When I last wrote a post, I was in Boston visiting my second born child. Since then, I’ve returned home, celebrated the birthday of my third born, and spent a considerable amount of time updating our checkbook registers, not to mention planning this month’s budget.
Of course, there is also all the sleeping I’ve been doing. First because of jetlag. Or maybe that was because I spent over 24 hours awake in my effort to get home. Then I have apparently gotten a slight cold. The only annoying part is feeling like I need to throw up.
So, with everything going on, I have not thought about the fact I had to post today, for days. In fact, though I was remembering it was my turn this week, I somehow missed that it was already Wednesday until my middle of the night trip to the bathroom. Thankfully, I have an alarm already set so that I’ll have time to deal with it. I crawled back in bed assured my alarm would wake me up in time.
What I hadn’t planned on was I’d turn my alarm off and go back to sleep. I think the only thing that woke me up was realizing Xavier had just jumped off my bed and Jerry wasn’t in it. Of course, then I had to set up my laptop, open Word, then stare at a blank page for a minute.
Then the alarm saying it was time to feed the pets went off. Thankfully, all I had to do was turn that one off because Jerry was already dealing with it. But knowing I had only about a quarter of my post written and now less than an hour to do it in didn’t help.
Neither did Jerry trying to talk to me. I was right in the middle of a thought, and he threw me right out of it. Worse still, I had no interest in obsessing over what he was fixating on now.
I told him I was busy and to leave me alone, which he didn’t do, and I had to repeat that at least three times. I finally yelled at him again then focused on my screen hoping re-reading the last paragraph would get me back in the flow of my thoughts again. Jerry accused me of reading again.
“No! I’m writing! I told you I was busy. Leave me alone.”
He finally left me alone.
Then I was again stuck trying to stimulate ideas again, which is something I’ve been spending a great deal of time thinking about recently.
One thing I know about good stories is they always have some obstacles that the main characters must overcome somehow. You have to find the right roadblocks to throw up for them so that your story is interesting and believable.
But there is also the issue of not using overworked scenarios, trite storylines, or stereotyped characters. At one point, I also noticed that far too many of my characters had the same features. Short leading ladies is one I use far too often.
I do understand it. If you are writing from what you know, then using characters you can emphasize with makes sense. Knowing this, I’ve tried hard to vary my leading ladies, though I’m afraid they are all still short.
But another thing I’ve noticed is the tendency to stick to similar story lines. All of them seem to have the exact same, or similar elements in them. Some of those being the ages, physical characteristics and even the talents or activities of the main characters. But it could also be the types of obstacles they face. Or even the names you choose.
Now, obviously, you’re going to stick to the elements of the genre you’re writing so things like the obstacles they face are probably going to be similar. However, the characteristics of your characters don’t all have to be from a template.
You’re leading ladies don’t all have to be petite any more than your leading men must be tall dark and handsome. Personality traits and talents can also be quite varied.
Though the one I find the hardest is naming all my characters. If you are writing sci-fi or fantasy you can make up names. For anything else you have to find names that fit the era and the story.
From experience, I know the first names you’re going to pull out of the hat are ones with which you are most familiar. Anything else and you need to do some research just to name them.
So, I find myself wondering how other writers overcome the issues of their characters, in their different stories, all feeling like they’re from a template.
How do you vary your characters?
Smile. Make the day a brighter day.
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