You see, my characters keep asking me the same question, over and over again: What’s my motivation? And sometimes I just blank out. Not a thought comes up, not a motivation is found.
I fight it, particularly if the character is as adorable as Godzilla, but in the end I know it’s my cue: time to ditch the character, time to kill another darling…
Tagged: characters, kill your darlings, Motivation, writing
Atlanta, Georgia. Frozen rain, sleet and snow turned the city into a ghost town. The bustle of a vibrant city died down in a matter of hours. We — a bunch of Internet geeks and me — were forewarned and huddled together in a downtown hotel. Most geeks will be here for a while, as today’s buzz word at the airport is ‘cancelled’. I will be driving out tomorrow, up north and into the mountains. Icy conditions call for an invigorating research trip.
It awed me, though, how nature can force life to its knees. Had me think about the characters for my novel-in-the-making, about how deceitful they can or should be. Delicate and elusive as frozen rain and yet strong enough to send whomever crosses their path spinning.
Tagged: Atlanta, characters, Creative Writing, frozen rain, Georgia, ghost town, sleet, snow
Mina Witteman 