A quoteful kind of day

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Beautiful People ~ Echo

“Respect your characters, even the minor ones. In art, as in life, everyone is the hero of their own particular story; it is worth thinking about what your minor characters’ stories are, even though they may intersect only slightly with your protagonist’s.”

Sarah Waters

Beautiful People, is a blog event created by two people: Sky and Georgie. They post ten questions each month, for you to answer about your character[s]. So you can know more about them. This is helpful if you want a well-developed character people can relate to, in a way.

I’ve seen it around a few blogs a couple of times and looked at the questions once or twice. It wasn’t until now that I’ve decided to do the writing meme. The only reason why I wanted to do it was because I’m bored and I want to get to know my Camp NaNoWriMo characters better. Plus, I’m quite curious about what their favorite color/book/flower/etc is.  

For this month, we got to choose our own questions by either making up our own or using a set of past questions that were already used in their archive, because Sky and Georgie were busy over the summer. So I decided to use the very first set of questions that they posted, considering that, I’m new to the whole thing. So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, here is the first character.

Quick info on the story world: In the year 2200, America is literally silent. You get rich for having no words come out of your mouth but if you talked you go into poverty. The chitchats* are tired of it so some of them starts riots while others slip in and join the tawel** community determined to break down the silent system on the inside. Meanwhile, the tawels are also doing the same thing; trying to break the chitchat’s system down by sending some of their own to join the chitchats community. So it’s a constant war between those two using technology that are far too advanced than our modern ones and something else, something quite wrong.

1. What is their full name? Echo’s full name is Anastasia Amsel, but she would rather be called Echo.
2. Does his or her name have a special meaning? Echo’s real name Anastasia doesn’t have much meaning other than the fact that her parents wanted to name their daughter after royalty. Her nickname has special meaning though, from Echo repeating questions and phrases back instead of answering them.
3. Does your character have a methodical or disorganized personality? That’s a hard question considering that I don’t know Echo that much, but if I had to guess, her personality would be somewhere in between. She breaks down at night when no one is watching but during the day she’s kind of snarky but she hides it by being charming especially with this certain guy. ;)
4. Does he or she think inside themselves more than they talk out loud to their friends? (more importantly, does he or she actually have friends?) It depends on the friend but she is more likely to think to herself than to actually talk out loud.
5. Is there something he or she is afraid of? The two things that I can think of right now are spiders and her mom. She’s afraid of spiders because they’re small and can easily crawl up your leg without you noticing it. She’s afraid of her mom because of certain reasons but she’s angrier with her mom than scared because of the things that she did in the past.
6. Does he or she write, dream, dance, sing, or photograph? Out of the choices listed here, Echo is more likely to dream than dance, sing, write, or take pictures. However, her dreams are more nightmarish than the happy, odd, and/or normal dreams.
7. What is his or her favorite book? (or genre of books) She doesn’t really read but she likes to look over the latest fashion magazine.  
8. Who is his or her favorite author and/or someone that inspires him or her? She doesn’t have much people that really inspire her but one of them would include a girl named Lana (a tawel).
9. Favorite flavor of ice cream? She likes this zebra striped ice cream that has blackberries and vanilla in it.
10. Favorite season of the year? Echo really likes autumn because of the slight chill in the air and the need to wear jackets that aren’t too heavy or too light.

Well that’s it, also if you want to know what Echo looks like go here. The drawing was drawn by fudgemonkey from the YWP Nanowrimo forums.

*Chitchats – People who talk.

**Tawel – People that is quiet. (The name may change)

More Writing Quotes~

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Camp Nanowrimo ~

Camp NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) - A writing event that is like NaNoWriMo only it is held in the summer months of July and/or August. It is where you try to write 50 thousand words in a single month.


Today is day four of Camp NaNoWriMo, and today I'm supposed to have about... 6452 words according to the calendar that I made.

(Click for a larger version)
And right now, I currently have about 8,061 words. It's not a lot for those who has done Nanowrimo before, but it's a lot to me. I'm pleased with myself for even having that much words in just a short amount of time, considering that I've never tried to write 50 thousand words before.



And Camp Nanowrimo or plain old Nanowrimo lets you do that. Just write fifty thousand words of your novel (or poetry, or script, or whatever), without really worrying about what is going on the page. It's nice because the book that you have been wanting to write for years is now suddenly out on paper free from your  head. So if you love writing and want a book that was written by you, then I recommend doing Nanowrimo, and if you're a bit impatient and want to start now, then start now. It isn't too late to join Camp Nanowrimo, though you'll have a lot of words to catch up on.

Another Challenge

CHALLENGE

I dare you to write 750 words every day for the next seven days. Just go to 750words.com, make an account, and just write. No matter what don't stop writing. Then after a week is done, report back here and comment below on how it went. Or if you want you can email me how your 750 words experience, at thehungergamesmockingjay[at]gmail[dot]com

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10 Rules for Writers, Janet Fitch's style.

