Wow. It’s been over a month since I’ve blogged. I’ve been trying to get back to it, but life kept happening. I won’t go into all the details, but let’s just say the circumnavigation included a computer death, a back injury (unrelated to the computer death), 3 elementary school visits (also unrelated to the back injury), a flashmob, a haircut, completing my latest rewrite on a new novel (yay), a dream about a roller coaster for executives. And this:
The back injury happened while falling into a pile of logs trying to retrieve this one for my garden:
Okay, the part where I carried this by myself to the car may have exacerbated my back injury a bit. But lookie how cool my garden driftwood log is! And my free beach log only cost me $300 in massage and chiropractor expenses!
So, while I was grumbly and lying around recovering, I entertained myself by watching 2 seasons of The Killing – a really fantastic series (oh, but don’t tell my husband I watched season 2 without him) and inspirational youtube videos of X Factor auditions.
I’ve never watched X Factor, American Idol, The Voice, or any of these other singing shows, and I don’t think I’d watch a whole show or a whole season. But what I loved over and over again was when the person auditioning took the judges by surprise. I loved when what they expected was turned on its head.
A few of my favourites included:
Jeffery Adam Gutt
Panda Ross
Tate Stevens
Luke Lucas
and from Britain’s Got Talent, Charlotte and Jonathan
The list goes on, really (I probably watched 100 videos). And it’s made me think both about expectation and inspiration. We can’t help but to judge people the moment we see them. It’s human nature. And I find it completely inspiring when my own expectations are blown out the door.
YOUR WORKOUT
Literary agent Donald Maas, author of Writing the Breakout Novel, says that to make your characters universal, you have to make them unique, which sounds like an oxymoron. But, he explains, that our uniqueness is the universal thing about us.
What’s unique about us might be a talent – a small one or a large one or a quirky one. Remember in BREAKFAST CLUB when Claire (Molly Ringwald) placed her lipstick between her breasts and put it on without her hands, claiming it was her only talent? John Green’s protagonist in AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES has a talent for making anagrams.
What is your character’s talent? Is it integral to the plot or a bonus character trait? Does your antagonist or villain have a talent as well?
1) Pick one of your characters to use for this exercise.
SET YOUR TIMER for 7-10 minutes.
Start with the line:
If my character had nothing to do all day, he’d occupy himself by…
Write without stopping, crossing out, rereading, or editing.
2) SET YOUR TIMER for 10-12 minutes.
Start with the line: My character is most proud of the way he…
3) SET YOUR TIMER for 15-20 minutes.
Now write a SCENE in which another character comes upon your character doing this thing at which he or she is so talented.
Make the scene awkward for the character by either a) making the character ashamed of being caught, or b) making the person who catches him in the middle of this thing either critical or snide about it.
Start with the line: Character X walks into the room and laughs …
Write without stopping, crossing out, rereading, or editing.
