There is no better place to find a unique character or interesting character traits than the airport. Traveling home for Thanksgiving and Winter Break ever year, I spend a fair amount of time in an airport (since I usually have to wait three hours for my flight after getting dropped off.) What I have found that just sitting in an airport and watching people is a great way to work on characters and character description.

Finding Characters
Any one of the people around you in an airport has their own story, their own reason for traveling, and probably their own stressful story of how they got to the airport and through security. And lucky you! They already have a description and probably a name that you can find if there is a Starbucks in the area. Or maybe it's on their luggage! Think of all the possibilities!

Not to mention all the strange people you encounter. I mean, I fly out of a little midwest airport so the kind of people I see aren't too varied. But in a large airport like Chicago or Denver (or closer to home for me, BWI), the kinds of people you encounter is astounding! One time I saw a man in his 80s reading a Buffy the Vampire Slayer novel. For some reason, that just struck me as very funny.

Describing Characters
Another great thing to do in airports is work on character description. If you look at a person, try to decide how you would describe him in your book if he was a character. Would you be so boring as to mention his hair and eye color, what color shirt he is wearing, etc. Or would you mention that his shirt is tucked in and that his tie is loosened? Details that are both telling and unique that give the reader a description they can actually picture in their head instead of a generic one.

Write some descriptions, maybe snap a picture of the person, and when you encounter a friend, have them read the description and then look at the picture. Ask them if that is the person they pictured.


I hope this gives everyone traveling this holiday season something to keep them busy in the airport!

It's an interesting thing when at school, the busier I am, the more likely I am to be a frequent updater. And yet when I am not busy at all, I never even think to update. Very strange indeed.

Granted, the semester is winding down but I feel busy since I have to go home for Thanksgiving (which I really don't want to). So in a way, I feel as though after a brief period of no school work, I now have to deal with the airport and all the reading I was assigned while away.

Gasp! I feel busy...which means blog post. And also means a few more after this.

In short, sorry I was away. I hope Nano is going swimmingly for everyone! Choosing to opt about was a great choice on my part,  but I hope everyone is learning  what they need to from the exercise!

More to come later :)

This is mortifying and embarrassing, but I think I might actually have to stop NaNoWriMo for the year. It got to the point where my schedule and classes were conflicting so much with my daily word count that it was causing me to loose sleep. Sure, this is a normal side effect of nano. However, when I'm on a college campus and in a house with people who currently have Swine Flu (oh no! The Piggy Pox!) it becomes even more important that I get enough sleep.

In addition, last year I used to write during class all the time, but this year I have to actually pay attention which is a very strange change. But this also means I lose all the time I spend in class, all the time I spend sleeping, and all the time I spend doing homework. Now, this is typically a very normal problem for nanoers, which means I am not special.

My biggest problem, and is what has made all these small nano-symptoms all the more difficult this year, is my complete lack of motivation. As I mentioned in earlier posts, I just don't have that driving force I did. Maybe it's because I'm too worried about grad school stories, or because I still have last year's novel waiting to be edited. Or maybe it's because I tried to be gutsy this year and write in first person instead of third person. I don't know exactly what it was the broke me, but this year, I have to say I'm just not knee deep in work count.

Of course this does not mean I will completely stop writing this month, or that I will give up on Royal Desires all together. No, in fact I plan on writing as often as I can, and seeing how far casual writing gets me by the end of November. If I get to 25k words, I'll consider myself successful.

And that way, I still get to use nano as an excuse not to talk to my extended family during Thanksgiving. Woohoo!

Next year -- I'll have a better idea and motivation.

For NaNoWriMo, I tend to do almost all of my writing at night, and it's getting harder and harder for me to motivate myself to reach my word count. So far I haven't fallen behind at all, I've met my word goal every day. But the last two days have been very difficult, more so than last year.

Maybe it's because I'm exhausted after doing all my homework and THEN getting to nano, or maybe it's because tonight I had to leave the bar to come home and write because I forgot to do it before I left. I suppose it's all a matter of working Nano into my schedule, but it's getting much harder to do so.

I've thought about just giving up a few times now, and that frightens me. I mean, I need some deeper motivation to work towards. Right now I'm motivated purely by the fact that I don't want people to think I'm a quitter and I want that positive reinforcement that is that reaction you get when you tell people you've written a novel. It feels so good! But I think I might need something more!

So if anyone is having the same trouble as me, maybe we can make a wager? Or maybe some suggestions for motivation?

I've seen a distinct difference the quality of interviews that I've been doing, especially for my MQ stories which due to their nature have only required one interview each.

