Hello all!
The last two weeks have been pretty busy for me, which is why I'm behind on the blog posts. The SAT and one college visit, as well as homecoming, are behind me now with another college visit and my wisdom teeth coming out during the rest of this month.
I got into a bit of a slump in the midst of the past two weeks. That is, writer's block. So, I did some character development and ended up writing an in-depth back story for the twins. I'm not sure how helpful the back story will be to the book, if at all, but it's better to be writing something than staring at a blank page. Besides, you should just get everything down on paper first. It doesn't have to be good; that's why there's editing.
I'm working my way up to writing something every day. I'm beginning to favor Alvin, and I've been writing a lot about him lately. His back story is great and a little cliche, but I really enjoy it. His dad grew up as a mixed kid in 70's-80's New York and his mom grew up traditionally Chinese and a fire elemental in San Francisco. They met in college and decided to have a farm together after they got married where they lived off everything the grew. So, Alvin and Jessie grew up on a farm and loved the animals and being with nature, etc., but they wanted to go to the city for college, so they did. They got in some trouble in college, though, because even though they loved the city it still had problems and they wanted to fix them so, being college students in an unfamiliar city, they did something stupid and tried to fight crime with their nonhuman abilities. Well, turns out nonhumans have gangs too. That's how they met Genesis, and she got them out of trouble and helped them to find better ways of helping the city. Alvin runs a food bank that grows the food they give out to people so that everyone has access to healthy food, and on the weekends he volunteers at animal shelters.
It's hard as a writer to pick the stories worth telling. Alvin's is a great one, but I'm not sure if his should be the main one for this book. But you also have to remember that everyone is the main character of their own story. They don't know that they're side characters in the story being told; they have their own motives and reasons for doing things that aren't just to advance the plot. You have to think about the kind of person they are and what they would do in a situation. That's why character development is important: you have to get inside their heads and understand why they do the things they do.
This week I'm going to try to write every day. I feel very behind and very stressed out in general, not just this project but school is nuts right now. There's something about October and November that makes me feel rushed and behind. So, I will try my best to get as much as I can done this week.
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