Characters

One of my favorite parts of writing is thinking up interesting characters. But, you can't just say, "Here's my character, Joe! He had blue eyes and brown hair and likes doughnuts!" There's not enough backstory. So I like creating character sheets (link to an example—scroll down to the very bottom) for my characters, even the minor ones (though I don't put much on those). But today, I was looking at other writing blogs, and found a really good character sheet at the blog of writer Gail Gaymer Martin. I thought it was great, though I made a couple of changes for mine, seeing as I'm writing fantasy and one of the categories was "Kind of Car" and they don't exactly have cars in my story. Here's my character worksheet based on Gail's:

CHARACTER NAME

Age:         Height:          Weight:           Eye Color:               Skin:

Hair Color/Style:

Paragraph describing character:

Idiosyncrasies and mannerisms:

Pet peeves:

Strengths:

Flaws:

Greatest need or want (long-range goal):

Short range goal:

Greatest secret:

Most powerful dream:

Major life-changing moments:

How does character overcome greatest weakness for happy ending?

How does this character influence decisions of other characters?

What does character learn by end of story?

Parents names and info:

Siblings names and info:

Significant relationships:

Backstory of character (such as religion, education, how they were raised, etc.)

Feel free to copy and paste this form for your own usage.

Sometimes we writers have these days...

Today, I picked up my computer, and stared at the open page of my book, and saw this:

"'Just do SOMETHING!' she yelled, picking up a random flask of potion, and flinging it at Gorthil. It exploded in a purple mushroom cloud when it hit a table and mixed with another potion.
'Come back, you insolent fools!' the mage yelled behind them. Quinna and Kellan kept running, knocking over tables and causing"

and realized that I had no idea what to write after "knocking over tables and causing". I stared at it for about five minutes before realizing that I had a severe, possibly life-threatening (at least for Quinna and Kellan), form of writers block. The only symptom which is worse is typing random letters:

"Quinna and Kellan kept running, knocking over tables and causing erjiefhhvg,adcv nkj;DSJjkdhuja;;SDJH FAdjfkff"

That means PUT DOWN THE COMPUTER RIGHT NOW AND GO DO SOMETHING THAT DOES NOT INVOLVE ANY THINKING. I luckily was not experiencing this, but it was almost that bad. Which could only mean one thing: Time for a blog post!
...
Uh oh. This is bad. I am experiencing blog writers block.
The first thing that comes to mind is that there are 17 days left of summer break, after which I shall go back to school. This is alarming for several reasons. 1). I am going in to high school. Anyone can understand why that's alarming (I think). 2). I will be bogged down by homework, which will leave less time for writing and blogging. Which means that after August 9th, all my fans (Yes, of course I have fans!) will be very sad, because there will be a lot less to read.
My goal is to do 1 chapter a day until then. That will be 17 chapters. Remember, I'm rewriting, so I am not actually writing a whole new chapter every day, although, that could happen, since I'm adding a bunch to the story.

Well, I sincerely hoped this would be longer, but it looks like this is all I can think of. Who KNOWS what would happen if I tried to finish that chapter. Hey, I was kept awake last night by thunder that sounded like a thousand boulders raining from the sky and landing on Half Dome, and lightning every 2-3 seconds. I'm TIRED. Not to mention that the day before yesterday, I ran 2 miles in 100 degree heat. Then I stayed up until eleven watching cooking shows with my friend.

It's official

Hi there! It's official—Dark Blue Star will be out 2013. And it has an Official Teaser! In case you're wondering, I am not doing traditional publishing. I am publishing through CreateSpace—a print-on-demand publishing service by Amazon. It's going to be harder to get public, though, but with the help of my loyal fans (ha ha!) I'm sure I will be well known.

Official "teaser" for Dark Blue Star

Sure, Kellan Ashbrook's life is...unusual.

He's a wizard of the highest order. There are only three others like him. His mother waters her garden using crushed dragon scales, grows plants made of real gold, and Kellan has a book containing instructions on how to do almost anything imaginable.

But his life is about to get a lot more unusual. It all starts the day he finds the ominous news in the market. Then he meets a girl. Not just any girl. A girl with curly hair the color of flame and eyes the color of the sea.

