I love my characters

I Love My Characters

Lawrence and Louise were placeholder names. I put them there because it's what just popped into my head, I started with Lawrence because that's what I wrote about first, and I knew I wanted there to be a lovely lady for him to be coming back to. The name sounded good to me at first, and I rolled wit hit. It wasn't until I looked back after the first chapter that I decided I couldn't bare to change their names. Why? I'd become attached to them.

It happened real quick. The idea of two thieves who'd been separated for five years that had just got back in contact grasped me, and within the first chapter it's evident that there's an incredibly strong connection between the two of them, and trying to envision something different or fiddling with that seemed wrong to me. Not only that, but when I was out and and about thinking up the story that these two were going to go down, I started developing their character traits and fleshing them out. Cocky, sweet, erratic, erotic, smooth and a whole long list of traits started coming to mind and I started visioning them in different scenarios. Scenarios that may have taken place several years before we jump into the story, and some that could take place several years after.

The more I get involved with this project, the more I take it seriously and the more emotionally connected to it I become, I just want to throw it out for everyone to read and hopefully enjoy. I've started talking about it more openly over the past few days, several people in my area are away of this project, and I've started embracing an online following for it, which seems to be proving positive. I don't believe however that what I want to achieve is easy. I feel like I should push for digital self publishing, but something's pulling me towards traditional publishing, which is were the proper challenge comes to fruition. I've started doing my research and I'm putting the feelers out there. It'll happen.

Thought I'd just have a short ramble about that. =) 

An Introduction To Steve Francesco

An Introduction To Steve Francesco

Steve Francesco is a man of large build, at about six foot two and rather stocky you'd want to think twice about a bar fight with this one. Steve grew up in the city and was bullied somewhat at school, his grades were relatively low but that was a mistake that wouldn't hold him back. He's smart and ambitious, but most of all cunning, and when you wrap those traits up with resentment and anger, you can get an incredibly dangerous mix.

It wasn't long before Steve realised that the city wasn't his playground and he did some odd jobs, earning what he could before departing for the countryside towns, where he'd reside for several years, making connections and doing what he could to impregnate his presence on the communities that were around him. He'd become well known and he found with popularity came the ability to earn more money. One day, a man approached him about some work that wasn't strictly speaking legal, and the businessman within kicked into gear, realising he could profit from leasing people out to work, acting as an agency. This is where a fair amount of his money would be made.

As his popularity grew, so did his following, so more people signed up as protection for hire. Most of this came in the form of night club work or bar doormen, but the larger jobs were in the cities. The business that was growing brought him some attention that was unwanted, and he moved houses several times in a few years.

Steve had acquired everything he'd always wanted, except for two things. A wife and revenge on those who'd bullied him in school. The revenge came a little later, but the wife came much sooner than he'd thought, when one Louise Raina rolled into town.

An Introduction to Lawrence Murray and Louise Francesco

An Introduction To Lawrence Murray and Louise Francesco

I want to take this time to give a brief break down as to what this book's actually about, because the more I mention it on social media sites and to friends/co workers, the more the question "what's it about" pops up. I understand that and have been happy to answer such questions mainly, but there's been one problem. I've not actually vocalised or written out a synopses for the book yet, because I've not needed one before; therefore, I'm unable to describe it well enough. So, I figured I'd come out and write a piece about the background of the story and give you an introduction to one of the character's I'm starting to love.

Lawrence Murray is a man in his mid twenties who for many years has been a thief, jumping from place to place on the globe every so often to make his way in the world as best as he can. He does this because the idea of a nine to five in an office makes the lining in his stomach spin, and he's able to move around as he pleases, taking what he needs to survive and live in the open air. On the odd occasion he'll stay at a small hotel for a while and get to know some locals, then he'll get bored, take his fill of goods and move on.

