K is for Kanwal

Kanwal is part of the name of a female character that I'm working to develop. The post for G has pictures and music from her novel. I am still working on the rest of her name because it doesn't sound very feminine to me but it's not a name I see often. But I liked the meaning of the name: Water Lily.

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The real reason I'm bringing up Kanwal is to discuss a character challenge I signed up for on Writing.com that starts on the 15th. She is one of two characters I will be using. The Character Sketch Challenge is the title and it's going to involve daily prompts for 20 days to work on character development. The round I joined is also a special round because the prompts will all involve music.

Character 1 = Kanwal. She is a teen, thinking 16-17 ish. I haven't decided so should figure that out soon. She has lived in the US, her parents are either from the Middle East or their parents moved to US from there.

Character 2 = Octave. Male adult. His story is a sci-fi one, there is a metal/robotic thing on one of his arms (hard to describe what I saw in the dream so need to work on that). He was created but doesn't find out till part way in the story.

It should be interesting, spending days using different prompts to help develop compelling characters. I look forward to the challenge.


How do you create your characters?

A is for Angel

Last year, I did the A to Z challenge on my general writing blog instead of here because it made sense to talk about different writing aspects on there and I wasn't sure what I'd do on this blog, but this year, I'm going to be crazy and do both. So, with the letter A, I naturally went to a novel of mine that I'm in first draft writing that I call Angel/Demon because I don't have a good enough title for it yet and the novel is about an angel and demon falling in love.

Angel, aka Elijah

Although he's not the pov character in the beginning of the novel, he is one of my favorites. While the demon is pretty fun guy (and nice which is part of what makes him different), Elijah is even greater because he is supposed to be this pure being in his afterlife, but his past still follows him and he sure wasn't innocent back then. His teen years he not only came out as being gay early on but at first figured he was screwed Hell wise so just did whatever he wanted (and whoever). After getting caught up with a group that forced him to prostitution and such, which lead to him being diagnosed with AIDS. So, probably not a typical angel for a paranormal romance. And even as an angel he is gay.

In the story he is a mentor for those who struggle with some of the issues he did when he was alive and helps them through it all. He also works part time at a coffee shop. But things don't change a lot for his afterlife and he starts to feel apathetic, which isn't good either. That is what leads him to the club and where he meets Lucas.

He has a small group of friends, mostly angels and the humans he watches over. He also has darker features. I wish I could find better pictures to use for inspiration but it's hard. I did find one picture I really like related to this story. The one in the coat who looks like he's really cold, that is the Lucas (his hell is cold since they live in Detroit). Elijah is the one who despite the snow has no problem, he is strong and comforting to the other.