I've been thinking quite a bit lately about character backstory and how it can help shape how the writer presents a character and how the reader feeds off that. In particular I've been thinking about Aragorm from the Lord of the Rings. Aragorn remains one of my absolute favorite Fantasy characters. He's a person who ends up with a very different life than he had when we first meet him. And he's someone who suffered and lost so much along the way.

When I was young I didn't realize just how dark a past Aragorn actually has. While Tolkien never really delved into it, once he ventured out from Rivendell Aragorn spent many decades living in a very dark and brutal world. If you really stopped and thought about it Aragorn has probably done some pretty nasty things along the way. I wonder how many Bill Ferny's might be buried in shallow graves across Arnor. While it might be easy to say Aragorn's nobility and sense of honor might keep him from such actions it wouldn't surprise me to find out Aragorn and the Dunedain were brutal and merciless when the need called for it in protecting west of the Anduin or the Misty Mountains.

Considering Tolkien had originally planned to have Aragorn kill Boromir in single combat it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to imagine him having to take similar distasteful actions.

It speaks to Aragorn's strength of character that he could come through all he endured without too much damage.

I realize I need to get back to making time for worldbuilding. As I continue work on my current WIP I notice holes in my worldbuilding that need plugging.

I did my first real writing of 2012 last night. About 2000 words. I think about 300 to 500 or so of them are good ones. But I stumbled across one of those worldbuilding holes in the process.

This chapter is definitely going to go through many revisions. It introduces two major characters, an infodump - hopefully a well disguised one - and two critical pieces of worldbuilding. Its a tricky one to get just right. I'm confident I will eventually. For now though its rough draft stuff which is fine.

Next scene introduces another key player and expands on one of the worldbuilding pieces. Looking forward to it.

Posted via m.livejournal.com.

As I continue writing I realize I need to tell the next scene from the viewpoint of a particular knight. I created this character so many years ago while sitting in math class back in junior high school. And in all of those years I've only known him through the eyes of his son (who is one of the main viewpoint characters in the story I'm working on).

This man is the first knight of this particular realm (and has lived a very long time) so he is the standard bearer in their society of what a knight is. And yet I now have to discover who this man is. How his mind works. What does he notice? What burdens does he bear? How has bearing the responsibility for the safety of his lord worn on him through all of the countless ages?

I have a feeling I'm going to do quite a few rewrites but at least I know the scene that needs to take place so I have a concrete starting point in terms of what needs to happen in this scene.

It seems a bit odd, even to myself, that in all of these years I've never crawled inside his head. I wonder what I'm going to find in there.

Note to self: Next time I kill a character in the opening chapter that character shall remain dead. Having to eliminate a death scene for a secondary character and weave him back into the entire opening movement of a novel is quite an undertaking. It isn't just throwing mentions of him into chapters. He may be secondary but he is important to one of the main characters and plays a key role. And having him there changes the role of another secondary character who would have had to take up his mantle. Which changes the role of another secondary character...etc. Not to mention how it directly impacts the mindset of the main characters.

While I am still working through the opening, which requires much more of an extensive rewrite now that a character who died in the opening chapter doesn't die, my mind is already reaching ahead to the Middle of the Book. In-between the actually writing, which is going slowly weaving a character into scenes he originally wasn't in, plot thoughts keep bubbling up to the surface for one group of characters who all end up together far from the main action. Lots of ideas coming. This is going to be interesting because there is a very good chance that when I actually get to write the middle chapters the ideas I have now may be tossed aside for whatever my brain might spring upon me then.

No matter how many great ideas I have in the planning stages so many things can change during the actual writing stage. I think a large part has to do with the characters themselves being active in the written word where their personalities will end up directly influencing the events that take place. Right now I really like this whole subplot I'm developing. Until I get to actually writing it I won't know if my characters will like it.

When I was young I used to come home from school, knock out my homework and then write. I could churn out pages at a pretty quick pace. I look back at my younger self and sometimes long for that level of productivity.

But then I realize that speed isn't the be all and end all of productivity. In my full time job (meaning paying) I work in the IT field. I learned early on that doing something correctly far outweighed doing something quickly.

So, while I don't churn out pages at an Asimov pace anymore I feel pretty good that what I do produce stomps my much earlier writings into the dirt. And yet I am no where near where I can just sit down and produce prose that simply needs a light edit. But then again, is anyone?

