Character Diagram

Here is the character flowchart I mentioned in my previous post. I made it with MS Visio, then I screen captured the print preview so I could have a picture of it. It's hard to see much in this thumbnail in this post, but this is only the scaled down version of a larger image.

I started out by placing my main character Sabina in the center then I kept her her co-workers above and beside her. Her boyfriend and best friend are lower as I didn't have to worry about what they think about her co-workers.

After awhile it did get a bit confusing with the arrow shapes with the number of characters I have on here. So I used the connector tool for the last two arrows. They were black originally, but then I figured out how to change the colors. I used dark green for strong like, lighter green for liking someone, gray for more neutral, lighter red for dislike, and dark red for hate. Ya, Iris is one of those people that really doesn't like others. I still need to put arrows in between the best friend and boyfriend.

Nanowrimo in progress

Well it is now day 10 for Nano and I just crossed the 10k mark. I've been behind the whole month so far, but not to bad. I wrote 5k on Sunday which helped. While I try to get in a few words here and there I generally like to have large chunks of time to just write. Sunday was wonderful, even with the push to make up some of the ground.

I had been dragging for awhile with the writing and once I figured things out I've had an easier (and more fun) time of it. I spent some time Saturday and Sunday morning thinking about my novel. I came to the realization that I needed to think about my characters' motives better. My novel started with more of a plot idea than a character and until I moved more towards the characters it was a struggle to write. I switched out some characters that were there for the sake of plot and added some characters with some things they want. Some of the new characters are plot related, but more so in the way that what they want conflicts with other character's wants/goals.

I also spent some time Sunday morning creating a flow chart of my major characters. Each character has their own square, then I connected them with arrows. The arrows I color coded to show if one character liked, disliked, or was more neutral about the other character. Some arrows I made double ended to show that both characters felt the same about each other. Others have single arrows, one in each direction with different colors. It really made me think about the various characters as I took each character in turn and though about how they felt about the other characters. Plus to the pairs where the characters feel differently about each other can make for some good conflict points in the novel. Aside from just the mutual dislike.

So, to those also participating in Nano how are you doing? Catching up, right on goal, worked in a nice cushion?
And for those not doing Nano, how's the current work in progress going?

Muse Prompting Monday - Nano Go!

I've been wanting to upload this picture for a few weeks now. I took this picture back on October 9th while watching the sun set over Cayuga Lake. With National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo aka Nano) starting tomorrow I'm scheduling a post for the first time (it's Sunday morning as I type this).

I'm not sure how this will inspire the muses of others. It could be a nature story or perhaps something about being captured or life's struggles. It's hard to tell in the thumbnail, but if you click the picture to see the full size the bird has something in its beak. I think the bird is a kingfisher.