Sparked

Well, it worked. Creating those characters seems to have given my writing mind a kick up the backside and now I can't stop. Yesterday I wrote a whole story, start to finish, for the first time in months. It's rubbish but at least I wrote it! Now to begin editing.

I may have more time for writing after today, as this afternoon I have a meeting in which I will find out if I'm being made redundant. Obviously I'd like to keep my job because I need money to live. But at the same time the thought of not having to cram my writing into the evenings is quite appealing.

We'll see what happens.

Lisa Lassek

Okay, now I have been slacking. Or you could call it coping with a family funeral and the threat of redundancy in the same 24 hour time period. Either way, there is no character for yesterday, and today's is fairly basic. But at least I'm writing SOMETHING.

Lisa Lassek is a 35-year-old stay at home Mum and foster carer. She has two children of her own (a boy and a girl) and specialises in fostering siblings together so they don't have to be split up. This is possible because she and her husband live in a massive house. The husband, Markus, has an extremely well-paid job and Lisa got a large sum of money when her Grandmother passed away so they bought a 6-bedroom house expressly for fostering siblings.

Lisa has light brown hair, kept in a bob, and hazel eyes. She is very thin and toned because she gets up at 5am every day to work out before anyone else is awake. She has a secret dream of one day running in the London Marathon.

Paul Askwith, Gabriel Page

I have not been slacking. I wrote up a character on Sunday and Monday, but due to family things I didn't have chance to type them up.

Paul Askwith was hard work. He just did not want to become a fully formed character. So his is more of a character sketch. Gabriel Page, on the other hand, is already pushing me to write his story. So without further ado.

Paul Askwith is 20 years old. He is a student of Sociology in his second year at university. He is not exactly the ideal student; turning up to lectures occasionally and only scraping a pass for every single assignment. This lack of effort is because Paul spends the majority of his time throwing or attending parties in the student halls where he still lives.
He has absolutely no idea what he wants to do with his life, and only took Sociology because his parents expected him to go to uni and it sounded like the easiest course he could actually do. This lack of direction terrifies Paul, which is partly why he won't (or can't) put any effort into his course.

That's it for Paul.

Gabriel Page is a 10-year-old boy who lives at home with his mother, father, brother and two sisters. One sister and the brother are older than Gabriel, and the other sister, Love, is 7 years old.  Gabriel and Love are very close. The elder sister recently revealed she is pregnant which, as she isn't married, makes the house a very tense and hostile place to be. Gabriel often takes Love to a small park across the road from the house to get away from the tension. As well as playing at the park they read together, or read their school reading books to each other.
Gabriel doesn't do very well in any subject at school except for English. He has read all the set books for the year and now his teacher brings in her own books for Gabriel to read. He also finds his own spelling words from the dictionary while the rest of the class learns the set words.
He does have a lot of friends at school, but they all live away in the posh side of town so he never spends any time with them outside of school.
Whenever asked, Gabriel says he wants to be a doctor. But really he wants to be a novelist and has several books and stories hidden under his bed that he has written over the years.

Brian Sparrow

Brian Sparrow is 64 years old. His once-brown hair is now dark grey. It's very thin on top and Brian has considered a comb-over to hide this, but decided against it because he felt it would look silly. His eyes are brown, often hidden behind very thick, round glasses.

He is an accountant and loves his job just as much as when he started at 16 years old. He owns five suits and wears one each day to work; always the same suit on the same day. When one suit gets too worn for work he replaces it with one as similar as possible, and gives the worn suit to a friend who makes and sells rag rugs.

He is average height and quite slim, apart from a bit of wobble around his stomach, because he walks half an hour to work and back each day. 

Brian has few friends at work as they are mostly a lot younger and he's not entirely comfortable talking to them. However, he does still keep in touch with old friends who have moved from the company or retired, and meets a few of them every Friday in his local pub. He is also very active in his church, holding a housegroup for the over 60s in his house every Wednesday evening.

He enjoys reading railway magazines and non-fiction books about steam trains, as well as gardening and walking.


Tomorrow's name: Paul Askwith

Miranda Rivers

It was very difficult not to make her exactly the same as Miranda Hart! Oh the power of a name. Anyway this is what I got:

Miranda is 33 years old, but people often think she's ten to fifteen years older because of the way she dresses, and the fact that her hair is naturally very curly so looks like a perm.
She is very short and has a soft body shape; not highly toned but not fat either. Her hair is dark blonde, almost brown, and her eyes are blue. She wears glasses with small square frames.
Miranda has very few friends as she is extremely shy and soft spoken.
She has a lot of money as both parents died when Miranda was 25 and left enough in their will that she doesn't need to work. She volunteers as a lollipop lady for her local primary school every week day, and is surprisingly fierce with drivers who refuse to slow down or stop.
Miranda has never once painted her nails. She keeps them short because if they get too long she ends up scratching herself accidentally.
She had a boyfriend in college, but they broke up when he moved away to university. Although liking the idea of a relationship, Miranda is too timid to speak to men so it's unlikely she will ever find one. Instead she owns a cocker spaniel and two cats to keep her company.
She lives in a two-bedroom house in which the second bedroom has been turned into a library, with mismatched bookshelves from her parents, grandparents, and Ikea. 
She drinks chamomile tea with a few drops of lemon or hot water, and eats mainly meat from the butchers and fresh veg. Her one indulgence is cinnamon pastries, which she eats secretly in her room even though there is nobody at home to see her.


She sounds very lonely doesn't she? But she's content enough when I imagine her. I don't think she has a sad personality.

Tomorrow's name: Brian Sparrow.

I'm a writer

Or so I keep telling people.

But if I'm completely honest I can't remember the last time I wrote something creative. 

It's not through lack of desire. I love writing and it's an enormous part of who I am. Or it was. 

I suspect it's a confidence issue because (if my memory is correct) I think I haven't written anything since the day I realised my partly finished novel was complete rubbish.

But I'm not ready to admit that my £30,000 student debt is all for nothing because my goal of being a writer is just a childish dream. I am a writer, so I'm going to write! Starting off small so I don't scare myself off.

First prompt: 
I collect names from film credits. Any name that stands out to me gets written in my notebook or saved in my phone 'just in case'. I've been doing it for years, ever since the name Zach Wolf jumped off the screen and presented itself as the name for the male character in my doomed novel.
But since Zach I've never actually used any of the names.

So for the next week I'm going to take one name every day and turn them into a character. As detailed as I can manage in one day with nothing but a name to build on.

I'm already quite excited about this! Usually I have very clear characters in my head and try to find a name that fits them. Working this way round will be a real challenge, which is just what I need.

Tomorrow's name: Miranda Rivers.