Getting to know Jack

[pegkerr]

I have been thinking more about my entry yesterday, how I don't have Jack's voice. (Thanks everyone for their comments to that entry; they were very helpful.) I sat down for my writing hour today and thought I'd take a look at that book I bought a little while ago, List Your Self: Listmaking as the Way to Self-Discovery. Flipped through it, thinking, how would Jack answer these? and realized, I didn't know. It made me realize, with chagrin, that Jack is very much a stick figure in my mind.

So I decided to sit down and copy every one of these questions into my computer, and I'll use them as a check list as I build my characters BTW: I am SO glad I bought this book. Excellent questions for building characters, e.g.:

List all the items in your wallet

List the things you think you can't live without

List the first thoughts that run through your mind the moment you get up

List the food that's always left in your refrigerator after everything else is eaten

List the fantastic pranks you've successfully pulled off

List all the accidents you've been in

etc., etc.

So I'll spend the next several days, thinking about some of these questions for Jack. I am sure I'll know him much better as a person when I'm done.

One thing that occurred to me about him as I was working on this, apropos of nothing: he likes camping. I'm sure he's spent quite a bit of time up in the Boundary Waters.

Gotta dash to work.

Peg

Comments

[skg.livejournal.com]

I went out and bought this book after you mentioned it previously, and have found it very useful.

One thing I find disturbing, however, is the fact that it is much easier for me to answer these questions for my characters than for myself.

*ponders*