New habit!

I know you’re only supposed to add one habit at a time, and I call that in for why my posting died. I’m not happy with the fact that it died, but I am happy at my new exercise habit which I’ve been adjusting to for almost a week now. Hopefully I’ll be able to get back to this habit and add it back in next week! I think maybe I got a slow start here on my stories – maybe coming back I can try a different approach…

Undecided

I sill haven’t decided what story I want to write first, so instead I’m going to start with a character sketch and let the character help me figure out what I’m going to write. Clarissa will be my first character, because I’ve mostly written in terms of female characters in the past. I’m not sure why that is, but I’ll have to add a male character after Clarissa is fleshed out a little bit.

I think she seems to be one of those people who enjoys dressing up and going out to the club with friends, but she’s a little insecure about her looks because her appearance often causes strangers to stereotype her as a bit of a shallow person. I’ve found a character trait form, and I’ll use that to develop ideas about who Clarissa is and what she does through the next few posts. After I think I know her well enough, I’ll create a little story that tells something about her but that doesn’t have any other important characters. Then I’ll add another character and write a scene for the two of them.

This is going to be really interesting.

I like writing out what my process is going to be too, because then I’m more likely to look back at it and actually do it – well, it’s worked so far!

Notes on the subject

So I still have some work left to do and I’m not quite ready to start writing, but I’m instead trying to think of some topics I might like to use to get started. This is my first time coming back to narrative storytelling in years, and I want to build the habit right and make something I can really be pleased with. My storyline from last year began as a mundane chronicle that turned into a fantasy adventure. I like the format, but it’s hard for me to keep going (and I’m terrible at dialogue – I really need some practice), so instead I want to do something a little less rooted in fantasy, at least for now, just to practice writing dialogue and writing in general.

I like writing detailed descriptions about the character’s environment, but I’m not very skilled at making detailed character traits. I’ll probably use some of the character template documents to get started on the characters. I am a writer who has a strange relationship with the concept of intimacy (ha – pun.) Maybe for my writing plan I’ll start with very short stories that illustrate each of the sub-concepts I want to explore. I would list them here, but they’re things that aren’t easily named or summarized. That’s probably why I find them interesting and I want to explore my own understanding of them. Over time the meanings of these things may have changed for me. For part of my research I will use excerpts from my old journals as points of departure for stories and discussions, because it’s quite a personal thing.

I just realized that I have had this blog for a really long time! Wow, 2006? I was really writing some garbage then. (And the stuff I write now is probably garbage too, but hey, it’s MY garbage). But this blog has been used for so many different things! I need to clean up my categories and do some content maintenance. I’ve gotten only one or two legitimate comments, ever, and why not? I’m not posting anything here that would stimulate a response. I’m not writing content every day trying to gain readership in a popular or thought provoking topic. File this blog under ‘personal’ because it really is.