Different Ways to Talk to Your Characters

Your characters can be like butterflies, they seem just out of reach until you are patient and learn things about them. (And maybe even try talking to them.)
Anyway In some of my writing posts I talk about pretending to talk to your characters, but I only mentioned a few ways to do it. (And there are a lot of ways to do it.)

Act out a scene from your story 
This helps especially if you are stuck on a scene, or want to play it out outside of your head. Sometimes just going out and pretending to be your characters in a quiet space is the best way to understand a scene. Don't feel bad if you mess up the scene the first time, because you are practicing the scene.

Interview them 
This is more writing than actually talking out loud to them. You ask them questions on paper or on your computer, and then they can answer (you have to write their answer though).
Here is an example:
Writer: What are some of your favorite things to do (character's name)?
Character: (lists things they like to do)

and then you continue from there.

Argue or talk to your characters 
I have mentioned this idea a number of times in my posts, but I never mentioned the arguing part. The arguing part I found out about when a character went off script and made their own choices.
Which is good and that means they are developed (beyond your control). However, that doesn't mean having a friendly argument with them wouldn't be good. It helps you talk to them in a different way other than "Hello" and "How are you?".
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What ways do you like to talk to your characters? Any other way that I didn't mention? 
-Quinley
P.S. I will be doing Camp NaNoWrimo this July, so I won't be posting as much as I normally do. I will working on my novel The Mystery of the Body Thief. 

Father's day drawings

Hello everyone,
I hope you are having a happy Father's Day!
To celebrate I drew some Father's Day drawings:

Mr. short and (young) Tess, I rather like how it turned out... 

it was quite fun to draw. 

Elm and her father, I actually didn't know what Elm's father looked like (or if he even existed) 

but he turned out well. 

A drawing of Marigold (who is the adopted daughter of D.I. Time) and Detective Inspector Time, 

I like how it turned out. 

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Which drawing is your favorite? And what are your character's fathers like? 

Love,
Quinley  

Mr. Robertson's letter (A short story.)

(Before reading this post, just so everyone knows when I say The Legend of Sleepy Hollow I do not mean the horror movie, I am talking about The Novella by Washington Irving, this story I am posting is not a horror story.)  

Hi everyone, even though it is not October I decided I should share one of my short stories about Mr. Robertson... (Also this one isn't very "Halloweeny," it's more the romantic subplot side of the story.) This is a test story to get to know my character Mr. Robertson a little bit better...
anyway here is the story:

My dear sister Jennifer,

Love songs, and ballads of woe are often sung in the presence of Katrina Van Tassel. She is the daughter of the rich farmer, who hosted the autumn ball after which Mr. Crane was allegedly chased by the Headless Horse…thing. Twas but a year ago, yet the townsfolk are still talking about it, and gossiping among themselves about what happened to Mr. Crane. 

I am afraid I am going off-topic for what I started telling you about was Ms. Van Tassel. She is the most beautiful girl in Sleepy Hollow and every young man wants to marry her, unless, of course, they were already married or had their mind set on someone else. Ever since I've been in Sleepy Hollow, Brom Van Brunt (for that is his real name, though everyone calls him “Brom Bones,” which is quite a silly name if you ask me) has thought that I too want to marry Katrina, which I have no desire or longing to do. 

From what I heard Mr. Van Ripper, father of one of my pupils, Isabella, and owner of Gunpowder the horse, which Mr. Crane rode on that fateful night, has told me that Brom is known for punching suitors of Katrina. Brom wants Katrina for himself and only him. I do believe that Miss Van Tassel hates being thought of as an object, prize to be won, or a damsel in distress, though when I talked to her she showed no signs of that. 

Besides meeting Katrina, I have also met another young woman. Her name I can not place (However if do remember it I shall tell you). She is quite skilled with the musket and is equal in skill to Brom (she is possibly even better than Brom). Some townsfolk even claim that she disguised herself as a solider and fought in the Revolutionary War (against England), though I can not verify, if this true or not, for she tends to keep to herself and has no desire for love. 

How are things going in England? And how is your book going? 

Your loving brother,

Mr. Robertson 

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What do you think? What do you think of the woman who Mr. Robertson says is better at shooting a musket than Brom? 

Love,
Quinley

May drawings

Hi everyone, 

It's hard to believe it's May already.

