DirectionOfTime

Hello!

I would really appreciate some tips/links/thoughts from you guys on character development. A lot of what's written on this site calls itself 'character development', but to be honest, it's more about character creation instead of the post-conception growth. Frankly, this is a little frustrating! I'm working on a novella at the moment (aside from all the other projects lol) which is, at its heart, a coming-of-age fic and so that I can work on my skills of character development as well as character interaction between people of seemingly wildly different natures and motives.  Unfortunately, I'm a bit stuck on how to dig myself (realistically and in a manner pleasing to the reader) out of the inherent cliche present in the story...that yes, was intentional lol

(I have a feeling that you're gonna face-palm at this) but my protagonist is an orphan from the start - I decided that parents in this case would remove a lot of what else I wanted to accomplish in the story. However, since she's been an orphan from her earliest memories (as opposed to loosing her parents at a later age) it isn't something that bothers her so much as it does others. Which I think its typical of children, they tend to simply accept their situation rather than mourn or wallow in the way adults do.

She is blind too, just thought I'd throw that in there, mostly because I've never written a story where any character has been faced with some sort of disability - and I felt like it would be really interesting to explore the world through eyes that can't see, so to speak, where I'd have to focus on the other senses to give the impression of her lack of sight. That and I reckon it will give some cool urgency to situations like meeting strangers etc.

This story is also a fanfiction for James Gurney's Dinotopia - so there are dinosaurs a-plenty! Which I loved the idea of to give a more interesting landscape XD ....and okay, I just love dinosaurs

As a final word - and before you dismiss this just as me being an idiot with no imagination - the whole POINT of this story is for me to improve my skills by challenging cliches, to fully develop characters and to write a wicked story from a crummy beginning. I want to work on this as a tool for skill improvement - which means starting off with a challenge! So please comment and add in whatever you think might be helpful - I would really, really appreciate this!

Thank you!

It's a common affliction, I think, but trying to wade through the endless options of jobs, careers (and sometimes just an activity to absorb yourself in on a free afternoon) seems to present such an open-ended problem. It's amazing how other things can crop up to distract you, or another more urgent problem demands your attention and suddenly hours - or even the day has passed - and you're no closer to finding an answer or making a decision! But, after a fair bit of soul-searching and looking at what I spend much of my spare-time doing (as well as thinking about what I really do *not* enjoy), I think I'm closer to figuring a few things out. ^_^

I spend goodness knows how many hours of the day writing (interspersed by bouts of reading) and, no matter what else I'm doing, thinking about what to include in the next chapter of my current story, or how to have the characters overcome a problem, respond realistically to a harsh blow, sometimes the simple everyday strange situations (or even how to include the last joke I thought of that had me laughing) is constantly on my mind...in fact, the primary reason I'm writing this is because I've hit a small bump with my latest chapter >.> ...okay, not the complete reason, but its definitely a substantial part

The other reason, is that the more I've looked into it, the more I'm interested in a career in publishing/editing. Ultimately, I would certainly love to have some of my work professionally published, but I'm aware that's a long way off and in the near future, I want to build my own skills base in writing through getting a better understanding of the process of editing. I think its something easily underestimated and, from my own experiences of editing others' work, its incredible what even some of the more 'cosmetic' editing (such a grammar/spelling) can do to a piece of work.

If you're interested, I am more than happy to help anybody who would like me to edit/offer input to their stories (of any genre fiction, non-fiction or even fanfiction, which I write mostly) - so feel free to check out my stories which I'll be getting around to posting here on DeviantART as soon as I can, if you think I can help you ^_^

First up: Go No Further (a Naruto: Kakashi X Sakura romance lol - with plenty of geek in! I was fascinated by the idea of space-time ninjutsu during the writing of this story XD)

If you recognise this journal entry, then you've come to the right place! Haha - I moved it from my old account to this new one ^_^

Cheers!

DirectionOfTime~