You may ask, how doesn't he get caught? Lawrence is good with disguises and creates different characters depending on his situation, so his identity is hidden when he's in public, and then he performs his work at night so he's relatively out of sight. For a couple of years he was alone in his journeys, until one day he came across a girl of similar age, called Louise Raina, who was attracted to the somewhat cocky attitude Lawrence set forward. There was an instant connection between the two, and Louise shared the ideology of a life in the open air and decided to join Lawrence on his travels, where the two would work together and become relatively skilled in their art. Over the coming years they'd bond closer and closer, when an untimely argument splits them apart and Louise is lured in by the charms of another man.

Lawrence is forced to move on without her, even though mistakes had been admitted by Louise and she begged him to stay, but things got incredible complicated and Lawrence moved on, even if it was against his will. For five years he roamed England, drowning himself in remorse and anger, digging himself into a deeper and deeper state of depression. We pick our story up when he decides he's going to go back for Louise and see just what's up and whether or not she even remembers him. The story follows their attempt to free Louise from a tyrant of a husband, who's abusive and vile to her but well connected in some dangerous industries. There will be violence, there will be risks, there will be thievery and there will be some unexpected twists in their plan.

That, is the basis of my story and I'm getting more and more emotionally connected to it the more I write it; and I strongly believe that there are people who would enjoy it when it's finished. The text above shouldn't give anything away that's in the book essentially, it's a backstory and a catching up let's say to bring you up to speed.

Feel free to share this post around to anyone you think might be interested in this kind of story, so they can then dial themselves into my twitter or whatever for when it eventually gets published. I'm looking into a couple of different publishing methods and I can say now when it's done it will be available to buy somewhere, so keep your eyes peeled. I want to be one of the first gaming YouTubers to be a published "author". ;)

Cheers,

-Rue

Digging Deeper

Digging Deeper - 14/11/2013

We are nearing the last month in the year and in the games media scene it starts getting busier just after the summer, and throws itself into action all throughout the rest of the year, so I'm busier than ever at this stage and haven't been writing as much as I've been thinking about writing. I'm trying to not let it slip off of my radar too much though, as I'm at a more crucial point now.

It's hard for me to come out and say just how much of the book has been written as a fraction, or as a percentage because I seriously don't know how long it's going to be. I know where roughly where I want it to end, what happens near the middle and all that, I just need to figure out how I'm going to get there. What I'm currently writing is likely to sit about a third of the way through, and it's a big chapter, the first chapter I've come across that's required some serious thought. I think the reason for this is that the rest of the chapters are lying down some ground rules for the characters, and showing you a little bit about who they are and what their stories are to some extent, and this next part of the book is the first time where they all start intertwining in such a pretty big way. There's a couple of plots running at the moment and I don't want there to be another one, because I feel having two plots currently twisting around each other like rope is deep enough.

As the chatper is more demanding than the last few, it requires me to use my head even more, thinking of creative ways to play the scenes out and getting it to a stage where there's no massive holes in it, and it'll probably take a bit of time. So when I'm writing I want to have a clear head and not be constantly thinking of something else, or have a distraction near by meaning I can only sit down for half an hour. Up till this point the rest of what I have has been written in a fair few, two to three hour sessions and I'd like to keep it that way.

I also keep reminding myself that this isn't a job, and it isn't work, this is for my enjoyment and there's no reason to rush it. So keeping that in mind I continue to keep digging deeper and letting the creative juices flow. We're virtually hitting winter now so I'll have an excuse to stay inside.

-Rue

Words Are Emotions

Words Are Emotion

As I've started getting deeper and deeper into this book, I've started connecting with the characters a lot more, thinking up back stories for them and personal traits that they carry from situation to situation. Key points in the plot have now been laid out and I think I'm about ready to get stuck into the real meat and potatoes of the novel.

Before I started writing this section of the novel though, I wanted to step back and take a look at what I had already written, and what I read back left me in a state of shock, because I saw it from a completely different perspective. As I was reading certain aspects of the book, the plot and the characters within it started popping out at me, showing me the aspects of my life that are just littered all throughout the darned thing, and what scared me most is that I didn't even notice it as I was writing it.

