an idea of how the next scene begins before I sit down to write.

I also received two postcards from my swap buddies (Nano Postcard Swap). They were both beautiful and inspirational and lifted my spirit even higher than it had already been soaring. So I'd like to thank Sarah and Krista for the wonderful words of encouragement. They really made my day.

Word count: 3,454

9 days

So here we are at the end of planning month and i can honestly say that im scrambling, trying to figure the remaining parts of my plot that have been evading me as well as getting to know my characters. I honestly can't believe that October is almost over. Where did it go?

So in these last days before the madness begins im going to really try and pin down who my characters are. I think that's one of the things that have really hurt me as far as my writing has gone. I just don't go in knowing who these people are and let them develop on their own in the course of writing just like I've been known to do with my plot. 

Also, I've been reading/listening to The Host by Stephenie Meyer, the book and audiobook. I honestly have no idea how this book isn't more popular than Twilight. Seriously if you haven't read it please for your own good, do.

Well, I think that's all for now. I hope to see you at the starting gate.

10.11.12

Nano Novel Update 10.11.12

I had a pretty good day today. I was finally able to pin down my plot. It's been a slippery little thing that I haven't been able to catch, but today I had a break through. For some reason I was having trouble with understanding the fact that it's entirely possible to have a main plot as well as a sub plot and that just because it's a subplot doesn't mean that it's not as important to the story as the main plot. I'm not sure why that failed to sink into my brain but I guess that's how it goes. As this will be my first time going into Nano with more than just a spark of an idea I hope all the work I'm doing now will prove to make my first draft better.

Also, I was finally able to decide on my two main character's names. Going into this, I knew immediately that I wanted someone's name to be Kai. The name just fit. Though I didn't know who since the name is unisex and could very plausibly go either way. But as I was doing a couple of plot exercises and creating back story for both of my characters I just caught a flash of an image where my MFC was screaming "Kai", so obviously there was no argument that that was his name. Long story short, after a long laborous search through name websites I finally decided on Brielle.

I'm really excited to begin Brielle and Kai's story. Is it November 1st. yet?

On another note, I'm happy to say that last night I was able to write over 1,200 on one of the novels I had put on the back-burner because I just didn't think i could save it. I love this time of year. It's like there's magic in the air.

Ideas for Nano

I'm currently going through Holly Lisle's 'How to Think Sideways' course, and this is one of the ways that she gets some of her ideas on a deadline. While I won't be explaining her methods since that's her work and I fully recommend that you buy it if you're interested I will be giving you some of my results.

This post will be updated as things go along.

Young adult/ Fantasy
Something different. Something that will start a series.
Word count- 85,000 words (50,000 words in November)
Deadline- January 1, 2013 (First Draft)

---edited 10.5
Okay, my first thought going into this was about a girl who could leave her body behind. Immediately after that i got an image of a sickly thin boy cowering on the dirt floor of a cell.
So i have Spirit walking girl (that's what I'll call it for now) and Beaten Boy.

I haven't quite worked out how they will work together, but the muse is working on it. I seriously didn't plan anything that felt this dark. I was hoping for something light this time but my muse wants what she wants.

---edited 10.6
Characters:
Spirit walking girl-- My first thoughts of her, were that she is a warrior. She's not one of those girls that need to be saved, she does the rescuing.  She is brave, because she has to be.
-Her mother recently had a heart attack and has suffered brain damage because of lack of oxygen when they were trying to resuscitate her. She's had to grow up quickly and take care of herself and her mother.
-Her father is forced to move back to where they live to help, but they don't get along very well. He somewhat resents the fact that he has to relocate his whole life to take care of them. (I really like that conflict, between doing what you're supposed to do but hating every moment of it.)

Beaten Boy who will now be known as Captive Male-- I changed his working name because at this point I'm not really sure if i want him to be human (actually I'm pretty sure i don't want him to be human) and also because I'm not sure how old he is.

--edited 10.7
I've been thinking today about my opposition, or the BBT as Kristen Lamb describes it. I think i have finally figured out who i want it to be. I have always loved the juxtaposition of both doing something wrong for the right reason. I'm not sure if that makes sense. Having noble intentions but hurting people for those intentions.

--edited 10.8
Okay, so yea. Pretty much everything that I wrote yesterday about my BBT, was incorrect. For this novel at least. I've decided I want the MFC to have her going against herself, in that she needs to relinquish the tight reign she holds on every part of her and her mother's lives in order to complete her goal. I have also nailed down what that specific goal is. I think I've had a pretty productive day, even though I had to take some meds for my allergies ( Damn Tennessee pollen and weather) which promptly put me to sleep for five hours after I got home from work.

I was also able to nail down some other facts about my MFC. Here is a conversation I had with my muse:

Who is he?
-He is very tribal.
What does that mean?
-He has never lived in the modern, or real world at all.
Okay, what else?
-He has tan/cinnamon skin. but more grey and sickly than sunkissed.
Does he speak English?
-He speaks whatever she speaks. He is evertthing that she is.
Does that mean he's just a male copy of her?
-No. 
Okay, what else?
-He has dark eyes, long hair. Black.
What is he called?
-He was never named. She will name him. 
What does she name him?
-I don't know.
Okay, what is he doing?
-Waiting. For her. He's waited a long time. two hundred years.
Anything else?
-Not right now. 

--edited 10.9
So last night I was getting pretty frustrated with my plot. It was still in that muddy, foggy phase where nothing is clear and your squinting and straining your eyes trying to make out the tiny light through the fray. So i was looking through some writer's blogs, as I have taken to doing these days and saw that someone was recommending Holly's Create a Plot Clinic and of course I could have and probably should have slapped myself. Of course my first thought should have been Holly's course! But it wasn't. Which is how my brain works (or doesn't work).

I paid for and downloaded the pdf, and the worksheets, got everything printed out and made sure I had enough paper and let the book just chill on my ipad for the night. When i got to work this morning i could hardly contain my excitement and began to read. Since I'd already read most of the beginning in the How to Think Sideways Course i knew the basics. But as i began to read the Tools and do the exercises my plot just began to unfold like an accordion. It was pretty awesome, so If you're having problems with your plot i would suggest the Create a Plot Clinic. It's only 9.95. If that's too much for you you can try the Professional Plot Outline Mini Course for .99.

From now on I am just going to make seperate posts about all my further planning for Nano, since I've been adding to this one every day it won't take very long before this is massive.


----------Now playing: Come On by Will Young