Second Entry~ Today I was fiddling around with my writings, and I wanted to fix any mistakes I'd made. This is something I've done a hundred times if not more. I've memorized almost every world of my first two chapters because of it. As well as the preface. I tend not to change anything too major. Mainly wording. Spelling was the main culprit at first, but that isn't an issue with these parts any more. A lot of what I've done is filling in. And I think I've finally gotten to a place where the first chapter has all the fill in stuff it needs. My second chapter could do with a few more paragraphs in the first section, but that too is pretty much done. When I write, I tend not to re-read from the beginning until I feel like I've come to an end. Or I'm coming back to it after a long time passing. And when I do re-read, I'm normally silent until I feel like it's finished. That's when I re-read for a second time but out loud. I'm able to hear the flow of my words much more easily, and tend to fix most of the major problems. Tonight I actually had my word doc read my first 2 chapters to me, instead of me reading it out loud myself, and I found that it helped a lot. There was a good flow, and I was able to concentrate more on what was written. I could catch things that didn't sound right. I fixed a few things that popped out at me. Because I wasn't reading myself, but listening to it being read, I could more easily tell when something sounded off. Hearing someone else's voice read back what I have written, even if it was just a computer's voice, was amazing. I'd never really gave much thought to listening to the computer read allowed to me before. Now I have effect pinned so I can use it whenever I write. I recommend trying it out. You can adjust the speed as well as the voice used. And since my character's a guy, and I'm a woman, I find it much better to hear a man's [computer man] voice reading to me, than my own girly one. Especially since I write in first person. I'm working on filling in the 3rd chapter right now. I've been on a tangent for a while, working on a story-line for one of my main characters. I always felt like something was missing for that character, but I never knew what until I found myself writing out something at random. Before I even knew what I was writing. I fell in love with the idea too, so I've been trying to work it out. But that's anther story. ~END~
This is my first blog post on Writing Forums! Yay!~ I've been struggling with something for a while now, and I think I may have found the solution! In a series I've started, I have two main characters (Jake & Arthur) that I plan to bring together in the second book. They're established in the first book as being best friends, and in the second book they realize just how close they actually are. However, I do not want the reader to know what I am planning! I have Arthur dating a woman named Amy in both books until circumstances arise in the second. Meanwhile, Jake dates a girl (short-term) as well as a boy (Henry) in the first book, with him actually falling in love with the boy and getting his heart broken pretty badly. My problem lies within the secret triangle I have created. 1) I do not want readers to foresee Jake & Arthur together 2) I wanted to establish to the readers that these two characters were NOT a couple, nor could they end up becoming one 3) Knowing that they are just friends, I still want "awe, but they'd be such a cute couple" to go through the readers minds every now and again as the read At first I thought about establishing a bad habit within my character Arthur. Maybe having him be verbal about women, but I thought that that would take away from his natural personality. As I'm writing this, I also realized that my readers might think he was over compensating, or feel as though bringing the two characters together in book two wouldn't feel natural. I posted on the forums searching for help, and although I received a few replies, most of what people replied had already gone through my own head as well. It wasn't until this morning when I was bored and looking at random forum posts that I realized the answer to my problems! Their personalities! Someone had asked for help on establishing a characters personality. They had no idea what their character's personality would be like, or how to start writing it out. I've never once had this problem, so I was curious, and went to see if this was an actual problem people had! As I skimmed through the post, I thought about how easily each of my characters personalities came to me. How Jake and Arthur's personalities are, and laughing because I knew their personalities was what gave them away too easily as a future couple. And then it hit me! Their personalities! I'd never once thought of changing their personalities to fix the problem I had, because they are who they were meant to be, however I quickly realized that that was also the solution! Part of Jake & Arthur and their friendship, especially in the second book, is based on the fact that they know almost everything about each other! That they don't even have to talk in order to know what the other one is thinking! Jake turns to Arthur for most of his decisions because he is his best friend, as well as college! If I were to create a scene early in the book where they are having one of their talks, I can bring up romantic preferences and other things to establish where they are in each other's eyes! The struggle would be bringing this up without being forced or obvious. Luckily, this would go perfectly with a certain plot point I already have established. I don't think this idea would have come so easily if I hadn't come across that post in the forums. Although it didn't give me any information straight out, it did make me think about my characters, and view the problem I had in a different light. I always thought it was a character development problem, but it wasn't! The real problem was how to establish the basis! End of first blog entry.