Born This Way

Random Thought: Was I born this way?? *Lady Gaga had a little bit in the inspiration.
Born to write, annoy, and pester myself to oblivion. I would say so.

Everyone has body parts, visual flaws, etc. that they despise. What I want to discuss is those pesky personality traits that seem to be the least analyzed. The little quirky things you do verbally in your interactions with friends, companions, husbands, kids, etc.

As a naive youth I rebelled against those who tried to tell me that my personality was annoying, my mouth a fountain of verbal diarrhea, and gossip tendencies bound to land me on the wrong side of ditch (bloody and dead)! I grew up and realized it pays to shut my mouth. Verbal diarrhea is still present from time to time; all sailor influenced I swear!
*I'm going somewhere with this I promise.

I did realize that there are parts of my personality that I can't change. My uber-craziness with people who disrespect others. The severe homicidal tendencies experienced when myself or others I know are looked down on. My passion for creative curse words. The insatiable desire I have for attention from others, and the imaginary thought that I look good in red! Plus a dozen or so other blah blah's.

Bottom Line:
As a writer if you can define your own personality weaknesses, I believe that you are better equipped to write your character's strengths and flaws. I'm not saying take a psychology class (although it may help). I am saying that by analyzing your inner personality weakness' and paying attention to little quirks of others you can craft characters that suffer from more then just pride or a bout of jealously.


Just as you were born this way, your characters are born a certain way. Don't settle for simplicity, dig deeper and find the complexity that makes them who they are.

Another week awaits

As promised anything and everything.

I have had a blast over the last 7 days getting familiar with Twitter. I'm finding friendly people and lovin' every minute of it. Fav authors, agents, and aspiring writers to converse with. Let me tell you how lonely it feels when a writer does not have any others to talk to. Purple Sheep indeed!

My voracious reading appetites have not slacked in the last several weeks. In fact I would say they are worse then ever. The current WIP I have moved to is a large, steamy pile of dren. I vow to change that in the near future. The next genre of my devouring will be Fantasy starting in April. Thanks to Sarah Megibow for reminding me of my love for that particular set of tasty morsels. Plus my list of must read Historicals before March runs out is quickly increasing.

Now with Monday here I must set aside my fun, and return to painstaking reality. A job, eww, but still thankful I have one. Time to button down and work my tail off. You know how it goes... life, it just gets in the way!


P.S. Fun email excerpt coming, ridiculous but fun.

Praise

Through analyzing the last couple years of my life I have found a new weakness... I don't like praise. It makes me feel icky. Don't get me wrong, my vanity and ego cry otherwise to my previous statements. Yet as soon as someone offers praise in my direction I feel like someone fishing for compliments. Was I truly fishing or just doing what I set out upon and the appreciations were well deserved?

Regardless of my desire for it and guilt of it, I believe that praise should be cast upon others as much as possible. I make it a point to declare to my co-workers, spouse, and friends how awesome they are! Everyday, if I can, I share these open sentiments because gosh knows I feel the yearn to receive them. So naturally I feel that others do too. A person feels better when that gracious comment is followed with a smile, right?

Now some people may believe that I want something in return for my praise, but I don't. I just want to make someone feel good with words. If I can't do that with my stories, maybe a sentence toward someone's hard work will.

A purple sheep among white sheep

Sometimes I feel like a purple sheep.
A purple sheep is intelligent, funny, occasionally witty, and slightly deranged (aren't we all?).

Being a purple sheep should be grand, but there are major flaws. To be a purple sheep means that the white sheep don't always accept her. They acknowledge her abilities, her strength, and her talents. Yet the purple sheep is not allowed to progress as the white sheep do. She is overlooked when the farmer plans to move the herd to greener pastures. The shearing of her wool is not done 'til last. The white sheep don't invite her to play their games or participate in their fencing jumping.

So the purple sheep tries to be a white one. She rolls in the snow attempting to coat her color. She stands up proudly in a thunderstorm praying that the cascading downpour will wash away the awful hue. How she longs to be a white sheep, but the change never comes.

Today I feel like a purple sheep.