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Character Quiz
I personally believe that all good writing comes from good characters. One week into Naplwrimo, we should all know just a little bit about our characters. But unless we know them well we're going to hit rocky ground sooner or later. If we can't predict exactly how they'd respond in any situation, if we don't know them as well as we know our best friends, well, then we're not doing our jobs properly. And so, for a brief diversion from your scripts, here's a quick character quiz for you - and the answers given by Jack, one of my leads. 1. Where do you live? a. everywhere and anywhere, currently sleeping on a sleeper couch at my sister's place in Oxford. 2. Describe a present you received as a child that really meant something to you? a. When I was ten, my granddad gave me some binoculars, small brass ones. They opened up new worlds to me, and I still take them wherever I go. 3. What do you do when you're stuck in traffic? a. I'm hardly ever in traffic, so it's a bit of a novelty. I watch other people. 4. Describe the last time you cried? a. It was a couple of weeks ago, we went to this temple in Malaysia somewhere, and we got there at dawn, as the sun started hitting the tops of the stones. So freaking beautiful. 5. What do you think is your best attribute? a. People trust me instinctively. I gather stories and secrets wherever I go, and I keep them all. ______ Please share your answers, I'd love to "meet" some of your characters...
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Great post and totally true. Good writing must have strong, three dimensional, unexpected characters. Characters who act out of character, because that's what makes them human.
I like the 'present as a child' question, that's lovely.
OMG - that's so true. I feel like I'm writing a Sinfield episode. The play's about nothing (not really, but I like to say that). The thing is, I'm writing about characters - good characters, I think. I've given them a situation and some conflict; they're doing the rest.
Maggie:
1. Where do you live?
a. Just moved into an all-womym Community on Chicago's north side. I grew up in southest Iowa.
2. Describe a present you received as a child that really meant something to you?
a. Once, I must have been three, my dad had a neighbor dress up as Santa. Come knocking on my front door at some ungodly hour in the morning. My parents has me open the door, and there was Santa holding a huge space robot that was as big as me. I don't remember the toy much, but the presentation I will never forget.
3. What do you do when you're stuck in traffic?
a. I use public transportation. I'm usually in my own head, hard rock music drowning out the world over headphones, but sometimes I'll stop and watch people on the bus or train.
4. Describe the last time you cried?
a. Couple of weeks ago. I watched Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist on Netflix online. There was a line where Nick talks about people finding people and it just reminded me how lonely I was. I'm so glad it was before I moved in with my new roomate. She already thinks I'm nuts.
5. What do you think is your best attribute?
a.I'm generally a happy and accepting person. I'm learning to make friends where ever I go.
Humm... this was good. I learned more about my character than I knew ten minutes ago.
Molly
1. Q: Where do you live?
A: Lawton, OK. Parent's house. Mostly stay in my bedroom. Except when I dream.
2. Describe a present you received as a child that really meant something to you?
A: My dad helped me build a kite out of Christmas paper. My store bought one got snagged in a tree. We got it down and took it apart to get the wood to use in another one. Took maybe half an hour to make it. Flew like a dream.
3. What do you do when you're stuck in traffic?
A: Sweat it out. Longer you sit in traffic, the more chances you'll be targeted by someone with an I.E.D. Now I'm just stuck.
4. Describe the last time you cried?
When the doctors showed me what was left of my face.
5. What do you think is your best attribute?
You shittin' me?
Ok. Then.
Used to think it was my heart. My will to survive. Survival is the greatest thing in the world. Boo-yah! Bullshit. Now I just feel haunted. Nothing to do with myself. No good anymore. Not for nothin'.
Thank You! That was fun.
Laura Monica
1. Where do you live?
a. Southern California, San Diego actually, approximately 20 minutes from UCSD. I've lived there for four years, since my Sophomore year at UCSD, currently I'm living with three other people, one of which is my partner and the other two just live in the house with me as roommates.
2. Describe a present you received as a child that really meant something to you?
a. My mother surprised me once on Christmas, she bought me a dress and it was gorgeous. When I put it on it made me feel like I was a princess, and I wore it all day Christmas and again on New Years. Mommy and Daddy both said I was gorgeous, and so did everyone else who saw me in my dress.
3. What do you do when you're stuck in traffic?
a. I get angry when I'm stuck behind some moron drivers. I wish they'd all just vanish sometimes, but I have to deal with them. At least I know my way around the time schedules, when people and classes let out so I don't have to be stuck too often.
4. Describe the last time you cried?
a. The last time I really cried was a few nights ago, I had been alone in the house after a date with my partner. He'd left to go buy something from the store and left me at home alone for a bit, my roommates were out so I had the entire house to myself. I looked over to my desk and saw a picture of my best friend who I'd heard from two months ago, he'd gone to war, I remembered that I'd recieved news a while back that he'd been killed in action. My heart dropped to my stomach and I cried until my partner came home, he sat next to me and waited until I was done crying... we didn't go to sleep until 6 the next morning... I cried all night.
5. What do you think is your best attribute?
a. I feel like I can keep people entertained without much work. It's something I've always been able to do, and I think most of the people I know really enjoy it. Especially when it's my turn to cook.
"If you're looking for a sign, this is it. Do it. It will be amazing."
1) Where do you live?
In my best friend Kiandra's flat since leaving my own place.
2) Describe a present you received as a child that really meant something to you?
My first calculator,which I got from my dad. I used it to add everything even the amount of cereal I use to put in my plate!
3) What do you do when you are stuck in traffic?
Read through my stash of FHM's on the side of my door or phone Kiandra and describe to her how the other disgruntled drivers around me look.
4) The last time you cried.
