Hi, I've been working on a particular writing experiment recently, and wanted to see if anyone else here has done anything similar. I love getting really nice, good quality notebooks to write in - mainly because I feel more motivated to write if I've got a beautiful notebook to write in as opposed to a scruffy old notepad (I know it shouldn't matter, but somehow ... it does). I have lots of different notebooks for different purposes, but use one in particular as a collection of anecdotes, diary entries, stories, poems and sketches by a single character. The layout's a bit mad and the character is forever writing about different stages in her life at random pages, mainly because my character has something of an untidy mind (to say the least!) and doesn't understand the concept of using one page at a time, so goes back and forth between different parts of the notebook. I'm doing this particular exercise because the character is mute, and is trapped in a very difficult and uncomfortable position without having any means of expressing herself openly. As a result, I decided that she would then pour everything into her writing, and the drawings that accompany her writing. I'm personally finding it very useful in helping me flesh out my character's understanding of her environment, and even more useful in getting to grips with her feelings about herself (I plan to write in the first person, so that's crucial for me). So, has anyone here done anything similar, i.e. creating a project of some description as if it was created by a character in your story?
I've probably done some drawings I would have said a character did, but aside from just writing in first person I've largely not done that. There was one notebook I started to write some stuff in as if it were one of the books mentioned in the novel, but I got bored of it and the books no longer exist in the context of the story so there's no point writing extracts from them any more. I find it largely useless to write a lot of great creative stuff which is never going to be included in the novel. I dream a lot around the characters and story and often have ideas I don't include, but I never write it down, and I just let the story carry all the characterisation I need. If I need to come up with more somewhere else I'd feel like I wasn't doing the most thorough job. But then, I remember the emotional events of the novel all the way through very clearly and keep building on that, so I don't want to confuse myself either by writing a scene where a character explores that issue, and then not include it, because I would either just have to copy my extra curricular writing into the story anyway, or feel I'd compromised the creativity because I'd feel the better exploration wasn't even in the novel. I build up the characters brick by brick within the novel, and I don't like building ugly extensions to that house that I'd just have to rip down before selling the thing.
My characters have blogs - not back into the swing of them since being ill - hope to start up again on Sunday.
That's actually a really interesting concept. Sadly, I can't really consider doing that since it will seem drastically out of character for main characters to write in a blog. I'm all for it though. I love reading bonus insights into characters. I remember reading the novelization of Batman: No Man's Land and every chapter started with Oracle (former Batgirl) reading from a journal of new events passed.
I haven't done anything like this, but I'm thinking about creating a blog or journal for one of my characters. All because it seems like a fantastic idea. XD
Lucillia, my MC, has a dream journal. Her friend/possible future lover Thessa has a scrapbook in her old home she filled with bits about the war. Lucillia's unnamed mother and father have love letters they have written to each other because they aren't allowed to be together. They've never thrown a single one out.
One of my main characters is a singer, so I wrote some songs for him that do not appear in the novel. Nobody hears them except family ...
I've never had a notebook for a specific character, but in my early post-collegiate years, before the PC became a necessity, there was nothing like a crisp, new, pristine notebook to fire the imagination. A blank notebook seemed just crammed with possibilities.
I definitely agree that it is very wasteful, in a way, to keep a notebook in the sense that I did. However, I find it immensely helpful in allowing me to really get to know my charecter, and it gives me added confidence when writing them 'for real' so to speak. I find you can over-load a story with the traits and experiences of a particular charecter, so find it useful to channel all that excess somewhere else.
Wouldn't it be cool if you became really famous because of the book and could then auction off the in-character notebook for millions?
I find it useful for when i am resting a story, it helps me keep in touch with characters I am not using. All of my characters are in stories that easily lead into other stories. Time spent with my characters is never wasteful lol plus there are some scenes I have written just for them that I wouldn't put in any books - just stupid things like Socrates and Nate ice dancing or finishing off a scene that is a bit too grown up for a particular book. Like my Abbot pointed out one day unless I am writing him he isn't alive and some I feel more guilty about leaving behind than others. Also not all my characters that keep blogs would make a novel length story but are fun in little segments.
I terrorize my characters with no intent of using the piece I will time travel my French Quarter natives to a Bedrock swinger's club to see how they will act and react.
