Missed Connections

I signed up for a writing session on writing more complex characters put on by the Mill for Writers. Meeting in the basement of the Appleton library, descending the stairs and catching a taxidermy bear in the corner of my eye caught me off guard. 

A room full of writers and potential writers that come from a variety of occupational backgrounds. I wound up sitting next to a guy one year younger who also works in social services. We seemed to have a lot in common but he appeared more stoic than me with an added displeasure of wanting to talk about himself. A missed connection not catching his last name and a potential friend while his quick exit from the room at the end added to the difficulty.

Provided a challenge to incorporate prompts into character development with a lie from ‘two truths and a lie’ as well as being given a character that has wings. I was challenged with how my character reacts to walking into a room that makes them uncomfortable. The lie was about hot air balloons which fit with wings. Below are my two examples.In the honesty of the situation, the guy to my left was the youngest person there at age 31, most attendees were in their 50’s and up. I thought about how many of them had some type of social media outlet for their work or have any clue about marketing themselves or their work. And maybe that’s a class worth having. I enjoyed the session and wlaked away with some really great ways to build more complex characters through the use of psychology (I majored in psychology). I signed up for the next writing session because it puts my writing in the forefront of my priorities outside of work. I have a 50K word rough draft that I’ve sat on for a few years that is too much ‘tell’ and not enough ‘show’ and it’s been a struggle to develop.the personality of one of my prime characters that is so wrapped up in the entirety of the story. In all reality he is just a name and a photo in my head.

Exercise excerpts:

“Nathan didn’t think much of the small town living he’d seemingly to him, ‘endured.’ As an outcast on the world due to being born with wings, he had settled with himself to remain a private person. Although, secretly he yearned for some other worldly existence in this modern mass of the ordinary. Remaining secretive of his winged evolutionary lottery win, he turned to hot air balloons to seek his high flying adventures.”

“Nathan walked into the hot air balloon facility on a cloudy and windy Saturday, knowing that the tourists would be scarce due to the high winds and cloud cover. Opening the door, he was met with a burst of movement, raucous noise, and bodies everywhere. The change in expectation and scenery left him defeated. He creeper along the edge of the room like a rodent, trying to avoid as much contact as possible making his way to the balloon storage area. He reach the room where his balloon was stored, looking through the room window and hungry for a piece of quiet solitude.”