A couple of months ago when my girlfriend Donna walked out on me.
5) What do you think your best attribute is?
I'm a great driver without a shred of road rage, if you need a second opinion on that, please don't ask Donna!
BLD
1) Where do you live? In a room in the back of my saloon. It's my place. Well, I sold the horse to get the earnest money, and I'll have given the rest to old man Johnson by the end of the year, so then it will be my place, free and clear. Millie lives here with me. She pays her way the best she can.
2) Describe a present you got as a child that really meant something to you. I got the first quilt for my hope chest the Christmas I turned 10. Mama and I had worked on it and worked on it, and I got the surprise of my life when she gave it to me. I just thought it was for her and daddy. Once I realized that it was for me and whatever man I was to marry, I just never could think of myself as a little girl any more.
3) What do you do when you're stuck in traffic? Traffic? What's traffic? When there's a mule that won't move in the thoroughfare, what can you do but wait? It's not like anybody's really got anywhere that important to go anyhow.
4) The last time you cried. The last time I cried I'm not going to talk about. I picked up and girded my loins, as it says in the Bible, and I'm going to take care of it. If it takes me the rest of my life. I'm going to take care of it myself.
5) What do you think your best attribute is? Patience. Lord knows you need it to run a saloon, but it's also how I keep getting up in the morning. The patience to know it all comes around again in the end.
A ship in the harbor is safe, but that's not what ships are for.
EILEEN
1. Where do you live?
a. I recently moved to a ranch -- or rather, the remains of a ranch -- outside of Bend, Oregon. I purchased it for my terraform research. Before that I lived in the Los Angeles, in Inglewood, while I was getting my PhD at UCLA.
2. Describe a present you received as a child that really meant something to you?
a. When I was about eight, I was given a bedding set by my aunt. She’d bought it at Macy’s on a trip to New York. She brought it all the way back with her, for me, because our linens were all from the Salvation Army. They were a high threadcount, made of cotton but it felt almost like silk, and their color was a yellow that illuminated my room even with the lights off.
3. What do you do when you're stuck in traffic?
a. I look out the window and take stock of the landscape. I count up buildings and animals and people, I sort them by various criteria: two tall, six medium, four short; three angry dogs and one happy dog; an atmosphere of despair to the left, and hope to the right; and so forth. It’s a bit like busywork for my mind, otherwise it might roam over less useful material.
4. Describe the last time you cried?
a. I cried with joy when I received my grant. I’ve worked hard over the last six (six!) years of my life, gaining expertise in a variety of fields beyond biochemistry. To finally have someone recognize the significance of what I’m attempting (especially in the light of the usual condescension toward women in the field) is a wonderful reward. It was a welcome cry.
5. What do you think is your best attribute?
a. Take a scale from one to one hundred, one being the lowest level of intelligence, one hundred being the highest. You might put my intelligence at one hundred? Square that. That’s more like it.
GONE
1. Where do you live?
a. Used to live in a house with my girl Becky. She owned it and the piece of land on it, about a hundred acres. She sold it to this couple from California, but I didn’t want to leave, so I moved into a storage container on the property. That’s where I’m staying too.
2. Describe a present you received as a child that really meant something to you?
a. Hm...I should say the first football my dad gave me, right? But that’d be bullshit, though it was pretty rad. Man, I remember when I got a hold of my first dirty book. It was called “Virgins” and my friend Eli gave it to me. It was pretty tame by any adult standard, but I thought it was hot at the time. I love books but if there isn’t at least one good sex scene in them, I feel like the writer wasted my time.
3. What do you do when you're stuck in traffic?
a. Traffic’s gotten worse over the years around here, but it’s nothing like in Portland or Seattle. More often my truck breaks down and if I’m waiting for Becky or Triple A then I daydream about how I would’ve done things differently in high school, knowing what I know now. I would had a lot more girls, that’s for damn sure.
4. Describe the last time you cried?
a. That’s easy, it’s when I realized that Becky was selling the place and there was no changing that. I’ve lived around here all my life, and I love it here, it’s the right mix of town and country. I went out and got drunk, and I had this dream where it was like 1983 again and everything was how I remembered it. Then I got aware it was a dream, like you do sometimes? And man I was bawling, in the dream and in regular life. I swear if Becky had been on the living room floor with me where I was sleeping? I woulda woke her up with my bawling.
5. What do you think is your best attribute?
a. I got a mind for detail. Like a steel trap. And that makes me compassionate, ‘cause I remember things about people, I can see where they’re coming from. Flip side of that is I remember too much about myself. There’s people out there that seem to know nothing about where they came from, only where they’re going. Sometimes I wish I was one of those people.
1. Where do you live?
I've got a studio in Egmont St. It's pretty handy to everything, and plenty of room for painting (and paintings). It doesn't seem so expensive now I can pay for it myself, though five years ago I felt embarrassed having such a cool place.
2. Describe a present you received as a child that really meant something to you?
That's a tough one. I think it should be the first set of paint brushes or something, but I can't really remember a particular present. I guess, maybe, if I'm just choosing anything at all, well, I remember be thrilled when I got my own PC when I started high school. Did a lot of work on that.
3. What do you do when you're stuck in traffic?
Hah, I don't have to worry about that. Work from home.
4. Describe the last time you cried?
I don't know. I'd have been really small. Maybe a fight at preschool? Or getting told off for something. Too long ago.
5. What do you think is your best attribute?
I work really hard. I don't go for this "artistic lifestyle" thing. I spend time getting the best from myself. I mean, I think you have to if you're really serious about succeeding. At anything really.
Everything in life should be as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler - Albert Einstein
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