I don't think by any stretch of the imagination that it harms the book, if anything I think it enhances it because of connection between the characters I'm writing about and myself. Even if some of the parts aren't a direct link to something I've felt in the last five, six or seven years I can see loose connections to it, and it surprised me because it just... Shone through.

Knowing that this is happening makes me feel good, to be honest because it must mean I'm getting into what I'm writing, and putting some passion behind what's being put onto the page. I hear so often "you can't take any meaning from words on a page, especially places like facebook and twitter, there's just no human emotion going into what's being said." For a long time I believed it, but maybe I've reached something that might change my mind, because for once I've looked at written words from a different perspective; instead of just words they're words written by someone who has feelings, and everyone feels differently, so everything that's written is emotional? I don't know. It was just something that came to mind and I figured I'd write an entry about it, as I haven't done one of these for a few days.

Book's coming along great, really enjoying it and I'm about to get properly stuck into it with one of the main chapters.

-Rue

Let It Linger

Let it Linger

Let it linger. Let what linger? It. Let it linger. The "it" can be whatever you want it to be I've discovered. The other night I was writing some of the book and came at a cross roads, I really didn't know how to get the words I wanted down onto the page. I knew they were there, but it was like the right ones for me were stuck behind a clogged mess of other ones, which weren't the right ones but put themselves up for suggestion regardless.

I discovered that my problem was that I had written too much that night, and had gone as far as I needed to go in that session; so I saved everything up and made backups, then shut down and went to sleep. I woke up the next morning and the first thing that pops into my head? The solution to the problem I had the night before.

I believe it's a proven fact that your brain digests tricky situations when you sleep, so that when you wake you feel like you're thinking straighter, but in reality you've been working it off when you're at your most relaxed. An example of this takes me back to when I was a little lad playing Spyro on the Playstation. I used to spend hours over a little puzzle on a certain level, and get quite frustrated at myself for not being able to do it. I'd try it over and over again and not get my head around it. I'd go to sleep, wake up and when I next sat to it, you bet I had it done first try. The only logical explanation to me is that I was processing it over and over in me sleep to get that stuff right.

You know, I've since gone back to that game and suffered the same issue; I couldn't get my head around it at all, but when I'd gone away and processed it for a while and come back, all was well.

So how does this tie in to the story? I was letting an idea linger for a while, tossing it around, the pros and cons. I'd ask myself for ways in which I could improve pacing, or excel a character into a certain situation and be dead set on an idea; yet a little while later after it had lingered a completely different idea hit me that sounded so much more sensible.

So yes. Let it linger. Whatever it be. Let it linger.

-Rue

Writing Late A Night - My First Mistake?

Writing Late At Night - My First Mistake?

I think I realised something today that could potentially hold me back. I was reading through what I had written yesterday evening and noticed quickly that there were several more mistakes than there should have been. Not in the plot or anything like that, but the wording's a little off from time to time, which I found interesting. I guess it's just a case of being tired whilst I write, which leads me to write the same word twice, or my hands misunderstand what they're being told or something.

How does this get solved then? I think the best thing to do is to find some time to write a little during the day, or let myself stop writing a little earlier. The latter of the two I'm not too keen on doing because when I'm flowing I don't think it's a good idea to slow down and cut of the creative vibes.

Right now I live a life that's a little busier than I thought it would be when I was projecting my goals for the year back in January. The advent of Twitch and several trips away for YouTube seem to be keeping me on my toes, and there are a few other things that make me busy throughout the day. I think I could struggle a little to move a writing slot backwards.

Let's just say I do move my writing time back from about 10PM to around 2PM, what changes? It could very well be that I'm not as dialled into what I'm doing, hindering my writing ability; or it could hinder something else by making me reschedule something I'm suppose to be doing that's more important. I don't want to start letting other things slip for this.

