Wranglin' the Story...

Click the image to see it larger (and to see the progress of the beard contest ... yeah, that's basically as far as I've gotten in a month).

When I got into chapter 4 of my new novel, I felt myself heading towards a BLOCK! I'll reiterate that normally I know where the story is heading and I map it all out ahead of time, working through the problems so that once I get to the writing, I just have to get from point A to point B and enjoy myself.

But, with this one, it's wanting to leap out all over the place and that makes me excited, but also a little nervous that I'll end up in a corner, then some deadlines will come crashing down, I'll hesitate and procrastinate, and before ya know it, I haven't written in a few of weeks and I'm lost on the story. That could be a helpful thing to recharge, or it could put the project in limbo indefinitely. I'm trying to avoid it altogether.

So, today I decided that I needed to start wrangling it in.

I sat down and started fleshing out the Characters, Plot, and Theme.

This is a lot of fun. I've found questions to ask yourself about your characters from a bunch of sources from screenwriting books to children's literature books, and have compiled a list. Some of my favorites include:

. What does your character WANT?
. What does your character LOVE?
. What does your character FEAR?
. Why does your character INVOLVE himself in extreme situations?

These also help to develop your PLOT. But, you also have to ask yourself what changes the character will go through and why, and a lot of that revolves around the THEME. So, to develop my theme, once I figure out what the heck it is, I make a list of how my characters, events, and even the environment can support the theme. For instance, if your theme is "Don't Be Afraid to Take Chances," you can have characters who are afraid of taking chances and characters who are not, and maybe your main character looks up to them. You can have a lot of examples where your 'fraidy cat will have to take chances in order to save a friend and finds out that taking chances can be a good thing. Chuckie from "Rugrats" is a good example. ;o)

I also took some time to draw out characters and elements from the world my story takes place in. But, I can't show ya those yet. Sorry. I think I'll need a few more days of developing before I'll be able to get back into the writing.

Okay, on to phase two of my day: The Workout! Then, I will on to coloring some more Nightwing: Fundamentals

Have a splindiferous day! ;o)