With Friends Like These

Writing is mostly always fun but these last couple of weeks have been spectacular. I've enjoyed writing my new book substantially. This book in particular I've planned to be a series of at least three. The reason I like it so far is due to the characters. I feel they're all different and diverse enough to feel real. For the last couple of days I've been writing a lot about an important minor character. He's the best friend of one of the protagonists but has a tendency to be self-serving and cunning. It has been fantastic writing his character and showing how others interact with him. I tend to write a lot of minor characters as the loyal friend friend trope, it's fun writing a good friend who is always more interested in his personal agenda. 

The library has a challenge to read at least fifty books (excluding the children's books I read my son) in a year. It has been incredibly difficult, because I didn't make the goal until two months had passed, but incredibly rewarding. I had a creative writing teacher in college who said to read everything, whether it be novels, pamphlets, or street billboards, it's important to have that habit. I have noticed my writing improving as I read such great books. I've always loved reading and am constantly doing it, but this challenge has made me make more time and read books I wouldn't normally have picked up. It has been a fun experience. 

I've often heard that good writers are good readers and I've seen over and over again throughout my life that it's true. Currently, I'm reading a book that I would claim is my favorite one I've read all year. If you want to hear more about it, check out my website's Currently Reading and Playing section for more information. 

Editing was a bit discouraging the last few days. Yesterday, I thought for sure I would finish checking commonly repeated words and be able to move onto another passthrough of the book, but it didn't happen. For some reason, and I'm not entirely sure why, I used the word "up" a lot in this manuscript and looking at other manuscripts it's not a word I used nearly as frequently. Most of the times it wasn't necessary which means I need to go through and carefully delete, change, or decide to keep different instances. Hopefully, I'll be done with that word tonight and can start reading through the manuscript again on Monday. 

Thank you so much for reading my blog. What are your favorite type of character tropes? How do you plan out characters in your writing? Do you like to set reading goals? Why or why not?

Keep dreaming and day dreaming of all the beautiful worlds in your head.