Monday, May 30, 2011

Why I Didn't Write This Week

I didn't really think through when to blog, I guess. I should've waited until after I returned from being six days away from the internet. Had I just waited to complain about not having a finished book and blamed my procrastination until last week, I would be on schedule. But now that I'm here, I will say that I really was away from my computer for six days. Not that I couldn't write without my computer, but I couldn't blog about why I didn't write. Were there too many negatives in that last sentence?
Last week, I stayed with my friend who just moved into a brand new apartment. As I love the aliases and simple adjectives, her name on this blog shall henceforth be Smarty Bookington, in honor of all the books she had strewn around her apartment when I arrived. There really is so much more to Smarty than books, but this was the first name that came to mind, and I usually feel that's the best way to go.
It was great spending time with Smarty. I helped her out where I could; washing dishes and buying a curtain for her shower (because I like to smell nice). We explored the area around her complex and found a terrific bakery! And we watched "Prince of Persia", which is just the silliest movie.
I've spoken with Smarty before about my story, and even let her read two chapters. She asked me if I'd found time to write, to which I answered no. But I told her about an idea I was working with to flesh out the storyline.
Without giving too much away, I have somewhere between fifteen to twenty chapters written already, as well as a pretty lengthy outline. The issue is there are holes that need to be filled in and things of that nature. It's very possible that I have a series on my hands, but I don't entirely have a sense of direction still for my story.
The idea I told her about was a way to motivate my characters. It was something that would impact them and cause conflict for them throughout the story, but would put them all in a dark place. Smarty was not too keen on the idea and suggested it might affect the readers negatively. That immediately made me think about the tv show "Stargate Universe". I am convinced that the reason it failed so miserably was you couldn't really root for the characters. Apart from the math whiz kid, there was no one on that show that I liked. The endearing qualities were few and far between, and I don't want that for my characters.
I'm wondering if maybe it would read better if I wrote out a chapter with that element in there. Can a character be both horrible and endearing? Dexter, the character of both the book series and tv show, seems to be (though I admit, I haven't read or seen either one yet).

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