Character Awakenings

Right now I'm doing a rewrite of a piece called "Simon," it's original working title was "Story of a Dead Man," and for a short while lived with the title "Memory files."

And in one of the scenes I was working on recently I was not satisfied with the dialogue. The second main character, Mindy, was profusely apologizing for her actions and when I compared that to an earlier scene where her character came through strongly I knew there was something wrong. She was coming across as weak and helpless which she is not. I pondered why and how I could strengthen the piece and suddenly realized that she was not sorry at all... she was pissed off. Wow, what an awakening!

And now, just as I thought I was on a roll and this would be the last draft, I have to change the whole scene and, in retrospect need to look at some of the past scenes and figure out if I got her mood right in them or if they too need to be changed.

However, I'm not too upset about it as it's moments like these where the character wakes up that provide the joy in my story composition. 

Coffee Contemplations

Coffee seems to be one of the stimulants most writer's have in common. On a recent trip to a cute little coffee shop about 20 minutes out of town I took a photo of their selection.

When I came across it this morning I began contemplating characters and coffee. As I am currently still in the middle of revising the story about Simon, I find myself wondering what kind of coffee he actually likes to drink - if any.

I'm not sure why this is important to know, but I somehow feel that his taste in coffee is pivotal to this final revision... like I'm going to add something which will just pop the story from the mediocre to the masterpiece with whatever detail it is I'm going to add. I think it has something to do connection and grounding, everyone who drinks coffee understands the importance of a good cup and how it makes them feel.

What kind of coffee does your character like?

Chagrined

I had to look up the meaning of this word after using it, and was chagrined to see it fit. My days have been so busy with summer and work I totally forgot to update the Word of the Day for, not just one week (as I first thought), but two weeks! Yikes!

However, it has been updated now and the word this week is Red Kayak. Last week, after finishing my 10 hour + work day I proceeded to take an Intro to Whitewater Kayaking course. 6:30 each evening found me making my way down to wherever we were meeting, stuffing myself into a wet suit and buckling into the required helmet and lifejacket, grabbing my paddle and cramming myself into the red kayak I was using.

It was something I always wanted to do and it's something I'm at least not a total idiot about either. Having a healthy dislike of flipping over I work very hard to make sure I stay upright. I still do not know how to roll, but really liked what the instructor said when he said, "If you are in a situation where you have to roll you've already made a mistake." Kayaking isn't about rolling it's about riding the water and I totally love the feel of the water under the kayak. I'm not so thrilled with going through large whitewater, with that I seem to have a love hate relationship; Deep down I totally and absolutely love it while consciously I find it hard work and am so concerned with staying upright I find it hard to enjoy the way I want to. Hopefully that will go with practice.

And so my red kayak and I enjoyed 3 evenings of adventure and I the only time I flipped and swam on the river was when I stupidly grabbed the sweeper instead of continuing to try and paddle around it. All in all it was a good run, although tiring and I look forward to doing more in the future while finding a way to turn this last adventure into a story.

I hope you all have as much fun navigating through storyland on this weeks word as I did in kayaking with it.