I think what I should be doing is getting used to longer days. Days that sometimes start early and quite often finish late due to writing and doing whatever it is I'm doing.. I'm certainly enjoying the whole book thing, I've been getting into it heavier and heavier like I mentioned in the last post. 

We'll see where it goes, I'm flexible when it comes to things like this, I'll start trying things out to see what works.

I've written Chapter 2 now pretty much, have a few things I want to add to round it off nicely so that it leads well into Chapter 3; then of course I have the situation of errors. I'll go through and sort them out when I can. At this stage if I want to get it written, I'll write it.

-Rue 

I must be doing something right.

I must be doing something right.

I must be doing something right, as the last few days all that's been in my head is writing this book. On the bus to and home from college I kept throwing around character depth ideas, just visualizing them in certain situations and imagining how they might behave or how they'd react. I was coming up with back story to all three whilst listening to a relaxing piece of music, for around an hour straight one evening, as I sat myself down to start writing the second chapter of the novel.

How is it before I started this project I had very little REAL interest in writing, and was just doing it to see where it went, to within a week where it was almost all consuming? The characters I have I've started to really take pride in and think they have some good depth to them, and the antagonist of the story has started to be hated by even myself, which I find incredibly strange. I kept reading through what I had written so far, which comes to around 10,000 words, looking through it to see if I'd missed anything and found myself changing the words within ever so slightly, just to make it tick right in my head.

I'm getting ahead of myself as well, as I'm starting to come up with where the story will be in several chapters time; thinking what might happen who's going to do what, and when the pivotal parts of the story will happen and how it will effect which characters. This you could say is natural but I want the story to unfold inside my head as I'm writing it, so it feels completely natural to me instead of something I'm scripting out then acting on. I've already noticed that the story itself has changed several times since I started writing it. I had no idea where I wanted to send the character I was writing or who was entering when.

My point here is that I'm enjoying myself wayyyyy more than I thought I was going to whilst writing this out. A couple people were interested in what I was talking about one night in a skype call, so I sent them a section of what I had already got down. They seemed to be into it and are interested in where it's going next. They'd ask me "what's it going to be about?" and I simply had to respond with an "I don't really know" because that's the truth.

I must be doing something right because I'm having fun and doing this more than I thought I was going to be. Here's hoping I stick at it, get the book written and can get it published. That goal is a massive one because publishing is similar to YouTube, Twitch and anywhere else. It's difficult to get into. Very difficult.

Anyway, I'll swing by again when I have something to say.

-Rue

What and why?

What and Why?

If you've been keeping track of what this little project is about, and have read every article so far, you'll know that the other night I had actually set foot into the world of writing this book. Prologue. I spouted out the start of a story, decided I wasn't happy with how I wrote it, so change perspectives entirely, shortened it and introduced less characters. The book is started.

Before I get too deep though, I want to establish a couple of things that I feel that are essential to know before getting into a project before it's too far into the process. What am I going to do, and more importantly, why am I going to do it? It's a big topic this one and I'll try to make it somewhat brief because there's just too much thinking that can be done about it. I think this kind of understanding is important to have because if you don't know what you want, you lose track of where you are, and if you don't know why you're doing it you don't have a motivator. You won't far without motivation, and I feel like you'll only get motivation if you know what you want.

So. What do I want from this?

I want to actually do something with my life. When I'm getting old and all that, and the grand kids ask me to tell them a story, I'll have the ability to do that because I'm throwing myself at any opportunity I get, even if it doesn't work. I also want enjoyment from it. I feel like I ooze creative energy, whether it's in my videos, livestreams or in general conversation with those I care about, I'm always after the next new thing I can create or do. Writing is one of these outlets that has very few limits on what's possible, because everything's unique when it comes to creation. It's full of wonder because nobody's actually done exactly what you've done before. Unless you're making a call of duty game.

Why Am I doing this?

We kind of hit on this in the last paragraph. I'm doing it because I want to, and because I want enjoyment, but also because it's part of a college project. Technically it doesn't have to be because I just have to write a blog, I've gone the extra mile and written a blog about a book that's being written each night.

