NaNoBlog 2002

NaNoBlog 2002
30 days. 50,000 words. No sweat.

Sunday, October 20, 2002

I've been very confused lately about my character, Lydia, and what she's like. She seems to be morphing on me. I want to think more about her childhood, what her parents are like, and how she got to where she is today. I pictured her as a very cynical, stoic person who had very little use for other people, but last night I started thinking that I saw her liking very passionate, emotional music--sort of dreamy-sounding music--which would suggest a more idealistic person than I was thinking of. So maybe something has just happened to make her close herself off from people, but inside she's much more emotional than she'll even admit to herself. I have no idea. I'm actually going to do some Myers-Briggs personality tests on her (personalitytype, humanmetrics, etc.) and see how she comes out... I'm thinking either INFJ or INTP, or maybe INFP. (I personally come out INTP, though I used to come out INFP, so who knows?! I see Lydia being more organized than me, though.)

I also got a possible idea for the beginning of the book, but I still have more thinking to do. I read in an old Writer's Digest article that you should begin your story at the point where your character gets "hit by a brick"--basically, when something happens to shake up his or her world. That was referring to short stories and I think novels sometimes have the luxury of starting more slowly, but 50,000 words is a pretty short novel. My original idea would have her geting hit by the proverbial brick a few chapters in, but now I may change it so that one "brick" starts flying through the window in Chapter 1--which is that her dad decides to move back to town (maybe!). The main brick that's going to hit her--that he's going to marry her annoying neighbor Shay's mother--still may not hit for a couple of chapters, but there will be hints that things are not going to be good. But I still haven't decided if I'm going to actually put Shay in the first scene, or just have Lydia talking about her, or even have a flashback to how they got to know each other, which says a lot about both of them, or if that event actually happens later... Meanwhile, though, I've got to do something about the mess that is my house, work on 3 other writing projects, and, oh yeah--change a messy diaper! {blecch} (The diaper-wearer, age 1, is currently pretending to sneeze blocks out of his mouth...he says "Ah Ah Chooooo!" and throws them across the room...the kid is a natural-born comedian!)

posted by Alison | 11:18 AM