Saturday, August 29, 2015

Lost

Read an interesting article on the over use of cell phones as an indicator of depression. Well, yeah, I can see that. I really think I was battling depression and didn't even know it. For a year, I've allowed Facebook and Netflix to suck up all my time and energy. I avoided replying to social media, blogging and even, writing. I was just emotionally drained. Part of it can be attributed to over doing things when I first started writing. Back then, I loved doing all the things I needed to do to connect with readers and other writers.

I'm feeling more like my old self and hoping to jump back into things but more slowly this time. In the meantime, let's talk about Lost. Yep, one of my binge shows on Netflix was Lost. Of course, I am going to rationalize this time-sucker as research. Watching Lost has helped me reconnect with the whole characterization process. And I love it!

There is so much that goes into writing; character development, setting, teasing all five senses, active vs passive voice, and more. I remember first starting my journey as a writer and struggling just to make sentences that didn't all start with he or she. The more you conquer one writing foe, you have to move onto another. So, for the book I'm working on now, I'm trying to dive deeper into each of the main character's emotional psyche.

It's not enough to know their basic background; where they went to school, what religion they belonged to or even who their first romantic interest was. The lessons I'm learning from Lost is each character will have had an event or maybe two or three events that shape how they react to other events. It's one thing to say the character lost a loved one in a driving accident when he/she was a teen but how will they react when their own teenager wants to start driving? Will their reservations be a little higher, more exaggerated than the normal parent? All good questions but it does make one think.

This is not really a new revelation for me, but I think as we write more we sometimes tend to write by rote. We're so consumed with getting that next novel written and out that we start taking short cuts. So, no more short cuts, no more getting off the beaten path. Yep, I'm finding the trail back to good writing practices and in the process feeling less lost.

5 comments:

katie200 said...

Hi Ciara.

Great post. I think everyone gets lost sometimes but there's always the path back. Sometimes it helps to just strip things back to a time when you really enjoyed writing or a way of writing/being it can help rekindle the writing Magic. If I'm having an strange day writing wise I'll go and reread the very first short story that inspired me to want to see it to the end. It help rekindle the feelings of just writing happily for me anyway. I'm glad you're starting to feel like yourself more now.

Sometimes it's hard with social media it can get a bit crazy trying to juggle page after page of different site. And feeling emotional drained feels horrible. I think sometimes it's a good idea to take a breather from things. Hide the computer or phone etc and do something that makes you feel really happy.

I too liked lost the TV show. It had some really interesting characters in it. But my binge TV is Persons of interest at the moment it has some interesting character in as well.

Best of luck with exploring your characters more it can be super fun. And good luck with all your writing and noveld. I'm sure when you've done with them they will all be amazing reads. Because you're an amazing writer and your book really capture and stay with a reader like me. Be proud of all your writing achievements I'm sure people who read your books feel blessed to have read them and got lost in their adventures. I know I do.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Take care.
Katie.





Ciara Gold said...

Thank you so much, Katie. I've seen a few episodes of Persons of Interest but I haven't started it as one of my binge shows yet. And actually, I only made it through season 2 of Lost. Might go back but I get tired of shows pretty quickly.

But - watching it did inspire me to dig deeper into my character's background. I'm really struggling with her just because so much happened to her when she was young, how can she not be screwed up. With romance, I think you have to be careful not to make your character so flawed it's unbelievable and that's where she headed if I don't reign her in. Ah well. In the end, she'll be fine after all, she'll find the love of her life, right?

katie200 said...

Hi Ciara.

I watch Person Of Interest late at night/ early morning when the words have become blurry purely because I hardly sleep and when I get to a point I can't write either or read it's nice to watch.

I watched Lost with my sisters a good while a go because they loved the mystery of it. I do agree there are some great character in it.

I agree some characters can end up with lots of flaws through their life time. I often think that a good blance between what pushed a character to their edge and who or what pulled them back or didn't, makes me able to see a character more rounded if that makes sense.

I'm sure working with your character you'll have her heading down her path in no time. And finding love well that rise above all flaws and hard times right... :)

Good luck with it all.
Take care.
Katie.

Ciara Gold said...

I managed a page today amid running errands but I like where it's all going so... I used to have your schedule. The more tired I was, the better I wrote but as I get older, I can't do that any longer. I am trying to use the weekends to write as much as possible so I can use the week nights to work on school stuff.

katie200 said...

Hi Ciara.

Fantastic!!I'm glad your writing is going well...Writing weekends sounds like a great plan.

I'm a total night person,love the feeling of the night with the cats going a bit cat crazy and the stars outside kinda magical writing time for me anyway.

Best of luck with your writing weekends and your novels.

Take care.
Katie.