Words of the Day
1. Cull – (v- used with object) Origin: 1300–50; Middle English coilen, cuilen, cullen < Anglo-French, Old French cuillir < Latin colligere to gather; see collect1 ; to choose; select; pick; to gather the choice things or parts from; to collect; gather; pluck
2. Conciliating – (v-used with object) Origin: 1540–50; < Latin conciliātus (past participle of conciliāre to bring together, unite, equivalent to concili ( um ) council + -ātus -ate1 ; to overcome the distrust or hostility of; placate; win over: to conciliate an angry competitor; to win or gain (goodwill, regard, or favor); to make compatible; reconcile.
A Slice of Life
Inspiration: My frustration of being called in on Monday to cover for “a mistake.” Enjoy! This one’s going to be a short one.
A Mistake, Huh?
7:30 A.M.
The chiming of my alarm tore me from the depths of a restful slumber. Light had just started filtering through the blinds, pleasant and not blinding.
Time to work . . .
I dismissed my alarm and that’s when I noticed the three missed calls from earlier that morning—from my boss.
Maybe he wants me to pick up my tips . . . It’s not like I didn’t try like four times over the weekend . . .
I dial his number and waited, heart thumping in my chest. Something told me this wasn’t about my tips.
“Hello.”
Oh boy . . . not a pleasant greeting.
“Good morning, Adrian. You called me?”
“Yeah, Malina. Are you coming in today?”
Wait . . . What?
“I don’t work today. I double-checked with you last Friday and you told me that I was back to my regular schedule.”
“No, Malina . . .”
The rest was a garbled mess; his reception was terrible, but there was one word I held onto: mistake. Ha! It sure as hell wasn’t a mistake on my part. I did the right thing, but he did not and I knew instantly why I was coming in. Two of my co-workers that I knew weren’t supposed to work the weekends were there. I was covering for his screw up that happened over the weekend that had nothing to do with me.
“How does 8 o’clock sound?”
Awful . . .
“What time do you need me to work until?”
“You can work until 1.”
“Fine. I’ll be there.”
“See you then.”
I ended the call, skin crawling with a burning anger and body protesting the sudden change in plans. I had it all worked out. I intended to play catch up with my preparation for my book project, work on my blog post and read my writing reference books. Now all those plans were trashed as I hastily dressed and mentally prepared myself for work.
Every time . . . It never fails . . .
I greeted everyone as politely as possible and even managed not to growl at my boss and the customers. I was not supposed to be there. I was supposed to be home working hard on my book project.
My shift ended, but it didn’t seem like it could have ended soon enough. I tore off my apron and hat, clocked out and threw the detestable swatches of brown in my bag in a huff. I collected my tips—the ones I should have collected over the weekend—and headed for the door.
“Bye everyone.”
“Bye, Malina. Tomorrow, 7-3, right?”
“Yeah . . .”
A gunshot went off in my head and I decided that was a nice way to put an end to unnecessary stress from external forces . . .
-THE END-
Writer’s Corner
How well do you know your characters? Do you often have trouble figuring out what your characters’ motivations and personality are? I know I do, but I’m happy to share with you a nifty tidbit that I recently learned from reading Writing Fiction for Dummies. First, to understand your characters’ motivations you should begin by defining their values, ambition and story goal. Your characters’ values should be something that they believe to be true; something they strongly believe that defines who they are. For example, your character could believe that money is an essential part of their lives and they don’t necessarily have to give a reason other than “Just because.” This in itself gives you an idea of what this character is most concerned about and gives you some cues as to how they will behave in money related situations. It might even give you a glimpse of their personality, though not always.
Your characters can have multiple values that define their actions, behavior, thoughts, etc. However, they should only have one ambition. An ambition is an abstract thing or idea that your character longs for and wishes to fulfill by the end of your novel or story. An example that WFD outlines is the typical “Miss America” response of world peace. Ingermanson and Economy make it clear that world peace is an abstract idea that isn’t tangible, therefore it’s abstract. Defining an ambition for your character is important because this defines what they hope to achieve over the course of your novel or story and is the driving force of their actions. However, it’s important that your characters have values that match their ambition.
This is also true for a story goal, which is the concrete action that your character will take to achieve their ambition. Ingermanson and Economy suggest that a great story goal should be: objective (reader will know that your character has achieved their goal), simple (reader will know what successful completion of the goal will look like), important (reader will understand the importance of the goal), achievable (reader believes that the character has a chance of reaching their goal) and difficult (reader believes that there is a chance that the character may fail in their endeavors). All of these characteristics make for what they define as a great story goal and give a reason for your character to continue on the path they have chosen.
A character’s values, ambition and story goal should be interconnected and work together to create your character’s motivation for progressing through your novel. For example, if one of your character’s values is the importance of being herself in a relationship with the one she loves then, perhaps her ambition can be her search for true love. Notice how it is not easy to define or imagine what true love looks like; everyone will likely have different answers. The story goal should then be how she plans to go about it: going out on “blind dates” until she finds “the one.”
If you are having trouble with developing, your character’s values and ambition try interviewing them. Sounds strange, right? But actually it’s quite effective. Not only does it help you to define the aforementioned things, it also gives you a chance to start writing in that character’s voice. To do this, start with the main plot point (also known as your story goal) of your story and begin asking questions. For example, Ingermanson and Economy illustrate the process by using J.R.R. Tolkien’s character Frodo. They keep asking why until “[Frodo] throws up his hands and shouts, ‘Just because!’” Since you’re the one doing the interview, you should stop when you cannot come up with a rational answer to the question you’ve asked. Review what you come up with and nail down those values and that core ambition that will drive your story.
Best of luck my fellow writers!
Marlena
Useful Links
1. Description: An example of a successful query letter plus the Agent’s comments on it. (http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/successful-queries-agent-jenny-bent-and-oh-my-gods?et_mid=521086&rid=232935610)
2. Description: A guide to getting published. (http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/your-straight-forward-guide-to-publication?et_mid=519234&rid=232935610)
3. Description: Six signs that you are getting closer to publication. (http://www.writersdigest.com/writing-articles/by-writing-goal/get-published-sell-my-work/6-signs-you%E2%80%99re-getting-closer-to-publication?et_mid=519234&rid=232935610)
Writer's Corner has another set of useful tips. here is another one GMC.
ReplyDeleteGoal, Motivation, Conflict. Figure those out and you'll have a deeper connection to your characters. :)