Doug finding Ryan infinitely readable and this time legible

Ryan, 1 Your blog shows an intuitive use of imagination leading to observation. Your observation of the smallest details show much about your understanding of what makes character. The main character’s counting of the buttons and the dust from the laces were two excellent details that gave the reader a real sense of who he is. The interactions with the animals gave a much different side to the character’s gruffness. It made him human. It showed traits that no one sees except an omniscient narrator/author. I think that anytime we portray characters especially initially and through action solely, a character’s routine is a great place to start. In acting class, it was our first exercise. To pick a character’s routine and portray it on the stage. It was my favorite exercise because we didn’t have to memorize lines. I actually used very similar routines for both exercises. The coming home from one’s daily routine and arriving at home. I also thought that just the correct amount of description of your nouns was sprinkled in. Only the necessary things were allowed adjectives and it fed the sparseness of your character as well as the landscape. Kudos. 2-In this exercise, you gave your character no direction, no impetus because he is wandering to avoid, but still within this framework of no goal, you managed to portray a character rapt with guilt, emotion, and action. The end was mysterious with the weird old man basically coming in from the field. The man was a distraction from the boy’s dismay. There is a nice balance between the action of the character and his inner landscape of trouble. 3- Does your brain really work this way? (hee-hee) This entry demonstrates a knack for getting inside the character’s head which I find difficult to do consistently. Watching your house burn down has to be a terrifying experience. A friend of a friend who watched his house burn down said it is eerie and haunting. This entry is haunting. The transitions from one memory or consciousness to the next lead right down the path of despair. The car appearing in the end made me want to read more and then it ended. 4- I had a question. Do ravens exist in the jungle? I thought only crows. But then again, maybe it’s not a jungle. You have set all three aspects of the exercise up with precision and vivid description. I did want to know about his character though. It is only a paragraph, but there might be other ways to inject more character through a bit more character action within this setting. Overall, I see the beginnings to short stories or character sketches in all of these exercises. I think you have an observant eye for detail. Setting up these moments of minutiae have worked to develop dense characters that the reader naturally becomes more curious about because you have noticed and captured the details that we as humans notice and capture in own eyes. Although we don’t always acknowledge them as important, it is because we already know our own characters. And as writers we need to bring them out in the characters we birth into the world. Keep writing maestro.