Out of Order
Day 225 of Writing
What I wrote earlier about tweening and animation in many ways applies to writing an action novel. I started first with the main premise and then began working on the major action sequences. They are what a story like this is all about. Once I had mapped out the action sequences, then I needed to fill in the space between them.
That space is not filler. It is how you give the action sequences more meaning by taking the time to introduce your characters and get the audience to empathize with them. When you put flat uninteresting characters into an action sequence, when their motivations are not clear and have no meaning or importance, then your action is just sound and fury signifying nothing. Sure, it can still be exciting, but I want readers to remember more than just explosions.
I had a lot of training as an actor, which is enormously helping for understanding character development. When you get a script, you have to fully analyze your character. What are his motivations in each scene? What makes him do what he does, and how desperate is he to do it? You learn how to build tension in a scene. You learn to figure out what is important in each scene and how you as an actor can express that importance. It is also typical for an actor to create some backstory for the character if the script has not fully developed that. Where did he come from? What factors in his life shaped him into who he is now?
All of that type of thinking is important for the writer as well. You really need to understand each character on a deep level. They have to become real enough to you that you know what they will do in any situation.
What’s Up with Us
Our beautiful little garden had to be torn up. It was already in rough shape. With temperatures well over 110 degrees, we lost a number of plants. They just can’t adapt to temperatures that hot. We tried to keep them alive, but it was too much for them.
In my last entry, I showed our attempt at growing a dragon fruit. It grew up the neighbor’s side of the house, which is directly facing the side yard where the garden is. Our neighbors got their house painted, so the dragon fruit had to come down. We also had to move all of the plants out of the planters. The end result is that the entire garden out there was essentially gone. It was a sad sight to see. We have put most of it back, but there is still a lot of work left to fully restore it.
The weather is getting better. They started opening restaurants to outdoor dining, but when it is in the 90s at night, that is just not as appealing. We did go out for lunch and ate outside, well away from others. That worked out fairly well.
We also had dinner with another couple for the first time in 8 months. He is a doctor and I know they have been being super safe, but you are taking a risk when you meet up with others maskless. The tables were outside and distant from other tables, so pretty safe. It was great. It felt like a little bit of normalcy for awhile. We will probably do it again, but will be super selective about who we dine with.
This past weekend was our anniversary. We got married on October 10th, 10/10. The digits of the year we were married can be added together to get 20, which is two tens added together. It boils down to all 10s,which is easy to remember. This year’s anniversary is on 10.10.2020. That is even better than the original date. We put more emphasis on the interesting properties of the date rather than just how many years it has been.