A Productive Day

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Yesterday was a good day on the writing front 🙂 I managed to get up to date with my prompts and do some studying!

My next OCA exercise was to take a character you’ve created and apply a ‘What if?’ to them. I had a choice of four ‘What if’s’. I chose a character I’d created recently and one of the prompts just completely jumped out as being the obvious one to use. So I then, had to write how that would affect my character. Really enjoyed doing this….my ideal writing task. Creating a character and then completely mucking up their life *evil snigger*

Go have a look at how poor Stephen Saunder’s life is just about to crumble around him. Does he deserve it d’ya think? 😉

The prompt about watching someone sleep ended up being about a jilted boyfriend who appears in a woman’s bedroom. She wakes up to find him sitting there holding a knife. The one from yesterday about the grandmother, a sorry tale about a girl being warned about men who’s eyebrows meet in the middle (what film did I get that from? Lol)

Today’s prompt is her button was undone which sounds very interesting.

Went to see The Importance of Being Earnest in London last night, and I have to admit, I wasn’t too impressed with the first half. The second half was much better, but all in all, very good 🙂

I’m off to Southampton today…..more about that tomorrow 🙂

The Dolls House

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

I received a Blog update from a Blog I follow yesterday that asked “What is your favourite part about writing?” I didn’t really even have to think about my reply…..creating characters 🙂

It suddenly struck me that the reason I enjoy that side of writing so much goes back to my child hood, and my love of dolls houses lol. I would spend hours arranging the dolls, creating little scenes for them, and imagining their lives. I had 2 Lundby houses by the time I was 10, which started a lifelong passion 🙂 Over the years, I’ve had quite a few houses, but finding space for them is always a problem. At the moment, I have one in the garage awaiting assembly lol

For me, creating characters, and their lives is akin to playing with dolls in a dolls house, and that’s why I love it! 🙂

Yesterday I managed to get up to date with my prompts. The shade tree prompted a story of a young couple sitting under a tree, discussing their forthcoming patter of tiny feet. Only it turns out that it will be the patter of six feet. Driving the coast road ended up as another ghost story (I’m sorry, I’ve kinda got ghost stories on my mind at the moment lol) where a man runs down a girl late at night on the road, or rather he thinks he does 😉 Yesterday’s prompt started out quite well but I ran out of steam with the idea of a woman who was being whispered about, so it had no ending lol.

Today’s prompt is you’re watching someone sleep but I’ve got to make a start on my OCA coursework…..busy day ahead 😉

Finally There?

Posted on December 7, 2011 by Vikki Thompson

Assignment 3

Spell check…..Done
Tense…..Altered where needed
Internal Monologue…..Added
Reflective Commentary…..Written
All typed up and ready to submit…..Nearly lol 😉

I just need to check it over one more time and then I can e mail it to my tutor 🙂

Yesterday, along with faffing about with my assignment I was also thinking about the complexity of Characters. What makes a good character? Well, if you think about people you know they’re all multi faceted, layered, and you only get to see what they want you to see…..do you ever really know someone?…….and why is that?

It’s all about the stuff we hide and why we hide it. Does such a thing as ‘an open book’ really exist? Or are they actually a dark horse? We hide sides of our personality that we are embarrassed about or uncomfortable with. We hide to control the way we’re perceived. We want to appear stronger, wiser, sexier, more successful, younger or more mature than we really are. So what do people hide? What would a person spend a lifetime concealing? What would a person take to their grave without ever revealing? What secrets do people keep?

No person is all good…..

No person is all bad…..

…..our fictional characters should be just like real people. Not only do they have to get up and go to work, put the rubbish out or feed the cat, they, like us, have layered personalities, issues and secrets.

Wouldn’t fiction, and life, be dull, if we didn’t? 😉