Too Many Ideas - Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category
Characters on the Couch (Part 3)
Wednesday, July 26th, 2006This Follows on from: Characters on the Couch (Part 2). The first part can be found at: Characters on the Couch (Part 1). The Ruler Archetype "Power isn’t everything. It’s the only thing" These characters seek control, prosperity and positions of leadership. They want to be in charge of their situation. At their best they […]
Characters on the Couch (Part 2)
Wednesday, July 19th, 2006Following on from: Characters on the Couch (Part 1). Drivers Each of the archetypes is associated with one of the drivers giving a general impression of what they want to do. The key drivers that Jung identified were stability, mastery, belonging and independence. Modern discussions sometimes refer to stability as “providing structure”, mastery as “thumb […]
Characters on the Couch (Part 1)
Wednesday, July 12th, 2006A Jungian approach to characters for Writers How do you get inside a character and understand what makes them tick? How can you use their desires, history and motivation to create memorable personalities? One possible technique is to draw on archetypal characters found in mythology that many writers use when creating characters. These archetypes can […]
Keyboard Burning
Wednesday, July 5th, 2006I’ve done so much typing today my keyboard should be smoking in the heat. I only stopped during the torrential thunderstorm that hit this afternoon. Couple of thousand words on a short story / novella, a rework of an old article that I’m going to serialise here on my blog for the next few months, […]
A Novel Experience
Wednesday, June 28th, 2006After a hiatous of several months I opened my half finished novel and started to tackle the scene I got stuck on. I hit a continuity error that I didn’t really want to fix in the first draft but didn’t think I could afford to leave unfixed either. It is now fixed so I can […]
Memorable Characters the M&S Way
Friday, June 16th, 2006A little idea for creating memorable characters that came to me while watching TV. Describe what makes your character stand out from the ordinary in the style of a Marks & Spencers advert. The formula goes something like (X is your character)… Start with "Not just a X it’s a " Now describe the character’s […]
Arædan Away
Wednesday, May 24th, 2006I’ve sent Arædan off to a few friends to see what they think. I’m off to hide in a corner now…
Arædan Draft 2 Done
Thursday, May 18th, 2006I wrote the missing fight scene. Which turned out to be a lot of dialogue so it may need rewriting in the third draft. I’m going to pass copies to a few friends now to see what they think. I’ve also decided to cut the accents off the name so it’s easier to figure out […]
Hero not having a Good Time
Thursday, May 11th, 2006I do love getting a hero in trouble that is right over there head. In this case he’s got the small problem of a sociopathic elf with a shotgun and an ogre with a sten guns in each hand and an axe to grind metaphorically speaking.
Accidental Discovery while Writing
Monday, May 8th, 2006So I was busy writing my Noir earlier or trying to write it anyway. Its all told in the first person (well it is a noir) and so I’ve not described the hero at all. I know he’s pretty much an everyman, an ex-soldier, quite cold, from Liverpool and an outsider but other than that […]