Mrs. Dirty-Coat

194 single spaced, typed pages, countless had written pages more drawings and doodles than I can count.  I’ve been through about six packs of post-its and the timeline alone takes up an entire wall in my bedroom.  I know that smacking my head against bricks is something that all writers come up against but for crying out loud, I spent at least about 6 hours pacing in front of my Time-Line-Wall yesterday and all I came up with is question after bloody question.

Why is this guy so mad all the time?  What is it that he’s looking for that he can’t find?  Why does this dude hate that dude so much?  Why is that girl so scared all the time.  Why is this woman so sad?  How do you get through catacombs full of illusion spells, strange creatures and still make it to dinner on time? 

I know these questions are important.  If I’m asking them, the reader will defiantly ask them.  There cannot be holes in the story and if there’s one major importing thing that acting has taught me, it’s that the greatest way to make a character believable, is to give them history.  Give them a life.

If I’d known this little tid-bit a just a bit earlier in my life, I probably wouldn’t feel that my progress was so slow.  I’ve had to break down the story by the people.  By the protagonists and antagonists.  The heroes and villains.  No one’s a bad guy just because they choose to be and the same goes for the hero.  There is always a catalyst.  Most people are pretty content to live out a mediocre life.  But those who’ve experienced something profound are the ones who end up with greatness in one form or another.  Weather one becomes a great hero or a great villain, depends on the mind set, string of events and company that surrounds the individual after said profound event. 

Now, this isn’t just something you have to consider for the main character and villain.  You have to take care to create lives for the supporting characters as well.  Or else you have the problem I’ve run into.  They seem hollow.  Empty.  Boring.  They’re no fun to write about and if you’re getting board writing about someone, I promise the reader is going to get board reading about them. 

For instance, if you have a supporting character who vehemently hates the main character, just saying they’re a bully and describing their actions against person A isn’t enough.  WHY is person B a bully?  What made him/her that way?  Was it mom?  Dad?  Both?  Maybe it’s a lack thereof altogether.  Maybe mom and dad are wonderful people and the anger issues are due to mistreatment from another source.

Here’s the thing, even if you will never actually share these juicy little details with other readers, it makes person B far more interesting to write about and therefore, more interesting to read about.  That way you won’t have random “Crewman #6” who gets killed and no one cares.  You have someone with a name who lost their ‘life’.  This person, no matter how annoying, stupid, rude, infuriating etc, played a part in shaping person A into the hero/villain that he/she is today.  Therefore, no matter how small the part, the character is important enough to be given a LIFE.  Because their life is a part of the lives of the main characters. 

I realized much of this today while I was sitting at the bus stop (the bus was almost 30 minutes late), watching the snow begin to drift down from a gray sky.  A young woman came walking up with a huge, heavy looking backpack and an old, blue coat that was badly stained on the front with some kind of blackish smear.  She had bright eyes and a ready smile and she was more than happy to tell me all about the classes she’s taking at the community collage, about her husband who took the car to work today, all about how teaching 3^rd graders is more difficult than 2^nd graders (guess what she’s going to school for…). 

I’m not the most social person.  In fact, outside of work I usually avoid human contact as much as possible simply for the reason that I find most humans to be irritating, annoying, stupid, rude, irrational and completely without common sense…see where I’m going with this? 

While I was sitting there wishing Mrs. Dirty-Coat would go away or at least decide to stop speaking to me, I suddenly realized that she might be shaping some part of my life.  And sure enough, even though her part in ‘Leah’s Daily Story’ was small and seemingly meaningless, she’s the part that stuck with me through the day.  She’s who I remember.  She reminded me that I needed to give LIFE to my minor characters. 

So, whoever you were, Mrs. Dirty-Coat-At-The-Bus-Stop, thank you for talking to, and therefore, annoying the crap out of me.  You made my day, darling. J

Knock, Knock, Whine-Wheeze…Crunch!

My car finally broke down.  I was on my way home the other day and I barely made it into my parking spot at home when it gave a whine and wheeze.  The  CV axel on the right side has been knocking for a while and I just didn’t have the money to fix it.  So when it gave a final crunch I wasn’t surprised.  Oddly, I was relieved.  I’ve been waiting for it to do this for so long.  The last couple of days have been light and happy.  Like there’s this huge weight off my shoulders that I didn’t even know was there.

It was funny, really.  In retrospect I see myself pulling into my parking spot and hearing the car give a whine and an awkward crunch just as I put it into park.  I threw up my hands up and hollered “SAFE!”  with a huge grin on my face (even though the act of throwing up my hands resulted in some bruised fingers since the roof of my car is not that far from my head…)  I found amusement and relief in a situation that would usually cause alarm or stress (no, I’m not always the “glass is half full” type.  In some matters, the glass is rather empty and maybe cracked so any liquid leaks out the bottom when you least expect it, leaving you looking like you’ve wet your pants…or since it’s my glass, maybe it leaves me looking like I’ve wet my pants.  That would be embarrassing.  For someone else.  That’s actually happened to me before and I couldn’t stop laughing).     

Anyways, luckily, I live close to work and within walking distance of everything I need.  I’m really in no hurry to fix the car.  That doesn’t mean I won’t fix it.  This actually gives me the time I need to really fix it.  I’ll get to spend some quality time under the hood this summer (though someone else will have to replace those CV axels cause though I’m pretty awesome, I’m not awesome enough to lift my own engine block…I know, sad is the world). 

Lets see…so how’s the writing going?  Well, slow.  I’ve been feeling particularly uncreative lately, which is actually kind of depressing.  I think I need some sunshine.  A good friend at work has this sunshine lamp and I always feel so good around it.  I want one.  I’m not saying that I think it will improve my writing or anything, but I did write more than 15 pages while sitting at a desk near my friends sunshine lamp, all the while keeping up on all of my work related duties.  Then again, I always come up with loads of good material while I’m at work. 

Well, I’m watching V on ABC now.  I loved the old one when I was a kid and I love the new one now (Go reptiles!!) J

Another year...goodie!

This year, I will publish my book.  I'm not going to bother with any other resolutions.  I already quite smoking and stopped drinking coffee every day, stopped drinking more than once a month and started eating better and working out. 

Okay, now that the resolution part is over I'll tell you what I've been up to this year (I know, it's been so long).  I no longer have a roommate (YAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!!!!!!).  I love living alone.  I love solitude.  I get my place all to myself now and I've been writing every day without interruptions.  I think I've pulled off at least twenty pages since the first.  I doodled around a little with watercolor paints (I'm not very good at it but it is fun).  I pulled muscles working out on Sunday while watching Starship Troopers, now my ribs hurt something fierce.

Now I’m sitting here watching Lie to Me and feeling my blood sugar drop.  It’s an interesting sensation.  First your ability to comprehend simple things starts to go (Like that sentence, it seriously took me about 10 minutes to write!!).  Then your muscles start to feel kinda fuzzy and your hands shake and your teeth start chattering….I must eat immediately.  Be right back. 

Alright, I’m back and I’m fed.  I had a big bowl of cream of rice cereal covered in butter and smothered in strawberry syrup (rice wouldn’t have helped by itself).  Now I’m sipping a huge cup of Vanilla Rooibos tea (yum!) and feeling somewhat sluggish (typical reaction).  Hypoglycemia…the result of a high metabolism.  Some people hate me for it…

Anyways, so I really don’t have much to write about.  There will be more later on.  Right now I’m just looking forward to completing 50 more pages of my book and having my sister down for the weekend coming up (two days of good food, shopping, gossip, good wine and good company), and now I even have a guest bedroom to put her in J. 

Till next time!