1. Write the sentence, not just the story 

Long ago I got a rejection from the editor of the Santa Monica Review, Jim Krusoe. It said: “Good enough story, but what’s unique about your sentences?” That was the best advice I ever got. Learn to look at your sentences, play with them, make sure there’s music, lots of edges and corners to the sounds. Read your work aloud. Read poetry aloud and try to heighten in every way your sensitivity to the sound and rhythm and shape of sentences. The music of words. I like Dylan Thomas best for this–the Ballad of the Long-Legged Bait. I also like Sexton, Eliot, and Brodsky for the poets and Durrell and Les Plesko for prose. A terrific exercise is to take a paragraph of someone’s writing who has a really strong style, and using their structure, substitute your own words for theirs, and see how they achieved their effects.

2. Pick a better verb 

Most people use twenty verbs to describe everything from a run in their stocking to the explosion of an atomic bomb. You know the ones: Was, did, had, made, went, looked… One-size-fits-all looks like crap on anyone. Sew yourself a custom made suit. Pick a better verb. Challenge all those verbs to really lift some weight for you.

3. Kill the cliché. 

When you’re writing, anything you’ve ever heard or read before is a cliché. They can be combinations of words: Cold sweat. Fire-engine red, or phrases: on the same page, level playing field, or metaphors: big as a house. So quiet you could hear a pin drop. Sometimes things themselves are cliches: fuzzy dice, pink flamingo lawn ornaments, long blonde hair. Just keep asking yourself, “Honestly, have I ever seen this before?” Even if Shakespeare wrote it, or Virginia Woolf, it’s a cliché. You’re a writer and you have to invent it from scratch, all by yourself. That’s why writing is a lot of work, and demands unflinching honesty.

4. Variety is the key. 

Most people write the same sentence over and over again. The same number of words–say, 8-10, or 10-12. The same sentence structure. Try to become stretchy–if you generally write 8 words, throw a 20 word sentence in there, and a few three-word shorties. If you’re generally a 20 word writer, make sure you throw in some threes, fivers and sevens, just to keep the reader from going crosseyed.

5. Explore sentences using dependent clauses.

A dependent clause (a sentence fragment set off by commas, dontcha know) helps you explore your story by moving you deeper into the sentence. It allows you to stop and think harder about what you’ve already written. Often the story you’re looking for is inside the sentence. The dependent clause helps you uncover it.

6. Use the landscape. 

Always tell us where we are. And don’t just tell us where something is, make it pay off. Use description of landscape to help you establish the emotional tone of the scene. Keep notes of how other authors establish mood and foreshadow events by describing the world around the character. Look at the openings of Fitzgerald stories, and Graham Greene, they’re great at this.

7. Smarten up your protagonist. 

Your protagonist is your reader’s portal into the story. The more observant he or she can be, the more vivid will be the world you’re creating. They don’t have to be super-educated, they just have to be mentally active. Keep them looking, thinking, wondering, remembering.

8. Learn to write dialogue. 

This involves more than I can discuss here, but do it. Read the writers of great prose dialogue–people like Robert Stone and Joan Didion. Compression, saying as little as possible, making everything carry much more than is actually said. Conflict. Dialogue as part of an ongoing world, not just voices in a dark room. Never say the obvious. Skip the meet and greet.

9. Write in scenes. 

What is a scene? a) A scene starts and ends in one place at one time (the Aristotelian unities of time and place–this stuff goes waaaayyyy back). b) A scene starts in one place emotionally and ends in another place emotionally. Starts angry, ends embarrassed. Starts lovestruck, ends disgusted. c) Something happens in a scene, whereby the character cannot go back to the way things were before. Make sure to finish a scene before you go on to the next. Make something happen.

10. Torture your protagonist.

The writer is both a sadist and a masochist. We create people we love, and then we torture them. The more we love them, and the more cleverly we torture them along the lines of their greatest vulnerability and fear, the better the story. Sometimes we try to protect them from getting booboos that are too big. Don’t. This is your protagonist, not your kid.

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A repeat

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Famous Author Quotes ~

CHALLENGE

Write a story or a poem based off of any picture that you find on my blog. 

Then email it to thehungergamesmockingjay[at]gmail[dot]com for a chance to have it featured on this site.

When does it expire? Never

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WRITE

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Synonyms

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Use them and your writing won't sound boring. 

Show don't tell

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Read this to the end because it will definitely help you on how to show not tell. 
Secret paragraphing
How to show not tell

What people shouldn't say to writers.

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Something that I have control over

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Bring words to life

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And since it is One Direction...

What does your character want?

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Just Write

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(click to enlarge) 

Just write, elves aren't going to do it for you, you know. 

Editing

I'm finally editing my book that I'm going to send to createspace using the code that I won from Nanowrimo. So I'm sorry if I won't be posting anything for a while. I really want the five free proof copies because it would be amazing to have my words become tangible. Unfortunately, the code expires on June 30, and I've been procrastinating on it a lot...

So off to work I go. Good luck on whatever you're working on. And I hope you have an amazing day.

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Six word story

"Fly," she whispered, so he did.

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Synonyms for emotions

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10 words you need to stop misspelling

http://infinite-swag-blog.tumblr.com/post/12632854678

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Just click on it, because the pictures are slightly sick minded (no nudity I swear), but they're funny.

An example would be these two pictures taken randomly from the post

And this one isn't inappropriate or funny just plain useful. 

So please, please, please, please don't forget the space between a lot. It's not one word peoples! That's probably my one worst pet peeves, in this world. When people think a lot is one word, when it's actually two.