Daily Writing Exercise

Today's writing exercise is a character exercise.

The steps involved in character development (at least for my creative writing exercises) are:

1. Create a character outline using the random character generator
2. Develop some facts about them
3. Create a back story
4. Give them some contradictory traits, assign them a zodiac sign
5. Develop character imagery 
6. Describe their interactions with others
7. Write something in character's voice

Character Outline:

An overbearing 47 year-old man, who comes from a poor background, lives in a city apartment and tends to tell little white lies.

Ten Truths:

1. He's tall
2. He's overweight
3. He's divorced
4. He's is fearless
5. He tells jokes that are in bad taste
6. He's generous
7. He drinks too much
8. He plays the piano
9. He is nurturing
10. He is uninhibited

Ten Lies:

1. He exercises daily
2. He loves children
3. He has a pet
4. He cooks
5. He loves outdoor activities
6. He 
7. He 
8. He
9. He
10. He

Ten Odd/Bizarre statements

1. H

Contradictory traits

• He is the life of the party, but rarely socializes
• eccentric
• helpful

Zodiac Sign: Capricorn

That is as far as I could get. Developing a character is hard! Hopefully, practice makes perfect. Or at least better.

Painting in Progress - Part 3

<< Part 1      << Part 2

Project goal - courtesy of Pinterest

I think I will call the third phase of this painting a success. Art is completely subjective, and so I don't feel even a little bit silly saying that me playing with paint to find a way that works for me to add shadows and sunlight and rolling depth to my hills is a successful evening; I am learning how to paint, and that is what it's all about - experimenting with a brush.

Good thing I'm not afraid to ruin it...

Daily Writing Exercise

Today's writing exercise, as determined by the random exercise generator I built yesterday was an Anagram Puzzle.

The game gives you 180 seconds to find as many words as possible from a set of 9 letters. I managed to find 25 out of 65 words... not really something to brag about, but the plan is to improve over time, right?

I need to point out that I am unsure of the accuracy of this game - the number 42 is the number of words I actually entered, and I'm pretty sure that "leans" was one of them... maybe I need to find a different anagram game. I'll think about it.

Anyway, Day 1, check!

Thoughts about writing

I have no intention of becoming a writer for a living, nor do I have any dreams of writing a great novel - or any novel, for that matter.

In spite of that, I have been thinking lately about how to become better at writing, and it seems to have then become a theme in several blogs I read.

One of the primary things that writers recommend is to "find your voice" if you want what you write to ring true with your readers. I am fairly certain that I have no "readers" but I do want my travel blog to read well, and be entertaining for anyone who comes across it. This blog, while public, is not one that I tell people about. If someone finds it, and wants to follow the twists and turns of my brain, that is fine, but I'm not about to actually tell people explicitly that they (the twists and turns of my brain) exist and where to find them.

I also have a secondary reason to improve my writing; I am a business analyst by trade, and a large part of what I do is write. My writing needs to be clear and easy to understand, or it is completely useless to anyone who reads it. I write for different audiences, and I need to use slightly different language for each audience, and be able to speak to each audiences viewpoint. There is a great difference between business owners, application developers, project managers, executive sponsors and application support people. As a business analyst, I need to communicate effectively with all of the above.

And so, despite my misgivings, I am going to start doing daily writing exercises. Half an hour every day, with a randomly selected exercise. I'll try this for a month, and see if I notice a difference in my writing.

Day one is tomorrow.

Google has a great sense of humour

Absolutely great. Makes me smile every time. Even if my name isn't Jim.

Painting in Progress - Part 2

<< Part 1

Part 3 >>

Project goal - courtesy of Pinterest

I have now completed the second phase of my painting. My intention was to add the second layer of under-painting to the hills, and I ran out of time before I got to the foreground.

Underpainting Phase 2 - November 3, 2014

I am moderately pleased with my progress - there is still quite a bit of work to be done on the hills; I think next week I will focus on shorter, more vertical brush strokes, instead of the sweeping waves I used this week - I want to show the shapes of the hills, and right now all the movement is horizontal, instead of adding depth, at least to my eyes.