Scrambling the Pot

Today I'd like to propose a little creative writing exercise for you writers out there. It's no secret that with so much of our effort and energy poured into our WIPs that we can sometimes drive straight into a roadblock of ideas. At the very least, we can become so immersed into our current WIP that we develop a sort of tunnel vision that stifles our creativity. With this in mind, I present to you my creative writing exercise, which I'll call:

"Scrambling the Pot"

First of all, in order to participate in this exercise, you need to have at least 2 WIPs (even if one of them is on hold)

The object of this exercise is to write a short story using protagonists from your WIPs. You may only use Protagonists in this short story and may use as many as you like from any work in progress you currently have. This short story should be general style of beginning, middle and end, as well as contain some kind of conflict/solution scenario.

The idea behind this is to help you see how dimensional your MC's are. It will help you to understand their similarities as well as contrasts, giving you room to expand on their development.

Capturing the Evil

We all know that we want our characters to be memorable. It takes skill, effort and practice to really get it right and when the pen hits the paper we want our characters to truly come alive.

Last night I worked on a new painting, based on the popular anime OVA's called Hellsing, and in it, I painted a portrait of Alucard (that's Dracula backwards, for those of you who don't realize or know) and I failed to capture his "evil." In the series, he is not necessarily evil himself, but there is a certain evil quality that surrounds him. I did not capture it in the painting and as I look at it I can't help but think about how well I'd do capturing it in writing.

What do you do to, as a writer, to capture a bad guy's "evil?" Have you done it well, or do you still need to work on it.

P.S. I AM RE-Painting the right side and there is a strong possibility that Alucard will not be there in the next version.

Living Characters

I've written on this subject before and I'm sure it won't be the last words I say about this topic, but ultimately I'm having trouble reigning in my character.

Meet "Girl X" The love interest of my MC for my current novel tentatively called "Watchers" aka "The Awakening."


(for the record, she doesn't look like this, but I liked the expression for image sake)

Girl X, was supposed to be someone completely different than she is now. She is supposed to be nigh untouchable. She is supposed to be pristine, glass-like in her fragility, equally submissive in attitude and ultimately come across as weak. What she really is, is irrelevant. The problem I'm having is, her personality is shaping out differently. Is it detrimental to the plot, not so much, but does it bother me that I can't seem to fit my character's complex into the character... YES.

I had a similar problem with a character in Trueborn. The MC and his brother were swapping personalities and making choices that I had intended for the other to make. It feels like I'm trying to write a story about living characters who don't want to be written different than they really are. It's like they are rebelling against my finger strokes and key clicks. It's like they are developing themselves.

What is your experience with character development before and during the novel writing process?

I May Never Finish My Novel

I recently purchased a book called "The Writer's Guide to Character Traits," to help me in the development of new characters for my novels. I have a pretty vivid imagination, but when it comes to the dynamic nature of a character, there are certain qualities that are inherently more common in certain personality types. As I was scanning through the pages, searching for a character type for my WIP's antagonist, I ran across the trait called "Perfectionist." I couldn't pass up reading it, since I've always felt that I was a perfectionist, and I found that I was absolutely right. The qualities and description were almost dead on and I really felt like it helped put into words how I've felt about myself for years.

I realize there are a myriad of character types out there, but which categories would you put yourself into? I look forward to hearing from you all!