I thought today would be a good day to do a drawing post, 

here they are: 

Drawing of Riona "Fire," it was really fun to do the shading in this drawing. 

A native American girl, I like the way she turned out. 

A drawing of Annabelle,  I was actually inspired by a scene from one of my books when I was drawing this. 

This was meant to be a drawing of Hermione from Harry Potter, 

but unfortunately it did not end up looking like her. 

A drawing of Elm, I like how it turned out. 

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Which drawing is your favorite? 

Love, 

-Quinley 

P.S. I will be responding to the other comments from my previous posts, though it may take me a little longer to respond to them. 

Happy Mother's Day (a special post for my mom.)

Hi everyone, I hope you are having a happy Mother's Day! :)

My mom is a very important person in my life...and I wanted to make a post showing that.

We would draw together, and cut out paper dolls and play stories together (I would say that she was one of the people who got me interested in writing and story telling in the first place, as well as drawing.) and I want to let her know that I appreciate the time she takes to help me edit my blog posts as well as stories.

And that I love her, and I love hearing her feedback on my writing.

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How is your Mother's Day going? and has your mom ever helped you with writing or something else? 

Love,
Quinley

My Camp NaNoWrimo Novel April 2018: The Mystery of The Body Thief

Hi everyone,
I hope you are having an awesome April... I have some exciting news! I finished my Camp NaNoWrimo word count goal! :)  (However, I am still working on my novel.)

Synopsis 

Horatio wakes up from being in a coma, but he doesn't remember anything that happened before he fell into unconsciousness. All that he remembers is a name, "Annabelle!" 

Also... Detective Inspector Time finds himself having to solve a case without Lady Annabelle.
Murders have been happening throughout many different kingdoms, and no one knows who exactly is behind it all. 

Characters

In this novel there are quite a few characters. I won't list all of them, I'll just mention the main characters.

Horatio- A servant boy who woke up from a coma, he doesn't remember anything except a name "Annabelle."

Lady Annabelle- She and Horatio fell into a coma at the same time, except unlike him she hasn't woken up.

Detective Inspector Time- An elvish detective, who is trying to figure out who could be behind the recent murders of royalty.

Phillip- The Captain of the Guards, who is a dwarf.

Veronica- Annabelle's Lady in Waiting, who is a fairy.

Marigold- Time's adopted daughter, who is working with her father on the case.

Ophelia- The castle nurse, though she is a nurse she dislikes blood, and well anything medical.
Some people in the castle wonder why she became a nurse in the first place.

Austen- The new coroner, who is also helping Time solve the case.


Excerpt

He opened his eyes, his head felt incredibly dizzy and memories flashed in front of him for no  particular reason, and voices calling a name: 

“Annabelle, Annabelle!” 

the name felt like it had a meaning for some reason but he could not place it. Suddenly he felt a hand on his wrist. 
“Sir” said a stern voice, that sounded as deep as a bass. “You suffered from severe trauma to the head and were in a coma for 24 hours.” 

Story music 

This is kind of a sneak peek at the story soundtrack I am working on for the story soundtracks page...

                                               Sleeping Beauty by Traci Hines 

You can also listen to it on YouTube Here

This is the theme song of my book.

All I want by Eurielle 

                                                      You can listen to it on YouTube Here 
                                    This song reminds me of a scene from my book.

                           Discombobulate by Hans Zimmer 

                                          You can also listen it on youtube Here 
                                                 This is a song that I often listen to when I write mysteries. 

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                     How was your Camp NaNoWrimo? 

                      Love, 
                      Quinley

                             

April Drawings

Hi everyone, 

I hope you are having a wonderful day. 

 Today I thought I should do a drawing post: 

A drawing of Pocahontas, I like how it turned out. 

This is kind of an experiment.  I decided to try 

to combine a photograph I had taken with one of my drawings. 

I think it turned out well, however, I wish I had gotten rid of some of the white spots.

This is a drawing of Deborah Sampson, a woman from the colonial era, 

who disguised herself as a man and fought in the American Revolutionary War.

I like how it turned out. 

This is a drawing of Phillis Wheatley. I like how she turned out,

especially her clothes. 

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Which drawing is your favorite? Also do you have a favorite historical figure? 

Love, 

Quinley