(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Write On! April 30: A test of character [1] ['Mettle Fatigue', 'View Profile', 'Joe Democrat', 'Nanny Ogg'] Date: 2026-04-30 . . . . . Well, not really. Or not exactly. . . . . Sharon Vaughn, songwriter with Bill Rice of Reba McEntire’s “I’m Not That Lonely Yet“, sees her craft as akin to cinematography, the lyrics like moments of a movie scene. She said “…I saw this woman … on a dance floor. She has a broken heart. She’s in a blue dress, and I knew … the color of her fingernail polish [and everything else about her] down to the most minute detail. … if you don’t know that intimately the person about whom you’re writing, then you [haven’t gotten] inside that person’s life. Wait until you do.” . . . . . Erasmus said something related: “…the chief hope and comfort of victory is if thou know thyself to the uttermost … that thou know what thou art inwardly, and within they skin.” . . . . . How many characters –or real people, for that matter– know themselves so well that they fully understand and choose every decision of act or behavior they make, every word they speak, where it really comes from and what good or ill it can do? But it IS all there, inside. . . . . . Where Vaughn says “wait”, I bet she means, go find out! . . . . . Which, granted, takes time, effort, and practice to get good at that writing skill, ’til finally it’s on tap, so to speak – a tool of the trade ready to be deployed at every writing moment. . . . . . We do have a CHALLENGE, below, but in the comments –which, by the way, are now up to 65,000 characters! That’s 10,000 words or more! THANK YOU TECH CREW!— let’s also talk about methods we’ve already developed for getting inside the life and personality of characters, so they perform most truthfully for the plot. Or mention books, films, television, etc. where you saw the author substituting plot-convenient bullpucky instead of realness. Some ways we’ve looked at in the past: here’s a link to Write On! posts that look at the Rule of Twenty — not a “rule” in the regulation/law sense, of course, but a great method for wading past the formulaic, the superficial, the predictable, the routine, and the obvious on any story element, in order to reach more original thinking. The more the practice going there,, the quicker the trip each time. and here’s a link to Write On! posts about character[s]. . . . . . Of course, when we use standard/template characters from Quest for the Sacred Lost Jewel of Togwogmagog (and other genres) for challenge purposes, we’re intentionally bypassing that development labor, since there’s only so much time in a given evening here, if we’re focusing on some other skill of the evening to practice. . . . . . Before we start, though, gotta say that in trying to locate my favorite image of the Togwogmagog adversary known as Least Grebe, I was astounded to find google giving me this HILARIOUS A.I. report, which I cannot resist sharing tonight 😀 Attribution: AI report on the Least Grebe character in Daily Kos CHALLENGE: whether by science-fictional or fantasy/magic approach, a narrator’s consciousness suddenly finds itself in the shoes and inside the skin of a protag in a novel, short story, poem or song, be it someone the narr knows well, or not at all, or in between. Nevermind how that happened —again, there’s only so much time in an evening— and to eliminate some distracting big issues, give the narrator NO ability to force behavior or speech from the character. Instead, let our narrators be kinda passengers who can observe and discover things, maybe argue with self about it, maybe TRY to communicate with protags as protags move as usual through their own lives, Maybe narr notices things the character acts as if unaware of? Maybe narr is amazed how protag can cope with things beyond narrator’s ken? Maybe narr knows things that IF ONLY the protag did? Maybe narrator and protag are UTTERLY incompatible on VERY compelling grounds…. GO! Attribution: SensibleShoes & mettle fatigue Write On! will be a regular Thursday evening diary –5pm leftkost, 8pm east– until it isn’t. Before signing a contract with any agent or publisher, please check them out at Preditors&Editors, Absolute Write, Critters.org &/or Writer Beware. If you can’t see comments, try refreshing yr screen. That’s worked for me so far. IDKY, nor what the problem is in the first place, but hopefully it works for you too. ______ CALENDAR [corrections/changes please comment!!!] ________ Apr 16 – WO Aashirs nani – – – FWIP dconrad Apr 23 – WO dconrad – – – – – FWIP sagesource Apr 30 – WO mettle fatigue – – FWIP dconrad May 7 – WO strawbale – – – – – FWIP sagesource May 14 – WO Aashirs Nani – – FWIP mettle fatigue (note: sagesource may be away at times in May until we hear otherwise.) May 21 – WO _______________ FWIP _______________ May 28 – WO ________________ FWIP ________________ June 4 – WO _________________ FWIP _________________ June 11 – WO ________________ FWIP _________________ June 18 – WO ________________ FWIP ________________ Sorry, there seems to be a glitch in the comment function: it’s saying “conversation … closed”. 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