Day 9

Day 9
At halfway took a break and went on a really great vacation. It was difficult picking up the threads of my character. Perhaps I should have taken Jacob along on the trip.

For Day #9 free write, yellow was the inspiration or starter. As before with colors I found that staring at yellow paper wrapped close to the face was a very good way to blank my mind. After staring at the other colors and quieting my mind, I had found it difficult to start the free write. With yellow the five minutes of free write flowed quickly and easily. Was it the yellow or the vacation, I don't know.

The Day #9 twenty minute writing session direction was to put my character in a situation and see how he responds. Since Jake lives in old Tucson, the situation that popped to mind was: accidentally walking into the street between two men who were about to shoot it out. The twenty minutes flew by although the number of words written was considerably less than usual.

Still haven't written a story. The process here might be called getting to know my character. Like meeting a new friend, it takes a while to learn about him/her. It is not an instantaneous process. But it is more complicated than that as it is also the process of creating that character. Like our knowledge of friends, what we know about our character may change in the middle of a story. For instance, in the middle of a story we may find his fear or his failure. That's ok, but we must be aware that then we must go back after we finish to make any changes needed to make the character consistent.

Try putting your character in a situation. You may be surprised by his or her reactions. You'll also know the character better.