Well, you wanted to be a writer...

Mini check-in 1

So hi again.  It's me.  I can't think about what I want to write and I don't have much time to write today so a check-in seemed like a thing to do.  It is day 6 and I am actually almost at the end of this thing.  Day 1 I created this book.  Day 2 I wrote a 500-word synopsis of The Rising Phoenix (that can't be found anywhere except some paper on a Wattpad bigshot's desk).  Day 3 was a story from my childhood, day 4 was Rigon's issues, and Day 5 was a short story about Phoenix getting mental help.

I have found out a few things from all of this.  And I will go into them in the next few paragraphs.  However, I first want to say thank you for reading this far.  I know not many want to read the short story's on a random person's page when that person doesn't even know what to write each day.  It means a lot that you are reading this.  It has kept me going even when all I wanted to do was give up because I couldn't think of something worthy of posting.  So thank you.

This brings me to my second thing I figured out this week.  I hate writing Dialogue!  I hate it!  I always feel it comes out clunky and unrealistic.  Rigon's story was the first short story I wrote on here that was heavily dialogue-based.  Everything about it felt off on paper.  What makes this funny though, is that that is how Rigon, or as I more often call Steven Lamar, often communicates during battle.  He uses short, snappish, quippy humor to hide his insecurities and anxiety about the problem.  It wasn't even just in Rigon's story that this issue popped up though.    In 'A Leap of Faith' I hated trying to write the camp counselor dialogue.  It just sounded unreal to me, it sounded almost tinny, like a middle school play.  Even when all the person is doing is introducing the challenge to the kids.  This makes me think I mmmaaayyyybe am a little hypercritical of it.  I don't know.  Either way, I seemed to have less of an issue with it in "Don't Let Them Define You" so maybe I am getting better at writing it.  We will see.

Another thing I noticed is that I love diving into a characters personal thoughts.  It is less their actions that interest me, but more their motives and ideas as they change from second to second to second.  In movies, all I want to see is the action.  Backflips and duels and drag racing. Give me all of that.  In writing though?  I like thoughts more.  How they seem to change so quickly and then double back on themselves creating loops.  When Rigon's story seemed too chunky, I essentially reverted back to using this technique in the end with him deciding to return to the group of D&D adventurers trying to save the imagined expanse.  This leads me to think I may be better at writing story's from a diary perspective.  Because the truth is I can't have all my characters be practically mute like Phoenix.  It just can't happen.  So that is something I might play around with more.

One of the last things I noticed is that I really started to run into a lack of ideas very very fast.  I have ideas, certainly, but it seems like every time I go to sit at the computer and type they quickly evaporate like rubbing alcohol in the sun.  So maybe I need to start writing down the ideas as they hit me.  A list of quick little ideas so I don't lose sight.  Then I look at it daily and see what I feel like writing.

Ultimately this whole week has helped in some ways.  However, I still don't know why I constantly hate my openings.  I may need to test one or two of them on here next week.  I also don't know why Phoenix was such an easy character to write.  I have a feeling it may be because she is a bit like a personified me.  This is something I wish to explore more.  I think we may find a bit more fictionalized characters popping up and less real stories as we progress.

That pretty much concludes my weekly check-in.  I have an idea for my next one.  It involves a little girl, fey, and the color yellow.  But that is tomorrows problem.  Today, I need to eat and get ready to go see a show.  Wish me luck on meeting George Salazar at Be More Chill!

--------------

Video By: Good Morning America