ROW80 – Page 35 – Linda Nelson

I just read a post about how a normal character is boring.

What is normal anyways?

Is it the person who keeps to themselves and never has more than one or two friends? Some would consider that boring.

How about the blonde bombshell who doesn’t get what is going on about her except that so and so is not wearing the latest fashion?

Do all your characters live in a mansion or do some of them grow up in a trailer park?

I think there are many different versions of normal. What may seem normal to one person stands out to someone else. It is a difference in personalities and perceptions.

But if you think about it, each different type of personality can be considered normal to that type of personality.

I recently heard that Passive/Aggressive personalities happen to be the most common type. This is followed by the Manipulator, Manic Depressive, and Socio Paths, just to name a few.

If one of the above people read your book and it happened to have a character with their personality type they too might say that the character is boring.

This is where they say, one should write the story for themselves and not for the reader. You cannot possibly make every reader happy unless you wrote a book using all the personalities combined in one story. The character would have to have split personalities, so, unless you are about to write a novel like “Sybil” then don’t try it.

Keep it simple and write the story you would want to read. Chances are there are a whole slew of other readers out there just like you.

ROW80 Update:

I’m still going at it. I have not worked on Road Salt since the day before Christmas. Or, I should say, I have not opened the file since the day before Christmas. I have to say that because it has been on my mind for the past few days.

I guess it is plotting time once again.

At first I thought I was at the end of the book and then added more to it. Now I have given it more thought and I see another addition in the works for the ending of the book. Maybe it won’t end so much on a dark note after all.

My goal is to bring the ending full circle back to the beginning of the book to answer the question Carol asks Karla, “Please forgive me.” She will have her answer at the end of the book.

My characters need a bit more building too. Or at least one Character does. That is Max, Karla’s new boyfriend. Even though he is present in the story, he seems to have a very minor part until the end. I will have to see if I can develop him some more and find a way to create his character for the readers to relate to or feel sorry for him. But I have to remember I am the first reader of the story, and that I am writing for me first and for most. If I can relate or feel sorry for him then hopefully everyone else will stand a chance of doing the same.

The weekend is coming up fast. I will give it a big push starting on Saturday. I have no other plans for this Holiday weekend beside our annual Chinese Food Feast on New Year’s Eve Night.

One Last Thing:

How to reveal – describe a person character in a Short Story ? (vixstories.wordpress.com)
Why Character Archetypes Aren’t Just About Commercialism (hugs-and-chocolate.com)

Yesterday was my monthly NHRWA meeting. We always have such a great time. One of my fellow writers of this group is trying to research a particular question about how does a guy know when his man-hood is about to be activated when he has no clothes on. We have had our husbands answer with many different, but similar answers. None of which actually answers the question.

The number one answer has been: All the blood rushes from the big head to the little head. That’s it…

So how do you know if you don’t know???

The questions like this one are what causes the groups to be so hilarious.

NHRWA Guest Speaker – Miranda Neville

We had a guest speaker, Miranda Neville. She spoke to us about Social Media and Promotion.

She said, “First off, be genuine.”

In other words be yourself, write the way you speak. Don’t fake it. People will know if you are trying to be that which you are not. They just know.

Networking is important. It is not who you know, but who does so and so know. They may know someone who might be interested in reading your work.

It is much easier to promote someone else’s work than it is to promote your own.

And try to do as little direct promoting as possible. Plain and simple, people don’t like spam unless it comes in a can, and that too can be questionable.

She gave us a lot of good information and the above are just some of the tidbits she left us with.

Writing Sprints

This is something new for me. During the meeting yesterday one of the gals mentioned a writing exercise to help one write more consistently. I decided to give it a try.

This exercise is based on Interval Training. Just like what is used by those who do sports.

It is believed that by keeping work out intervals limited to 90 minute cycles one will build up greater stamina and have fewer writing blocks.

I gave it a try to day and found that I did keep writing longer. I would step away from the work in progress every thirty to ninety minutes and I was able to keep going until 2pm.

I have half the manuscript edited and added another 2k words to the story.

Most people have to cut their stories, I on the other hand have to go back in and add to it. When I write a draft, that is what it is – a draft.

ROW80 Update

The edit for Road Salt is half done. My characters are beginning to take shape.

It is funny how one simply placed sentence added in a chapter can make such a big difference in knowing more about the character. If a character asks a question, most likely they will receive an answer.

I am still keeping with my Christmas Goal of having the first edit done.

I know I can do this.

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