I guess another reason why I want to do this, is because it would be pretty cool to be able to say I've had a book published. That would be cool.

So yeah. Everything seems to be established.

Time to get to work. Chapter 1.

(You may notice soon that these either get shorter, or less frequent because I'm probably going to be getting into this heavily.)

-Rue

Prologue

So I wanted to set the scene for this idea I had been throwing around. I spent most of the other night writing out what I'd consider to be the start of a story, and I thought it was good. I had set up some strong sounding characters and had ideas as to where they could be taken throughout the book, even stretching it into a few books perhaps. Then it hit me. The very moment I thought to myself "this could be more than one book" I realised this story is probably too deep, too complicated and too long for me to write. Not that I don't think I could eventually do it, but I feel I'd be caught up in it trying to understand it myself and would never finish it.

I changed it up, deciding to strip it of all depth and keep it simple and tantalizing; introducing only one character instead of five and removed dialogue completely. Reading it back, it fits about half a page instead of four and probably works much better.

I'm satisfied with it. For now. No doubt it will change in no time at all and I'll make some adjustments; I have no reason to rush this project and don't intend on doing so. Any work I put into it is purely in spare time and out of passion.

-Rue

The First Paragraph

The First Paragraph

I started writing my first paragraph last night. Before I got stuck in thought about it. Quite deep thoughts as well. I asked myself what a reader would expect from the first sentence, paragraph, page, and chapter of a book and related that to the start of one of my videos. People need a reason to be interested and an excuse to stay otherwise they're gone before the going gets good.

With this in mind I found myself toying with each sentence, letting it linger in my head before tapping away. It got to a point where I think it was for my benefit more than anyone else's to be honest with you. I had fun with it. Different ways of describing the lay of the land, or a different approach at a character introduction. Whether to start with a memory, or a dream, or an action scene. What I found crazy is that I wasn't satisfied with any of it; I hungered more. My brain was rattling ahead of my fingers developing a character or how a plot could unfold, so fast that it left me in a muddle for that first section.

I'm not quite sure if this is a good or a bad thing. I wasn't at any point frustrated with what was happening, as I said I was enjoying myself, but I didn't get anything on paper. It was all just a repeat or a minor adjustment of the same situation. That must matter though, right? If I'm not somewhat enveloped in what I'm writing how can I expect anyone else to be?

So what did I achieve from the other night? Quite a lot actually. I did get past that first little section and I felt it was a rather good one. I think I've come up with a few strong characters that I can build on over time and write strongly about. There's definitely still a very long way to go however.

I've got the write word processor on my laptop now so I should be able to do some proper writing, instead of just a wordpad document.

I don't need to see the whole staircase in order to take the first step.

-Rue.

Building Character

Building Character

I've been thinking over the last few days about characters. I imagine every character within a story to be important, but the ones you spend most time with should be the ones with most depth. Right? It could be that a good story is one with characters of equal depth, all with their own back story, likes and dislikes. People are exactly that, people. They all have their own thought processes, emotions, likes, dislikes, strengths as well as weaknesses. Proposing that the sole purpose of a side character is to propel the protagonist forward sounds strange. To some people, the most important characters are those that help the hero, so shouldn't they have the most detail?

So. All characters should be interesting with their own sense of dimension. How do you convey that? It probably won't work to list a series of character traits on the page, it just doesn't work like that. They way I want to do it I think is to have side characters perform actions that speak their personalities, and make it boldly clear about who they really are. Not quite sure how that can be written yet, but it's what I want to do.

I've established now then that side characters are important within a novel, so hows about our main focus?

Probably should be the same come to think of it. The interaction this character will have with other characters should be memorable. Is there a certain phrase that's used from time to time, or a quirky hand gesture that's thrown around dismissively every now and then? Little things like that build character I imagine and that's what I'll do.