She's Quinna Fallglen. Her uncle is the ruling King of Daros, the most powerful kingdom of all the lands.

But when Kellan is whisked away in the dead of night by the most dangerous man in all the lands, a man of the House of Darkmoon, who ruled Daros before the Fallglens, and wishes to restore himself to the throne of Daros, Quinna has a choice.

Either she stays at home, in her safe palace, with her family, or she risks her life for a boy she hardly knows.

She chooses the latter. And not even Gorthil Darkmoon knows what that will bring.

Dark Blue Star. Coming 2013.

Joys of a new blog

Okay, now I am into this "blog" thing. Like I just spent 30 minutes customizing my template! It's SO FUN!
I should go and do some Actual Writing On My Story.
That sure seems short compared to my other posts.

Writing 101

Okay, I'm back, and today I Promise to be Sane. Because I am writing this in the Morning today. Not at 9 at night.
Anyway, today's topic is Writing Tips from a Pro. Well, I'm not exactly a Pro, but who cares? Not me, anyway!
How do I write? How does anyone, for that matter, write? Well, I use the same method used for thousands of years, popular with now-famous writers such as...well...famous writers! I have named this method, after hours of intense contemplation, the "Hmmmmmm..." method. Because, basically, you find a nice comfy chair, and get your Laptop Which Is Approximately 73 Years Old But Still Works, and you sit down, power up your LWIA73YOBSW, and go "Hmmmmmm..."and stare into space until you have written the Great American Novel! Trust me! It works!
So what you're asking now is, "Why do you need a LWIA73YOBSW?" And the answer is simple. Write this down, folks:

Modern computers have WAY too many interesting functions to be good for writing. You need a computer that has exactly 3 functions: word processing, thesaurus, and (SLOW) internet access so that you can interrupt your writing to write on your blog.

So if you have one of those new-fangled Mac OS 10013782 Panther Cheetah Snow Leopard computers (Yes, I am a Mac person! And don't tell me my computer is "wimpy". It's easily heavy enough to inflict a minor head injury, though it might cause damage to the computer) the truth is, you're never going to get anything done. Trust me! I've tried! My dad has a MacBook Pro and while I've done a lot of good writing on it, it's NOTHING compared to the stuff I get on the LWIA73YOBSW.

Which brings me to WORD PROCESSING. For many (2) years I wrote on Microsoft Word, before my dad said, "Hey Brook! Why don't you try this program? It has (a bunch of cool features)!"

And I said, with great wisdom, "NO!"

Because I liked Microsoft Word. It was a Great Program.

But then I told my dad, "Okay, I'll try it." There is a free trial. And when I tried it, it was The Greatest Program For Writers Ever Invented. You can keep each chapter in a separate document, but all the chapters in one Project. You can easily jump from chapter to chapter. You can give  each chapter a Status. You can give each chapter a different icon in the Binder. I love it!

"So," you're asking, "What is this so-called  Greatest Program For Writers Ever Invented?"

And I'll tell you. It's called...

—> Scrivener <—

I'd say, if you're serious about writing, especially a novel, you Need This Program. It is AWESOME. And it works on my LWIA73YOBSW!

And yes, it is worth all $45.

Anyways, my next Tip From A Pro is, if you're planning to write a book, make a Info File first (Which, by the way, is very easy on Scrivener). Outline each character, setting, and even the plot. If necessary, use one of the many Random Name Generators: Seventh Sanctum, Serendipity, Random Names, or (if you're writing fantasy, like me, this one generates a TON of "crud", but there are GREAT names in there sometimes) the Fantasy Name Generator.

That way, when you start your book, you are very knowledgeable about the world it is set in. I write fantasy, and I made up the whole entire world, so this is essential. Even if you're not writing fantasy, it's good to know your characters well. Here is a typical page, and this is MY CHARACTER SO DON'T STEAL HER!

