Replies

  • Tzippy July 13, 2010 at 1:46am
    yes, I can see what you mean, how perfectly you blended a physical scar into his mind and heart, and beyond, very intresting and very provocative.
    • Rascal > Tzippy July 13, 2010 at 2:27am
      Hi --

      Turns out our customer in Decatur IL doesn't want their load until Wednesday morning, so I'm not leaving 'til tomorrow, which has been fairly typical of this set-up -- things change at the last minute.

      Hard to make plans -- but the spin I put on it is that it's never a boring routine LOL!

      So I'm around to play for a while this evening, and I'll be in and out. Hope this gives you some ideas on how to approach your own character definition. Again, this is out of context so you don't know what came before or what he's facing, but I offer it as a glimpse.

      What I try to do -- and really, what every author ends up doing by default -- is put some of myself into my characters and BECOME them, so I think what they think and feel what they feel, then project that even as I try to make them NOT so much me, but their own individual Selves.

      I'm curious -- what kind of stories get your attention? I mean, do you like adventures, murder mysteries, science fiction, classic fantasy, or some mixture of all genres? I could recommend some really good books to read to get a feel for how THOSE authors put things together -- character definition, substance, style, the way they weave their words . . .

      Actually, that's the best teacher there is -- reading the works of people like Dean Koontz, James Lee Burke, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen King . . . especially Koontz and Burke because their powers of description are just AWESOME! They paint with words like none other except one, an obscure fellow named A.A. Attanasio, who wrote a FANTASTIC novel called "The Last Legends Of Earth" that just blew my mind -- not only for its theme, but for the sheer artistry of the writing.

      And there are countless others I'm sure, whom other people could name, and you probably can think of any number of your own favorites. Study their techniques -- the way they weave plot lines together, the way they introduce and develop characters, the way they describe things, etc. To me this is the most entertaining -- thus the most effective -- means of learning how the pros do it.

      Okay, I'm getting long-winded, as I tend to do . . . so I'll shut up for now :-) Catch you later . . .
    • Sensitive Sherri > Rascal July 13, 2010 at 2:34am
      owe pat u silly EYE am Sure , Be4 and after .overseeing Johns possibilities oooooooooo typo me join in fun games wit me kidders i knowed ya for a bit . >>>>>>>>>Surely thinking her prince >>>>>>>>>>>>>seas ha sings scottish maybe maybe kno t
    • Sensitive Sherri > Sensitive Sherri July 13, 2010 at 2:34am
      hey how ya doing anyway not seenya for a while ?
    • Rascal > Sensitive Sherri July 13, 2010 at 2:43am
      I'm doing great, thank you! How about you? You seem to still be your comical, playful self, and that's good to see.

      Nice to have some activity in this group after a long "hibernation" . . . maybe more of our friends will join us, eh?
    • Sensitive Sherri > Rascal July 13, 2010 at 3:09am
      Thatts a great idea , but its up to them ????? U knowed my big kidder side for long time now sew funny . poof off i go im in lonney tonney else were , XXXXX
    • Sensitive Sherri > Tzippy July 13, 2010 at 2:00am
      Bravo xxxx
    • Sensitive Sherri > Sensitive Sherri July 13, 2010 at 2:10am
    • Sensitive Sherri > Sensitive Sherri July 13, 2010 at 2:11am
      i would like to see lots so this will work maybe overseeings maybe knot
  • Rascal July 13, 2010 at 1:38am
    Tzippy, here's another clip from something else, again getting into the head and heart of a main character, this time from a third-person perspective . . .


    Brick noticed him absently rubbing his hand across a few of the scars on his chest and said, “You keep those for reminders, don’t you, sir?”

    “Badges,” the captain said quietly, and blue eyes flashed briefly as he recalled his many woundings, most of them received in battles with Kindred. “Some people have their skin renewed because to them, scars are ugly. To me, they’re badges. I’m proud of them, because I earned every one of them.

    "But yes . . . they’re also reminders.”

    #

    The captain scowled as he lathered quickly and rinsed in the steaming spray, wishing to think of things other than old battles. Old wounds.

    Reminders . . .

    Dammit! Why did she have to show up again? Especially now!

    He had told Brick the truth -- his physical scars were, to him, badges of honor, earned in the never-ending war against depravity to which he had long ago committed himself. And they were reminders of his successes as well as his failures -- each one came with its own story, and he had learned from them all.

    It was the inner scars -- the ones no one but he could sense -- that bothered him. For them there was no cloning procedure, no balm, salve, ointment nor magical incantation that would disperse them. Time, according to the old saying, healed all wounds . . . and there was some truth to that . . . but it did nothing for spiritual scar tissue.

    As he exited the shower and dried himself, Sunny Briscoe realized that, just under the surface of some scars, tender Self could still throb with pain -- all the way to the marrow of the bones, and even deeper.

    If one allowed it.
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