You can take any character from any novel that's ever stayed in a reader's head for any length of time and you can expect a character that they can connect with. Mr. Grey, I look at you.

On that note I'll end this little ramble. That's exactly what it was. A little ramble on a Saturday afternoon as I wait for a video to render. Back to work now.

-Rue

Throwing Out Ideas

Throwing Out Ideas

It's been a while since I was sat in an English lesson coming up with anything creative, I left school about 18 months ago and I had no real interest in imaginative writing. Here's the strange thing though. I think I was good at it. I have what I consider to be an incredible active imagination, which I believe stems from my years as a gamer... I started playing video games at a young age and was taken by them instantly. I love sitting. Thinking. Just about crazy ideas of where I'd like to be in five years time, ten years time. It passes time and I find it fun.

I think the key to having a creative mind is to not limit yourself by what you think to be logical. Letting ideas just flow no matter how ridiculous they are should be important, because if you restrict yourself you're more likely to miss that idea that's good. I've no idea where this book of mine will take me but what I do know is that it's likely to change an awful lot as it develops. That's the beauty of it. I'll be in charge.

I'm starting to throw out ideas in my spare time, no matter what I'm doing I'm drawing inspiration at the moment; the project seems like it's constantly around me. For example, I was walking home earlier and the moon was virtually full in the sky, not hindered by clouds or light. Instantly my mind starts to wander into a forest opening with a camp fire in the middle, logs around the outside and a tent just to the left. The logs supporting campers, people. Individuals. Those that live their life in the open, telling jokes and having a drink, just passing time with each other. A life that's completely organic. With this you could hone in on any couple of people and follow that lifestyle, write about encounters with a storm or an animal, or talk about the reason how they came to be travelling so often. What you've got to remember is that the ideas were just flowing, and I took it all from the moon. If I simply focused on getting home because it was cold I wouldn't have come across that.

I want to keep doing this. I've yet to set up the software that will get me writing on this computer, so for now I'm in the idea gathering stage. Throwing ideas out there to see what works. I think I've decided on a genre and the type of protagonist that I'm after. It could change though. We'll see how I feel. 

Going to keep updating this whenever I can.

-Rue

Inspiration. Received. - Entry 1 16/10/2013

So I'm Writing A Book.

At such a young age I imagine it's madness to start writing a book. I imagine I'm right. What teenager doesn't think he or she is right? Rather than take heed to those older than me and not do something for the fear of being wrong, I prefer to go ahead and do it anyway so that when I fall down I can look back, and try to understand HOW it was wrong. There are so many people I see on a daily basis doing what they expected to do, instead of fighting for what they want to do. This attitude upsets me greatly. In 50 years time, when I'm going bald, putting on weight and remember where stuff used to be, I'll be complaining about the youth of 2063 and how they're so tragic compared to when I was a kid. What I'll have forgotten though is that the mess ups I will have made between now and then will have had an effect on the development of those children in some way, just as the generation before us miserable lot did. So what I'll mention only once in this entire blog, is that I'm a teenager. Probably inexperienced. Probably thoughtless. Definitely careless. Yet I'm driven. You were my age once if you're not now, and I'm sure you shared some of my traits. With that. What is this about?

I'm writing a Book based on god knows what. I'll be documenting the process for a college course I'm on, where we're required to provide a personal blog on a website. Non-specific. I decided I'd do something with some gravity to it though. What you'll be getting is my thought process, most likely. If I'm drawing up ideas you'll see them as they are. Unrefined. Then slightly more refined. No doubt they'll be research in there, so that will go here too. I won't be writing fiction on something I'm not interested in, so whatever I choose they'll be a lot of investigation happening.

You may be interested in what I'm about. I go to college three days a week, I work a part time job in a Supermarket and I'm kind of self employed in the games media industry, creating videos about video games that I use to express creativity and passion for video games to.... A collection of people at a time. That will, most likely remain separate from this project though.

Anyway, expect an entry sometime soon. Now that I've started I want to keep going.

Enjoy

-Rue