Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Top Tuesdays: Top five things that come from Belguim. And a renegade character thrown in.

5. Brussel sprouts.

 

Seemingly, I am one of children in the world actually likes brussel sprouts. Not raw, mind you. I love them cooked or oven roasted.

4. Flanders Fields.

 

3. Hercule Poirot (pwa-ro).

 

Agatha Christie's Belgium detective Poirot. I have only read one Poirot mystery but I was very impressed. I have about six sitting on the shelf waiting to be read (I haven't had this many library books out of the library for YEARS! I have 14 books out! Now let's see if I can get them all read....).

2. Chocolate.

 
Mmmmmmmmmm......... It's the best chocolate. (Not the dark kind, though... the milk kind. I don't like dark chocolate).
 
1. Herge! And therefore, Tintin.
 
 
 
 
 
 
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In other news..... I have over 5,000 words now. I'm a day or two ahead... But that's what I'm shooting for. This weekend I won't have hardly any time to write because I'm going to a youth conference and the third weekend this month is my grandma's 80th birthday party up in Canada. We'll be gone for a few days and I want to do as little writing in those few days as I can. Which means I need to get ahead in my word count.
 
I am facing a problem that I have never faced before. A character with a mind of his own.
I know a few authors who have this problem. The characters just seem to take off... they don't tell you things.... they change their personalities....
Well, I have never had this problem before. Usually my characters are nice and behaved and do as I tell them. But now that I've written more than one or two (serious) things... my characters are starting to misbehave. One character in particular. His name is Andrew and he has ALWAYS been in my spy stories (even if most of them are only one or two pages long... He's always been in the plans).
He's always been kind of a wimp.... Kind of a depressed wimp. Kind of a depressed wimp who wants to be an author but no one will publish his stuff. And he's a secret agent to pay the bills.
But there's a problem. HE KEEPS BEING A CHARMING GUY! He's not supposed to be charming! He's supposed to be depressed! But before I knew it, last November, when I was first writing his character, he started being charming and brave and a generally loved guy and I couldn't do anything about it!
Now I'm writing him again in the third book... and he won't stop being charming! I tried but it just doesn't sound right. It just isn't him.
Help! What do I do?? You authors out there who have experience with renegade characters, what do I do?! Do I just let him be charming? Do I just do nothing?! Heeelllppp....
 
Live long and prosper.


3 comments:

  1. Brussel sprouts lovers unite! There's an Alton Brown: Good Eats episode devoted to them.

    Also, just go with your character. It's chaotic, but it's fun. :p

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  2. I love brussel sprouts and Tintin! (and chocolate, now that you mention it... =D)

    Urgh. I have the problem with character changes all the time. Well, you could either put him back in place or just plain make him charming. Or make him change, like sometimes he's more charming and other times he's just plain depressing....

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  3. I love Brussel sprouts but now I feel....dim witted, as a way to put it. They come from Brussels, their name finally makes sense.

    As for your character...speaking from experience and with Steed hanging over my shoulder at the moment snickering....you should just let him do what he fancies. If you try and make him do something he doesn't like it might ruin the character. It is the rebel characters who turn out the best. (Again, Steed.)

    You used a Narnia reference? That is brilliant. (I've been missing Narnia, I need to watch those again. Maybe this weekend...maybe. I have so many movies I'd like to watch and only one free day a week.)

    At least I'm not the only cringer over Tintin's eureka. I wish he would go back to Great Snakes, even crumbs.
    I haven't read the Hitchhiker book, just seen the movie. I tried to read the book but didn't like it, and I only made a few pages. But I loved the movie, that was funny.

    I remember those two little boys in the Tintin books! I knew they looked familiar - I haven't read any of the Quick and Flupke books, but I have seen the boys. And I knew they were important when they were in the Tintin book, but I could never place them. Now it all makes sense. Aren't they on the back of the old Tintin books? The sets of three they had before the newest editions that have come out?

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