Selenia Ashbrook—39—Female

Hair: Long, straight, dark brown, often braided or in small bun at the back of her head

Eyes: Brown

Skin: Tanned white

Height: 5’1”

Other Important Features: 

Bio:

Selenia is a short woman in her late thirties who is used to being and working alone. She lost her husband in the Third Dalymnan War. Her son, Kellan is her greatest support in all things. She has many deep sadnesses but she always has hope. Selenia works almost constantly to feed her and Kellan. Her son is her greatest friend and supporter. She loves him like no other and is sometimes overprotective.

Ha ha! Now you're curious! Who's Kellan? What is the Third Dalymnan War? Would it help you if I told you that I deleted a part to keep from giving anything away? Of course not. Mwah ha ha!

An introduction

Hi! My name is Brook, and as you will note, there is NO "E" at the end, and I HATE it when people assume that I have an "e" at the end of my name. Even my dentist. Doesn't it seem like these people with all these legal records and stuff should KNOW WHAT—

Ok. All right. Shut UP. This is a blog about my WRITING. Not my stupid "e", or lack thereof. Or the fact that my kind of tubby cat Melody just sat on the keyboard and wrote the following:

;sjknnnnnn ß∂ jcxbbh dfjZSdfghx.

Isn't that GENIUS? I should write this blog about Melody's writing, instead of mine. I can't even figure out how to do that little ß∂ thing (In case you're wondering, I copy-pasted that from Melody's composition. See: ß∂ß∂ß∂ß∂ß∂ß∂ß∂ß∂! I couldn't actually make it myself)

Yes, it's 9:13 at night and you can understand why my brain is not operating at full capacity. Right? Right? "Yes. Of course," you say. "That's perfectly normal."

But of course you don't mean it. You think I'm crazy. You think that—

Okaaay, now, back to writing. So, I am writing this story, well, actually, book, well, actually, it has 22 chapters. And this is going to be sort of a place where I can...get rid of writers block. Specifically, by writing whatever random things come to mind, which I read somewhere can help with writers block.

So the first thing I did yesterday, was, while reading over my COMPLETE STORY, had a sudden brilliant idea: Why don't I do a REWRITE? Which is where you write a completely new version of EACH CHAPTER.

(Now you are saying, "Great idea. I would do the same thing")

So now, instead of a complete story, I have...7 chapters. Admittedly, there was a reason, namely, the story was VERY BAD. I mean, people would read it and make a very astute comment when they were done, basically "Huh?". And then I would get angry mail. I would get angry mail from people who CAN'T EVEN READ, because that (okay, I'll call it this) first draft would send out Badness Rays, and even before you read it, you could tell it was going to be terrible.

Yes. So now I am in The Wonderful Land of Revision.

Anyways, here is the number one rule when reading my blog: Don't believe me when I say "This is a blog about my writing," because, let's be honest, it will be LOOSELY BASED ON THE FACT THAT I WRITE. This does NOT mean, however, that this blog will be about writing.

The second thing I have to say, is occasionally, I will put small parts of my story on here, and PLEASE, don't copy it and call it yours, or steal my character names. Believe me, not only is this bad, but it is also...(dum dum dum...)

PLAGIARISM!!!!!

According to my mother, who is a high school English teacher and therefore is knowledgeable about these things, plagiarism is punishable by the Ultimate Punishment: namely, a ZERO in the class.

But seriously, don't do it, it's just bad.

On that cheerful note, I should stop, because I'm tired, because Studies Show that Teenagers need More Sleep than Any Other Age Except Babies, and also, because the San Francisco Giants are in the eleventh inning, against the Houston Astros (aka the Dis-Astros), whom they should be soundly trouncing, but they are not, and this creates a certain amount of stress for us Giants fans (And in case you disagree with my choice of baseball team, such as you are a—yechhh—Dodgers fan, and you think that we stuffed the 2012 All-Star game ballot boxes, YES WE DID STUFF THE 2012 ALL-STAR GAME BALLOT BOXES AND WE ARE PROUD OF IT! WE HAD A PERFECT GAME, A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO! WE ARE HAPPY!).

Okay... see you next time.

Arrgh, Some Astro Named More just made a good play.

But mwahaha! Now Melky Cabrera is up! The Melkman! There remains hope!