X-Mas

X-Mas

Welp, it’s December.  This is the first time since being an “adult” (used loosely, I totally still have a long way to go on a few things.  Like figuring out what the hell I am doing, figuring out what exactly is in “Bug Juice”, how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop (I know it’s more than three, that owl is a dirty liar), and etc etc etc,) that I have been not working retail during the holiday season.  I can tell ya right now that it feels great not dealing with people who are collectively dumber than the bottom of my shoes.
Money, on the other hand, I like that stuff.  I guess I’m going to be an unscrupulous Scrooge this year.  Which I”m kind of fine with cause I hate the holiday season.  Some people like it and the hot chocolate and the snow and the songs and the hallmark movies and the presents and the cheer and the warmth and the … I think you get it.  I’m not one of those people.  I blame the horrors of stupid people with the hive-mind mentality.
So why the hell am I Grinching about the holidays when this is a primarily a writing tag (Musings that is, is primarily about relating my shit to writing in some aspect, so not a full-blown tip or lesson or a testimonial, but like a half-formed, ranting bastard of the two)?  Because I have to not think about that kind of stuff when I write.
Let me explain.  The characters that I embody when I write, (Carlotta, Alex, Robin, Benji, etc etc etc etc etc,) are not just carbon copies of myself.  They should be their own people, in their own little aspects and quirks and likes and hates and etc etc etc.  I had written a poem that talked about unraveling a woman to see what made her her, and I had listed like twelve different aspects but I could have definitely gone on for longer.  You can find it on my facebook if you really want to get a better picture.
Now, of course, these characters are going to resemble me a little.  It’s like a parent-child relationship, where I am the dad and they are the child.  They are going to have bits and bobs of myself in there that I can see and that the reader can see.  And that’s fine, but they can’t be carbon copies.  One of my beliefs is that writers put themselves into the characters that they are creating.  And that goes primarily for the main characters of the piece (hero, sidekick, and antagonist).  That means that the characters would take on an aspect of myself.  Like their heroism, their intelligence, their cunningness, their anger, their love, their mannerisms, etc etc etc etc etc etc.
However, this should be an exaggeration of the actual fact.  All good characters take an archetype and push it to the extremes.  The trick is to make it believable, that such a character can actually exist in the real world.  Despite whatever fantasy setting or real life scenario that the writer can come up with, the characters should be believable and real.  That makes the story better for the reader and for the writer.
So while I might hate the holidays, that doesn’t mean that the people I write do as well.  Just because I want to wear sound canceling headphones when carolers go by doesn’t mean that the characters I write do as well.  This just means that I have to really dig down deep into my thoughts and emotions to really get the feel for the character I am writing so that I am able to exaggerate it in a healthy way.  That, of course, is far easier said than done, but it is a challenge that I have to face if I am to take this road.
Bit of a side note.  I am working on Colors.  I do want to finish it before I go on with the other stories I have in my head.  I’m going to have like, six, seven weeks between semesters so I can really get some good work done.  I’ll hopefully update again soon, but, you know, last week of classes and all.