About my character

This character makes a brief appearance in my novel.

I saw a checklist of how to evaluate a character in a children's book in The Writer magazine and I decided to answer it in order to see how well I was doing in making a believable person out of mere words and imagination. The checklist reminds me of one of those personal interviews they do in magazines: "What is your favorite comfort food?", "What are you reading right now?" and so forth. A year ago I posted my own version of my answers to a celebrity interview which you can read here.
I decided to print some of the question and answer about my character, Joseph. I will post this in two parts because there are 19 questions and it will run too long. Here goes:
1. What best describes the character's most outstanding physical feature?
He is small for his age and looks mixed race. I wonder if he should describe what he sees in the mirror while cutting his hair. He has dark eyes, medium dark skin, straight thick hair which is slightly wavy and which he thinks makes him look girlish when too long.
2. Does the character like himself? He's never bothered to give this any thought (although his therapists have asked him questions about his self esteem).
3. What is his immediate goal? What is his long-term goal?
To live in the woods and "get out of the system."
He won't figure out more about what he wants to do when he grows up until the end of the story.
4. What is the best thing that has happened to him so far? Getting a cat and making a couple of friends.
What is the worst? Near drowning and getting sick.
5. How is the character seen by himself? By others? I've described this in an entry in the novel so I won't go into it here. In short, he sees himself as tough, wary, slow to trust. He doesn't let people get too close to him.
6. Who has influenced the character the most? How? The character is notable for not having strong adult influences on his life. This is part of what has shaped him. There was a couple he nicknamed the "Gnomes" that were candidates but faded out of his life too soon.
7. What are the character's strengths and weaknesses?
Strengths: brave, smart, resourceful
Weaknesses: emotionally disconnected from others

I'll stop here for now. The good news is I had answers for all the questions already in my mind which gives me hope my character will be believable. The other good news is I got a few ideas from filling out this checklist. I had already decided I needed to flesh out the character's personality a little bit. Thanks to the author of the article, Jane Choate, for some good pointers.

By the way, I'm at 33114 words and 55 pages.

NaNo Update

Here's another picture of the Washington beaches where my novel is set.
Wow, between working full time and writing a novel in a month, I can't imagine where all the time has gone to. I haven't been keeping up with blogging, my photo blog or much of anything else. I miss the regular blog routine but I'll be back soon. Only 15 more days.
My house currently does not have a back end unless you count some plastic sheeting as a back end! My office doesn't have a roof either. So it feels like total chaos here. We are also going to "do" Thanksgiving at my house. So I'm nuts. Whatever.
I'm more or less on target for NaNo. I've not quite met my most ambitious goal of 2000 words per day although at 29325 words (48 pages) I'm not too far off. Even so I'm ahead of the average required to make the finish line on the 30th and have no intention of quitting. I may not be able to run marathons but I can write them I guess.
My latest research was about the medicinal uses of wild plants. Did you know that nettle tea can be used for diarrhea? You had better wear gloves while harvesting the leaves though.
Well, I have to go. Work calls.

Touching Base

25,176 words and now it's bedtime.
Research for the day--when and how to dig for razor clams. Thank heaven for the internet!

Nano day 11

I'm too tired to do much of anything right now. I spent the whole day moving junk. I just squeezed in a little writing time. It is now 22,889 words and 38 pages. I think that translates into around 75 pages in paper back novel terms. I'd really like to hit 25 K soon.
The research question for the day is:
What do plantain taste like? They're another edible weed. Very common here in Chicago and probably just about everywhere else. And how do you prepare them?
Cheers.

Off to bed early

I don't even feel like posting a photo. I'm not feeling the best. A combination of allergies and stuff there's no need to go into. We're having part of the house ripped off on Monday for some major reconstructive surgery and I have to clear everything out of that area by tomorrow night. I can't wait.
Here are my NaNo stats--21960--36 pages. I found some information about word counts on a NaNo forum and 50k words might just do for a YA and younger novel, which is what I'm doing. That is encouraging.
I want to make the halfway point soon. I'd like to have just a little more protective padding on my word count in case I get stuck or too busy to write.
Today's research for my novel included how to make salmon jerky. It is amazing what one may learn in the interest of literature.

Show and Tell

A couple of days ago I told my kids about my month long career as a novelist. My younger son who is 10 years old was especially enthusiastic. I read the first few pages aloud to him before bed one night. It was a good exercise for me to hear my work read aloud and get a sense of the cadence of the language and it was fun to share with him.
Next thing I know Mr. Enthusiasm has decided that he wants to share the story with his entire English class. He has always been especially fond of show and tell and seems to ask to bring something in to school fairly often even though formal show and tell probably ended in First Grade. I sort of choked at the idea of having him bring in what is still very much a work in progress.
On the other hand I felt I would be very much a wimp if I asked him to keep this a secret so I grudgingly told him that he could bring in a bit "later." Suffice to say, he wore me down. Last night I printed the first 10 pages for him, probably secretly hoping that he would forget he had it or that his teacher wouldn't want to do anything with it. Well, today was my first public reading as a fledgling author. Apparently the first page was read aloud in class and they are planning to read one page a day henceforward.
I wonder what kind of critics a class of 5th graders and an English teacher will make. Will they share my son's enthusiasm? I'm kind of squirming with discomfort at the thought, but if I ever plan to submit anything for publication, I know I need to get over this.
His eagerness to show my work gave me pause for a moment. Independent of my discomfort at coming out of the closet, as it were, I realized what a wonderful thing it is to have my son that proud of me. It makes me sad to admit that this interaction could never have occurred between my mother and myself. The closest I remember our ever getting to this show and tell experience is when she took an essay I had written in high school and that I was especially proud of and gave it to a friend of hers to plagiarize for her college history essay. This was done without my knowledge or consent. I was not in the least bit pleased or flattered.
For now it is ever onward. I'm at 19170 words (32 pages)! I'm still on track and have an entire weekend before me.

A picture and an update

There is more to talk about but not much time tonight. My total NaNo word count is 16746 (28 type-written pages). I tried to calculate what that would be in pages in a standard paperback sized book but my mind drew a blank when I tried to do the math. I'm still on target at over 2000 words per day. So far so good.