Hello everyone! It's been a long time since I've posted, and I'm sorry for that. Life threw me some fast balls these past few days and I've been struggling to keep up. This has been the first time I've been able to set myself down in front of the computer for a proper blog post that isn't just, "Oh hey, I have ten minutes and I'm not really going to say anything important".
It also coincided with a bit of a poor writing spell in my novel preparations. I tried to flesh out the last section in a deeper way, and I wasn't getting anywhere that made much sense. The root of the problem was that I didn't know my characters. This has been an area that my writing has really lacked in so far. Since I've never really written long stories before, none of my characters have been in depth at all, and have only really served to progress the plot.
My early attempts to give my characters depth was to assign them basic traits. Loyal, athletic, protective, etc., etc. While trying to flesh out that last section, my main character was having trouble finding the next step in the adventure, At the time I didn't recognize the problem, so I just quit trying to write it and told myself that I would come back for it later.
Over the weekend, I learned something about people. Sure, they have traits like hard working, or athletic or protective, but they don't just have them. Those traits are based on a a set of core beliefs that that person keeps deep within themselves. Sometimes they don't even know they have them. Then, I realized why I couldn't progress in the story.
My characters didn't have a set of core beliefs to dictate their actions/traits. Without that set of core beliefs, they would always be empty shells trying to be a person. After that, I tried writing it again, and low and behold, my main character knew precisely what to do next. Suddenly a whole new chain of events was born, dragging an entirely new plot arc into existence! It really was quite brillant, and it excited me all over again for this story.
In other news, my writing totem project hasn't progressed at all. I ended up using this weekend to catch up with some old friends who have been off to college for a while. I've figured out that I do want to engrave some stones with something meaningful, but I'm not exactly sure what that is yet.
Also, I've worked a bit on the title for my book, and I'm starting to favor a pair of names.
Take Solace
Or...
A Shepherd and His Flock
I've changed the working title to the second one, so at least I have a working title I like. I'm getting more and more excited for this whole project as November approaches and my emotions seem to enjoy rollercoasters much more then I do. At times I just can't wait to get started and I really think that it's gonna be really good, and other times I look at what I've prepared and cry silently to myself about how terrible my book's gonna be(slight exaggeration).
Well, good or bad there's no point in going back now! TALLY-HO! :D
Writing my Future,
Marc Eshleman
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