Right now when reflecting upon my writing I'm really happy that I'm seeing things that need to be seen much quicker than I used to. I can recognize much faster when something isn't working. Progress? Yes. Now back to writing.

It seems I've been working on the opening chapters of my WIP forever. Probably because I have. This is not, however, due to me needing to have the opening perfect before being able to continue onwards. Rather, the story itself has changed quite a bit and there are key events in this opening that need to be changed.

Since one of these involves "unkilling" a character I really do need to redo the parts that just don't belong anymore. I'm almost there. While last night produced only about 650 words they were important ones. Very important ones. Not that they don't need quite a bit of work. This section I'm writing is a bit new concept-wise so I imagine it will undergo some mini-rewrites of its own. But that's for later.

Those 650 words revealed how I'm going to introduce a very important ability of one of the main characters. I've had no idea up till the moment the words began to flow that this was how I would introduce it. Happy to get that out of the way.

Wrote a little bit today, about 3 pages to finish off a chapter I had started a while ago. In fact the first half of this chapter was the last thing I had written. Its been a while. Way too long.

And you know what? After re-reading the entire chapter (old part and new) it doesn't suck! It needs work but it doesn't suck. That makes me feel good.

Also, I had another one of those WOW! plot bombs drop on my head. Loads of possibilities there. But I fear at least 30,000 more words just to tackle it. I'm not all that sure this would be a wise move. But its such a tantalizing idea.

So, I'm winding down the reread and the thinking about the story process of a re-write/continue WIP and closing in on sitting butt in chair and writing.

I've taken a slightly different approach this time, one that seems so far to have been more helpful. While I have had my share of epiphanies and rude awakenings I've also been thinking about what I have accomplished regarding plot and characterization. But the difference this time is I've gone further. I'm asking myself: "Is this really necessary right here? Wouldn't the story benefit if I withheld this tidbit and sprang it upon the plot later? I mean what's the point of doing this now, so early in the book. Its just wasted."

Now that may seem an obvious thing but I tend to just let first drafts fly. But this ceased being a first draft a while ago. Depending upon which part of the WIP one looks at its a 3rd draft or a 2nd draft and yes, still parts a 1st draft.

I need to pay more attention. I've been fixing what I know is wrong so I can't exactly ignore my 2nd and 3rd draft brain poking my 1st draft brain and saying: "Um, no. That's really not going to work anymore. We've already figured out x though you haven't gotten to it yet, so, yeah, drop that."

One of the main reasons this WIP even exists was my brain needed to figure out how these characters got to where they were when I first met them from where they started out. So, I'm working towards pre-established events and people. Getting their growth, their progression just right is quite interesting, frustrating and fun.

My biggest fear at the moment is I've the sinking suspicion this book will end up twice as long as I originally expected. But then again it really isn't that same simple little story of how a boy became a knight. So much more. And while he is the main character out of a cast of almost main characters his story really has become how and why he becomes the knight he is later on.

If I had to pick one central theme for this book it is about Choice. The choices these characters make that changes each of their lives for better or ill. And how the choices of the powerful impact even the weakest.

I like it. Hopefully someday others will too.

I'm a fan of Josh Ritter's music. Excellent lyrics. I recently discovered that he has written his first fiction book called Bright's Passage.

I stumbled across this interview with Josh where he talks about his muse, which he refers to as The Monster:

Feeding the Monster

Here's a snippet:

The monster is the invisible force that decides what you write about. Some people call it “The Muse,” but I’ve never found that to be a particularly apt description for a creature so voracious. This is no gossamer-clad maiden. I don’t know much about it, but I know that it lives deep in the synaptic jungle, its tail twitching lazily, its slow-breathing bulk heaving sulfurous sighs as it waits. You have to feed the monster everything you come across, be it books, music or movies, your friends and enemies and any other shiny baubles you find strewn in your path. You shovel everything you’ve got—a long-handled snow shovel works best—into its big toothy mouth, and it chews everything up and sighs once again. It never says “thank you,” and you don’t expect any gratitude, but once in a while the monster will taste something it really enjoys. When it does, you’ll notice a slight lift of its scaly brow and a narrowing of its keyhole pupils. It doesn’t give away much, but if you know your monster, that’s all you need to see.

This other article has a sample of lyrics from one of his best songs Thin Blue Line and a paragraph from Bright's Passage highlighting his ability to invoke images and emotions in his novel just as powerful as in his songs.

Bright's Passage by Josh Ritter

I will definitely be reading this in the near future.