Deep Character

Instead of writing a scene today, I did some psychological digging into my character’s darkest heart. Six pages worth. I had to know what kind of emotional baggage she’s carrying around so I could figure out the best ways for her antagonist to (almost) defeat her. Also, so I could map out the self-discovery arc that would, just in time, give her the strength to save herself.

Used a lot of stuff from the Tolle class but also Debbie Ford’s new book: Why Good People Do Bad Things. Lots of similarities between the works, for example what Tolle calls “the pain body” Ford calls “the shame body.” They both mean repressed negative emotions.

I read Ford’s book a week or so ago, underlined some interesting bits, and then today, not feeling inspired enough to write a real scene until I had some deeper character motivation established, went to Ford and got six pages out of three of her sentences. I just looked at what I’d underlined, chose a few things that resonated, and then went off from there, building this character from the inside out.