My Quidditch story was agony to interview for. I had to poke and prod for information and quotes to the point where I felt like I was putting words in my subject's mouth to make his answers more than three words.

My Flash mob story was the easiest interview I've ever done. The subject was enthusiastic and answering questions before I even asked them.

And I noticed some specific things about the subject and the situation that may have had something to do with how productive the interview was.

1. Setting (or how far the subject has to walk to get there)
My first subject had to walk farther to get to our meeting place than my second subject, which makes me wonder if having to walk so far and have to go so far out of their way, made the subject a little less open or friendly with me. Both days were nice, but I'd imagine had it been raining and they still had to meet me, despite how far they had to walk, neither would have been to open to chat. So just getting to the interview is something a journalist should take into account. The less out of the way it feels for them, maybe the more willing they will be to talk, and for longer.

2. How enthusiastic the subject was when you asked for an interview
My first subject wasn't against the interview, but he wasn't quite as excited as my second subject who told me "It would be an honor." This is kind of self-explanatory.

3. When the subject shows up to the interview
This is simple. If they are early, they are all about the interview, and will probably talk your ear off. If they are on-time or late, you're going to have to work very hard.

Now obviously this is  not a sure thing, but it might help you to prepare yourself for what kind of interview you will be talking into before you even pick up a pen or open a notebook.

So my NaNoWriMo did not start off too well. I rolled my ankles, scratched up my arm, and spilled coffee all over my bed....and all before I had reached the 100 word mark.

Then this morning I must have hit the off button instead of the snooze button because I overslept and almost missed my first class. (It's alright though, it's just Psychology.) This is probably the direct result of me staying up late every night to get in my word count since I spend my days doing school work and have just chosen to stay up later to incorporate nano. I may have to re-think this strategy, especially come this weekend when I have a huge feature to write and my MQ story to revise.

Guess I'll have to start writing in class again, I can't handle the lack of sleep.

Nano started today! The time change was a huge help since I didn't get home till late last night.  I'm a little over 2k words in which is nothing in comparison, but at least it's a start! I hope everyone else got off to a good start and can keep it going! Don't forget to add me as a writing buddy!

In other news, I have an interview for my MQ story set up for Tuesday and I still need to narrow down my topic for my Professor Profile. And now I have to interview 15 people for my PSP initiate program. Oh dear, it's going to be a long and busy month.

I just got my next MQ assignment! It's another small one, a short personal profile called a Bold Miami. I found the subject so my editor suggested I write the story. Hopefully there will be enough to write about.

My subject is the organizer of the flash mobs that have been popping up around campus. One that gained a lot of attention was a few weeks ago where a number of students gathered at our brand new business school (which is our school's new pride and joy) and got on their knees and bowed to it for a little bit. The statement was clear.

Another flash mob was today actually. They met at the seal, a common place for a number of students to walk across to and from class. Two people bumped into each other, one with a white shirt, one with a black shirt. They stopped, stared at each other and then other people begin to gather behind them. Then suddenly, everyone broke out pillows and had a massive pillow fight. I don't think this one had a statement.

I'm really excited to see where Zak, the subject of the story, gets his ideas . This is the best part of journalism, hands down.

For all my years that I have considered myself a write, I've begun to realize that I don't have a lot to show for it. It always used to be a running joke in my family that I would start a million stories but none would ever have endings. Eventually I started taking workshops that forced me to complete my stories, but I still feel like I don't have many stories to show for it.

I wonder if this feeling of meager accomplishment is because I don't think I have many stories that are good enough to consider part of my collection, or because I really just haven't written that much.

Granted, I have a number of stories from high school...but they are high school stories. So I don't really count those for my portfolio. And then I have a few from my freshman workshop, but were those any good?

The reason this is coming up now is because as I am starting to look for people to write letters of recommendation for me, I am trying to find good evidence of my work to give to professors to write on. I can't seem to find anything I really care for.

So the moral of this post, and my suggestion to you: start putting together a portfolio as soon as possible. Put the work from all your years in it, keep it in a special place, and revisit it every so often to revise your stories as you grow as a person and as a writer. Then, when you get to the position I'm in where you have to provide samples of your work, you aren't scrambling to write stories that demonstrate your talent, or going through folders and folders of school work to find things that might pass as decent.

My Quidditch story came out today! I'm excited for 2 reasons: 1) It got it's own page and a very nice layout, and 2) the editors barely changed anything. They even kept the title I gave it!! It's nice to have my work appear in its natural form--the way I wrote it.

I'll link to it once they put it online.