sketch sketch sketch

Man it's been awhile. Anyway this is a character I've been trying to visualize for awhile.
...edit....
Wow, was that the worst blog entry in the history of the internet or what. I'll try to flesh this out a bit. Back when I got the Best Writing Advice Ever, which is reproduced at the bottom of this page, I started keeping open a few stories that were just basically crap. Not that I tried to make them intentionally bad, but I just let them go weird places and tried things out without really caring if it worked. One of them has now become the largest file on my old computer, and the supplemental version of it I started on my laptop is nearing a hundred pages. What can I say, sometimes you just have to write. Something that happens in a lot of my writing lately is that I over-rely on male characters and when I try to make a female character, everything goes wonky. (Could this be because I have so little life experience in this that I have problems representing the natural romantic tension that arises in these situations? OH I DON'T KNOW THAT'S PRETTY FAR-FETCHED.) This poor girl has been through about 16 iterations and I still haven't even settled on a name or basic personality for her. But I'm getting there now.
Anyhow I've been trying to figure out this character for awhile now and I think I'm starting to get a handle on her-- I tend to draw the ones I'm still figuring out and I think the facepaint has really been the key in opening up this character. Keeping in mind that this is my sludge story (I think it probably serves the same purpose for me that Dark Tower served for Stephen King), to be a little less cryptic, she was originally conceived as kind of an Ender character, one of a few children that was chosen to be specially educated, etc. in order to lead an empire, with the idea that they'd be easily molded and would be completely logical without the prejudices of age (was I fourteen when I decided this was a plausible form of government MAYBE). Anyway, that's changed somewhat. At this point, she's been assigned a role somewhat like the Oracle at Delphi's. She's supposed to represent the founder of the empire and to be his spiritual presence, so she's an important public face, but her own power is severely limited and she's basically only used to decide tied votes in the senate, like an informed coin toss. I think the recent idea of the gaudy makeup opens up a new part of the character for me because it highlights the public image she has to maintain, which is supposed to be the founder of the empire as a boy. It's a mask she has to hold onto if she wants to maintain any power at all, and the tension is growing as to whether she can do that as she becomes more an individual and a woman.
I have said too much. Who was it who wrote a journal every day about their stories? Steinbeck? Given my family history, probably Steinbeck. Well, I bet those entries were just as boring to read. Honestly I find this kind of process talk kind of invigorating, but only because I never listen to anyone else's and I'm interested in my own. I wonder if anyone else does the drawing thing to try to figure out new elements of character, though. It certainly does wonders for me. In that... I can talk more about my crappy nine year old story. Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles.