Character Development

I'd been thinking about a character all day. I didn't write about him, because he was so new that I was afraid that he wouldn't last. I do this all the time: think up people and put them in a story. However, I know to let the idea gestate. I have too many stories with just a few sentences, but don't go anywhere.

I wanted to make sure this character sticks, particularly if he's going to be in my new novel. I started working on him tonight. I won't tell you much, but his name is Eduardo Betancourt, the son of an ambassador.

Creativity in Another Form

I hope you can attend this! It's the first time that I'm exhibiting work in public. I'd love to see some supportive faces!


Please join me and my fellow artists:

Akumal Blur

Here I am in a bar in Mexico. It pretty much represents my time there--colorful, playful, and one huge blur! In other words, it went by so quickly that what I felt and what I experienced can not be contained in one blog post. It can not be contained in several blog posts--it was that incredible.

What made it astounding was that I'd never done anything like this before. I went away with a bunch of other writers with the intention of doing nothing but writing (of course, we ventured outside of our rooms to enjoy the local flavor, as the photo above proves). We were asked to observe the writing hours of 9am-12pm and 3pm-5pm. Those hours were dedicated to writing.

On the first day, I'd done more in the first three hours than in the previous nine months! I learned alot about myself and about my book. I decided to strip away characters and voices that don't serve the story--we're talking atleast 100 pages here!

I had a deep honest look about what I wanted to accomplish with my third novel, and I discovered that I was going in the wrong direction. Hub-boy. But I feel better about my choices with this book. I feel more at ease.

Thanks to Radar Productions. Michelle, Ali, Beth, and Christina--you rock!