Developing a Character

So at the moment I am studying developing a character and I thought I would put up a little post on tips for when describing a character and what not.

When describing your character remember to use the five senses:

- Sight (What can you character see? Can they see the boy staring at them five rows down the hall of the library? Can they see the person in the desk across not turning the page? Can they see the computer screen of the person on the couches looking at a weird website?)

- Hearing (Can they hear the click as someone types? The sound of someone dragging their feet? The soft hum of the air con? The tapping of someone pen?)

- Taste (Can they taste the salt on their lips from the run to the library? The coke cola lingering on their tongue?)

- Smell (The smell of the sweaty jock who just walked in the library. The smell of old and used books. The smell of the heavy perfume that girl has on. The smell of McDonnell's someone tried to sneak into the library.)

- Touch (The etchings in the desk. The ripped edge from the book where someone had torn something out. The locket they always have around their neck.)


This is something I really need to work on. I tend to remember and sometimes add one of the five in but I feel like you need to try and about three in, at least. Of course you can over do description so try and be tasteful in it. I know I tend to skip description if I know the author can't write it. At least it helps me get through the book when I don't have to read it but then I read every little word in Harry Potter...

Thats's all I have for today. I think I'll go watch an episode of the Vampire Diaries. Ha. I never wanted to get into that show. Ah well. It's kinda cute.

Bridge

It's like a bridge that has been broken in the middle. You can't get to the other side without first fixing the gap. You can look and earnestly desire the other side but the fact of the matter is your going to be standing in the same place for an awfully long time. You gotta get building so you can get to the other side soon. Not now, but soon.

That's my revelation for today. Not bad. And I would just like to add at the bottom of this rather short post that I rather dislike hypocrites. Yep, I said it. Ah, well now I have that off my chest I have better things to do :)

Until next time...

Now

Such a simple three letter word yet when it came to me I knew, I just knew, I was to begin writing again. I had stopped for a while, I wont lie I had began to get bored of the nothingness that was becoming of the words the flowed out of my mind and onto the page, but that three letter word reminded me not to stop, to never stop. So yet again I'm writing my spiels and having a marvellous time. And I would just like to add a bit of my assignment I went to hand in today. It's two paragraphs that I came up with from their first sentence. So without further ado, my paragraphs:

"Prepare for take-off" I heard the captain say, but my mind was a million miles away. The letter in my hands felt like it weighed a ton and the bag above my head, filled with many others much the same, felt like it could land on my head any minute. It was two days ago when I had gotten the news of my dad's death. It had been on the front page on the newspaper. There had been no call, no text message, not even an email, just a one way flight ticket that had somehow ended up on my bed when I had gotten home that day. 

Now, sitting on the plane, the heaviness of all the letters my dad had sent me began to burden my shoulders. All unopened, except this one, the last one I would ever receive. I had cracked the seal of the envelope open hours before the flight, not that anyone would notice as I had perfectly resealed it again with ease. I didn't want to read it, but I had. I wanted to forget what the words had said, but I couldn't. I shouldn't have run away, but I did. And I knew you couldn't change the past because trust me, I had tried that one a million times. I let my head fall onto my hands let the world fade into the distance as I let my feeling slide down my cheek. 

"What have I done?" I whispered into the air and if the person beside me noticed, they thankfully chose not to comment.

(c) Brooke Ela

Thoughts

The Journey

I put my application in for Disney today. Some may wonder why exactly as it has nothing to do with writing and the answer is quite simple.
-I want to be inspired by walt Disney.
-It's something I've always wanted to do.
-To write for children you must understand them.
Three easy answers. All a part of a long journey. And, funnily enough, part of me would like to always be on a journey for I have no idea what I would do once I arrived at my destination.

Yes, I want to write for children but if on this path I find something else is pulling me another way or I get side tracked, I don't mind because the goal isn't to write a book, it's to learn how to change the world.


“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” — Leonardo da Vinci