I think it would be pretty boring if you knew everything about a character before you wrote their story. Writing, for me, is an act of discovery. The Rashamon</> model is a great way of discovering if you used the right point of view for a story. Has everyone here read The Good Soldier? In the course of the story, you realize the narrator understood anothing about what was going on around him. It is a slender book that has a lot to teach about character development, because your perspective of the characters is completely turned around by the end of the story, and how the author manages to conceal the facts behind his narrator's viewpoint is interesting to observe.

Oh that's very cool. I love the restaurant. This are great additions. Thank you!

Thank you for the kind remarks. It's been so long since I took a look at these stories, I wondered if they would hold anyone's interest. I'm glad now that I brought them out of the vault.

I have to admit, that I rather like Delia's kindness toward her customers. We're late at night. She's tired to the bone. Has to be. But she still thinks about the man and about Ruby, and how to make them more comfortable. I'd like to go back to her some day because she has her own story...not the waitress with the heart of gold business who turns into a raving beauty when she takes off her apron and tosses her hair. Someone a little worn around the edges but still has some faith in human nature. I once considered taking a place and writing a series of stories about each person who lived there, rather like Balzac. But I was overwhelmed by my own lack of imagination and energy. And Balzac had already done it and better. You know, I really got to quit going on like this. I'm turning this forum into my personal steam of consciousness session. Apologies again. And thank you for the kind words. I liked this story. I'm glad someone else did too. :)

I guess I used a period to create an extra pause. As if the narration was spoken by Delia and was thinking about his regular arrivals and just noticed, "oh, and it's always about the same time." It's a valid point, though. I'll have to think about that. I wouldn't want my punctuation to interfere with the flow of the paragraph. Once a reader thinks about the punctuation, the story is stopped, and that wasn't my intention. Yes, it's the show with William Petersen in it. I hope I'm not turning into a bill board for CSI. ;) On the show, there is very little about the personal lives of the characters, which has given way to a lot of speculation about what they do and how they act outside of the intense environment of their work. I find modern urban life very isolating. I guess I'm drawn to those themes. Not very original of me but I can't write about what I don't connect with emotionally.

P.S. I guess I should warn you it is a PDF file so you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it.

I can spell that word. Sorry.

Strangely enough, I think you could contact them through Renderosity since they are a member (I couldn't find much on their webpage since my Japanese is nonexistent): Username: BATLAB Real Name: bat win Might be worth a try????

Check the punctuation. That's what I meant about the period. The password is case sensitive and they have inserted punctation in the password. It took me five tries to get it write...but it has to be exact.

There were two of something...two coworkers. I just didn't want to name them because they weren't important to the story other than their disparaging words, and to set the tone for his ongoing loneliness and isolation. But it is a fair comment. Sometimes things seem a little clearer in my head than they do on the page. And anything that stops the reader is worth clarifying in another draft. Thanks! Anyone ever lose track of their own story? I once had a character go upstairs in a house that only had one floor, and a character then went out a door that wasn't there. When someone pointed it out the ghastly obviousness of my goof, I was fairly embarressed that I couldn't keep track of my own floorplans. Oh, and then there was the character that changed his name half way through a long story. I never noticed what I had done until a friend said, "who the heck is this Joseph guy?" Huh? I would blame it on being 50 but this has been happening to me early on.

http://bat.server.ne.jp/

Be very careful about entering the password. There was a period "." in the middle of mine and I missed it the first couple of times I tried to logon.

Sounds great....I look forward to your thoughts on whatever stirs you to mount that soap box (and I'll happily step off mine if you need to borrow one). I love hearing voices other than my own...though it probably doesn't seem so. Write on!

I know. I do apologize. I suffer from free flowing associations. Welcome to the group! I'm not always this verbose. Blame it on being on vacation and it being too hot to really do anything else. :)

Ramnimus, you said it for me. Wanting to be someone else. In some ways I've had a pleasent enough life, but also a very boring one. I lack the courage for adventures, lack the appeal for romances, lack the abiity and intelligence for discoveries and inventions. Writing allows me be what I never was and will never be. They are the waking dreams, the unfulfilled yearnings, the ungranted wishes. I can have the daring adventure without taking a risk, have the love that will never be attracted to me, have the illusion of being somewhat smarter than another paper person I created to be dumber than I am (poor thing, I apologize to you, my sad creation). I can be taken away from what is just an ordinary existence to a place that is more intense, more colorful, more exciting. And in that place I turn from the nearly invisible nobody that I am into someone that my fictional people actualy have an interest in (because they have no choice). It's a very selfish (and probably pathetic) thing but there it is.