Two hours until the weekend...

So it's come to my attention that there are in fact two hours remaining until the end of the work day.

Two hours until I'm free for the weekend.

Two hours until I can go home and watch my DVR'd "A Shot of Love with Tila Tequila" (I kid you not, it's solid gold programming).

Two hours until I can play mario kart...well only if i play before watching the above otherwise it's more like three hours.

Anyway you get the idea, two more hours of work. So what am I doing right now? Obviously I'm working see? I don't have anything planned tonight (except for mario kart and tila tequila) which strikes me as very unfamiliar. I honestly can't tell you the last time that Daren and I did not have something planned for a Friday night. We don't have anything planned for tomorrow either which is equally odd. It's a good thing though. I think I'll go to JP's tomorrow afternoon and do some writing with Sarah. Well not WITH Sarah but you know what I mean. Maybe I'll finish the chapter I'm working on. It's a Katze chapter, one of my favorite to write. Maybe I'll just write another blog entry, we'll see.

I've been thinking a lot about one of my characters lately and why I just can't seem to get his chapters quite right. I'm pretty sure it's because I tried to change his character from being quite moody into something much less moody. It didn't work, Rafe just wants to be moody. So that got me thinking about characterization in general. For me characters just seem to pop into my head as whole people. Rafe started off as a moody guy with a bit of a chip on his shoulder. When I tried to change that and failed miserably I realized that I just have to let him be what he was always meant to be.

If you're doing any bit of creative writing think about your characters first before you really put pen to paper. Characters are malleable...what didn't I just say the opposite about Rafe? Well yes but that doesn't mean I can't add quirks or other characteristics. Moody is just one. It's a base to work from. I see moody Rafe...but I can add that he's incredibly protective and has a slow burning temper. He's not one to flare up at people and if he does is alone or with just one other person he can trust. But all throughout that he's moody. See? No probably not because I don't think I'm making much sense.

I said something to Sarah once about how our characters become real people to us (us meaning writers) and I still think it's true. I think that characters drive the story and we should listen to them. For a non-writer that might be a hard thing to comprehend but it's true. To make a story-a plot-meaningful I think an author has to be able to stand on the characters. I'm pretty sure my Grandfather (an avid reader) once told me it didn't matter to him what genre he read as long as he cared about the people in the story. So if your character wants to be moody, let him be moody but don't be afraid to also add other aspects. Nobody wants to read about a guy who does nothing but sulk and sulk and sulk. But reading about a guy who sulks...and then protects his best friend...and then helps start a revolution to overthrow the empire WHILE sulking. Now that might be interesting. At least I think so...obviously I did write it.