Building a character profile

I'm working on a new story - writing small bits of it while on break at work, using a computer program when at home. Last night, I worked on character profiles. The program asks for height, eye and hair color, favorite book, movie, music, political thinking, religion, etc.  I really noticed a difference in building the character with this program,  it was easier. By defining the character on paper in more detail, I'm able to visualize the person better. By connecting the character to a friends physical attributes for the time being, they are in the room with me living the story.  It reminded me of  building a Wii character on the boys video game.
I think one of the problems with the story I've worked on for eight years or more is that I don't see one of the main characters the way  I wrote her. The red hair is supposed to be an important part of the story that shows her lineage to the first king. I don't see her with red hair in my minds eye. I think this has been more of a stumbling block then I realized.

How about your characters? Do they come to life in your story looking different then you described them?

the collection of ideas

You don't have to be sitting at the computer or with pen and paper in hand to work on your story. Most of my ideas for scenes come as I'm falling asleep living through a small section of a scene. Then theres all that time while walking behind the push mower, or on the rider, you can't talk to anyone, so let the characters talk in your mind. Any of the household and outdoor chores are great times to let the mind wander over a scene. It helps to mentally edit before you write it down.
Sometimes the day is so busy, that I have to use chores for mental writing and then use the 15 minute breaks at work to speed right it all down. 

Use choretime today to help you improve your story.

We spend all that time teaching the adverbs and adjectives

As a homeschooling mom, I'm getting English grammar for the second, third, and fourth time. This time around finding adverbs and adjectives has been easier and 'understandable'. In seventh grade it made no sense, and I had to make extra credit posters to pass.   Writing improved sentences always includes adding adverbs and adjectives - dressing up the sentence.

Now, as I practice the craft of novel writing, I shake my head at all the dispensable words writers should not use - those adverbs and adjectives for instance, or cutting out prepositional phrases.
Writing for publication is like training for the Olympics, it's a whole different ball game from recreational sports.  Some days it wears you out and you wonder why you go through all the struggles, then there is that flash of hope and it's worth it again. Oh man, I just ended with a preposition. Uh.

Have fun this week.

W.L. 2

In the past, I'd get upset if I couldn't sit down and write on one story each day. It just doesn't happen with raising three boys, homeschooling, teaching classes at church, and working a part time job. My husband then bought me a hard back journal. I take it to work with me and use my 15 minute breaks to work on scenes. During skeet lesson, horse riding lessons, soccer, you name it - when I'm waiting for the boys, I can write. The time just flies, especially the 15 minute work breaks. When I get home, the computer has my other story waiting for me. That's the hard one to get to, especially now with summer chores. When I do sit down to the computer, I have fresh eyes for the story.

Keep writing, even if its on toilet paper.

Writing lesson 1 - read

I've been reading almost everything in the Christian fantasy, young-adult area for the last five years. I have three boys and I read what they read. I want to know what they like to read. We pass series after series between us. One of  my stories will fit that genre perfectly.  Recently though, I've had a hankering to do something more on the horror side.  Trouble was deciding which character's POV to build. I picked up a Stephen King novel from the library for the holiday weekend - not my usual catagory, and found the path for this next book.
Lesson 1 - Read. Read from the genre you want to write, but also pick up different genres.

Thanks for stopping by. I'd love to hear from you.